susan omilian, jD

Susan Omilian, JD is an attorney, published author and motivational speaker who has advocated to end violence against women for the past forty years. She is the award-winning originator and facilitator of My Avenging Angel WorkshopsTM based on the idea that living well is the best revenge. Since 2001, her workshops have helped hundreds of women who have been abused take the journey from victim to survivor to thriver.  Susan’s work is in honor of her niece Maggie, a nineteen-year old college student, a victim of dating violence killed in 1999 by her ex-boyfriend. Susan is the author of several non-fiction books which contains the motivational guidance she has successfully used in her workshops.  The Thriver Zone SeriesTM includes Entering the Thriver Zone:  A Seven-Step Guide to Thriving After Abuse and Staying in the Thriver Zone:  A Road Map to Manifest a Life of Power and Purpose.  She has also published a novel entitled Awaken: The Awakening of the Human Spirit on a Healing Journey, inspired by the true events surrounding her niece’s murder. 

 As an attorney, Susan worked for the Connecticut Women’s Educational and Legal Fund (CWEALF), a women’s public interest law firm, where she litigated sex discrimination cases and worked on sexual harassment issues. She was instrumental in the passage in Connecticut of the Rape Shield Law, the Gay Rights Law and the Confidential Communications Law between sexual assault and domestic violence victims and counselors. She also has been a Legal Aid attorney in Michigan representing women who were abused seeking divorces and she founded a rape crisis center in suburban Detroit. For eleven years, Susan held executive-level positions in Connecticut state government including Director of Human Services Planning at the Office of Policy and Management (OPM), the Governor’s budget agency, and Deputy Commissioner at the Department of Children and Families (DCF). She is also the author of legal books on sex discrimination and sexual harassment. In addition to her work with women, Susan is a certified co-facilitator of batterers’ intervention groups and has worked for the last fifteen years in both Connecticut and Massachusetts with domestic violence offenders.