Katharina Meredith is the executive director of Stronger After, a non-profit helping people who have disengaged from high-control groups. She is a doctoral student and project coordinator at the Violent Extremism Research Group under the mentorship of Dr. John Horgan (Georgia State University). Her research areas include exit from extremism, intervention, program development, and evaluation. She is currently developing a job analysis of peer support in the exit space and an exit peer specialist curriculum with Georgia State and Parents for Peace. She has collaborated with Parents for Peace, Life After Hate, 211 LA, and the International Cultic Studies Association. She has developed and taught workshops and classes in Germany, Switzerland, and the US for people who grew up in coercive groups. Katharina has moderated panels and working groups for the European Radicalization Awareness Network, Southern Poverty Law Center, and ICSA. She recently founded Exit Nexus to translate research into practical applications for non-profits and other organizations.
This cannot be thought of as a conference or a summit. The stakes are simply too high and the data/conversation and methods to drive action more valuable/motivating than any gathering I have attended. I took more than 100 pages of notes and have shared them with my CBS News leadership team, anchors, producers, and correspondents. Nothing about this gathering was easy. The agony around this topic is real. But no one curious about it could ask for a more devoted, rational, or unflinching look into this dark but decipherable world.
