SUSAN XENARIOS

August 8, 1946 – September 6, 2025

A Central & Monumental Leader in the Crime Victim Movement

Susan Xenarios was a visionary and dynamic leader of New York’s and the nation’s crime victim movement for 50 years. In 1974, an assailant held a knife to her throat and raped her on a rooftop in Upper Manhattan. At a time when few sexual assault victims spoke out, Susan began a lifelong, very public campaign to improve the care and treatment of survivors and to reform laws and police procedures.  Along with her high-profile advocacy, she never stopped counseling individual survivors of crime, pioneering breakthrough therapeutic interventions.

Her record of accomplishment over the last five decades is extraordinary.

She led the creation of:

  • The state’s first program to provide assistance to survivors of sexual assault

  • The state’s first organization with full-time staff providing services to victims of crime

  • The state’s first clinical program for male survivors of sexual assault

  • The state’s first program to provide services to incarcerated survivors

  • The state’s Sexual Assault Forensic Examiner (SAFE) Program

In addition, Susan was a driving force behind key state laws to advance the rights of and dignity of crime survivors, including leading or co-leading the campaigns that led to:

·         The 1991 law requiring the police departments to provide written contact information for the closest rape crisis center 

·         The 1993 law protecting the confidentiality of rape crisis center communications

·         The Hate Crimes Act 2000, which included enhanced penalties for hate-motivated crimes, including anti-LGBT assaults

·         The Sexual Assault Reform Act of 2001, which rewrote the law around consent by dropping the requirement that force be used and adopting a “no means no” standard

·         The 2003 law that removed antiquated and pejorative terms as “sodomy” and “deviate sexual intercourse” from New York’s sex offenses laws

·         The 2005 law mandating that the expenses related to sexual assault forensic exams in hospitals be paid by the NYS Crime Victims Fund

·         The 2015 “Enough is Enough” law, one of the first laws in the nation to require all colleges to adopt a set of comprehensive procedures for addressing sexual violence on campuses

Creating Standards of Care for Sexual Assault Survivors

Building a Movement

In 1975, following a series of rapes in and around Columbia University, Susan and several other activists, emergency room staff, psychiatrist and doctors came together to create the state’s first program to provide assistance to survivors of sexual assault. People involved at the time reported that Emergency Departments did not know how to assist or treat survivors of sexual violence. A 2007 article about Susan in the New York Times describes those incredibly challenging early days.

In 1977, the effort was formalized in what would become the Crime Victims Treatment Center at St. Luke’s Hospital. This program, led by Susan, would provide the blueprint for rape crisis centers across the state.  Susan played a leading role in designing a model which was focused on the places where survivors most often requested assistance, hospital emergency departments.  Central to this model was a well-trained cadre of volunteer advocates who responded to emergency departments 24/7.  She counseled New York State Department of Health on a set of requirements ensuring this model would be implemented state-wide, and that quality training and supervision would underpin the provision of state-of-the-art services in NYS hospitals.  (These and other accomplishments were described in a 2007 “Public Lives” piece in the New York Times entitled, “Firsthand Experience of Rape and Resiliency.”)

Susan’s work to improve the care provided to survivors of sexual assault in hospital settings continued throughout her career.  In 1994, Anna Quindlen wrote an Op-Ed for the New York Times outlining the dramatic difference between care provided in hospital emergency departments in New York City and those with medical staff trained to care for victims affected by sexual assault.   Susan went into high gear and teamed up with hospital staff, other advocates, assistant district attorneys and the NYS Division of Criminal Justice Services (DCJS) to set up standards of care for sexual assault medical care.  Three pilot programs were funded by DCJS in NYC to set up Sexual Assault Forensic Examiner programs (SAFE) including the program led by Susan, the Crime Victims Treatment Center (CVTC).   

 Keys elements were created over the next 10 years: a protocol for care, a standardized examination kit, certified training for medical professionals, drug facilitated sexual assault kits, and funding for SAFE exams. Susan’s leadership in these accomplishments was key to creating a state-wide program to provide specially trained medical personnel, available 24 hours a day, to administer medical care to victims of sexual violence and to conduct an exam that collects evidence for the potential prosecution of the crime/s committed.

 However, Susan did not focus solely on emergency department response.  Under her leadership, the Crime Victims Treatment Center, set the standard for innovative responses to sexual violence.  The program was the first victim treatment program to offer psychiatric services, to establish a clinical program specifically for male-identifying survivors, and the first to partner with the state to provide services to incarcerated survivors.

 Susan also took up the issue of domestic violence by building a robust service program at CVTC which included counseling, support groups and advocacy for those suffering violence in the home.  She collaborated for many years on a program that offered a community approach to survivors who sought police protection, offering CVTC services to the families of East Harlem. She worked on diverse policy issues including : expanding the role of victim compensation to include victims of stalking, advocated for the creation of a fatality review committee under the governor’s direction to study cases of fatalities among domestic violence victims and pushed for the expansion of the order of protection scope to include the prohibition of firearms in households where there was demonstated domestic violence

 Five decades ago, CVTC was New York’s only formal program for rape survivors; today, there are 69 state-approved Rape Crisis Programs across the state, thousands of volunteer advocates have responded to victims in hospitals, and the Sexual Assault Forensic Examiner program is required in all hospitals in the state.

 Forty-five years ago, Susan co-founded the Downstate Coalition for Crime Victims, which she co-chaired until 2017.  The Coalition includes over 100 organizations fighting to improve the lives of crime victims and the communities in which they live. She initiated the formation an important Racial Justice Committee that would consider the impact of criminal justice reforms in communities of color.  The Coalition and this Committee continue their work today.  With Susan contributing mightily, the Coalition organizes an annual Crime Victims Vigil (this year was the 40th!) with major participation of advocates and District Attorney’s offices to honor survivors of crime as well as highlighting accomplishments and challenges in field.

 

Legislative Leadership

 Along with leading direct services for survivors, Susan was a driving force behind virtually every significant piece of legislation addressing the rights and needs of survivors of crime.  Nationally, this included the creation of a Crime Victims Fund in 1984 by Congress to fund programs supporting crime victims and the Violence Against Women’s Act in 1995 which has for the past thirty years addressed the problem of violence against women.

 She was also instrumental in addressing these issues at the state level.  In 1991, she led efforts resulting in NYS legislation requiring the police departments to provide written contact information for the closest rape crisis center.  She worked to protect the confidentiality of rape crisis center communication and in 1993 saw the passage of legislation providing this protection.  She actively promoted the Sexual Assault Reform Act of 2001 (which rewrote the law around consent by dropping the requirement that force be used and adopting a “no means no” standard) and the Hate Crimes Act 2000 (which included enhanced penalties for hate-motivated crimes, including anti-gay assaults), In 2003, Susan joined with gay and lesbian victim advocates to successfully lobby for the removal such 19th-century terms as “sodomy” and “deviate sexual intercourse” from the language of New York State sex offenses laws.  And in 2005, Susan co-led the drive that resulted in a state law mandating that the expenses related to sexual assault forensic exams in hospitals be paid by the NYS Crime Victims Fund.  She was a leader again in the 2015 successful fight to pass “Enough is Enough” legislation, one of the first laws in the nation to require all colleges to adopt a set of comprehensive procedures for addressing sexual violence on campuses. 

 Susan was known for her ability to move measures that were frequently stalled by deep ideological differences over criminal justice matters.

 New York City Policy Leadership

 Susan was also a force of nature at the local level, persistently and aggressively pushing for reforms in the NYPD’s response to survivors of sexual assault and more aggressive prosecution of perpetrators.  In 2010 she participated in a “Working Group” that advised the then NYPD Commissioner Kelly on improvements to the response of the Sexual Violence Division.  She was also an advisor to the first Sex Crimes Bureau at the Manhattan District Attorney’s Office and continued this advisory role as Co-Chair of the Manhattan Criminal Justice Task Force for many years.

 Susan led efforts to make NYC’s nightlife a safer place for its participants.  By developing innovative trainings and educational outreach in conjunction with the New York City Alliance Against Sexual Assault, she aimed to protect against the use of drugs and the preying on vulnerable patrons to sexually abuse.  In 2017 she was appointed by then Mayor Bill De Blasio to the NYC Nightlife Advisory Board.  

 Community Service

 Susan was also actively involved in a wide range of civic activities. Before and after her retirement in 2017, she was a member of multiple boards and commissions, including:

  • New York City Nightlife Advisory Board

  • New York City Alliance Against Sexual Assault (Co-Chair, Vice Chair and Secretary)

  • Harlem Independent Living Center

  • Collegiate Church of New York, Social Justice Committee

  • Crime Victims Treatment Center

Personal Life

Susan Jane (Preston) Xenarios was born on August 8, 1946, in Englewood, New Jersey to George Rodger Preston and Mildred Anders. After retiring as a colonel in the U.S. Army, Mr. Preston was a bookstore manager; Mrs. Preston was a homemaker.  Susan received a Bachelor in Sociology from Fairleigh Dickinson University in 1968 and a Master of Science, Master of Social Work from Columbia University in 1982.

In 1971, she met Giorgos Xenarios, a jewelry designer in Mykonos, Greece, and they were married in 1974. Mr. Xenarios died in 2002. She is survived by her daughter, Elena Xenarios, a Senior Operations Manager of Environmental Medicine & Public Health at Mt. Sinai Hospital in Manhattan, and her siblings William Preston, Carol Hastie, and Nancy Preston.

 Authors:

 Matt Foreman [Executive Director, NYC Gay & Lesbian Anti-Violence Project (1990-1996), Empire State Pride Agenda (1996-2003); National Gay & Lesbian Task Force (2003-2008)]

 Mary Haviland [Co Executive Director, CONNECT (1994-2005), NYS Commissioner, Office of Victim Services, Executive Director of the New York City Alliance Against Sexual Assault (2011-2022)]

 Quotes/Contact Information Available Upon Request