When the British Broadcasting Company contacted Piper Stege Nelson ’97 last fall to say she was going to be included on an annual list of inspiring and influential trailblazers, she thought the email was a scam. Her husband even said, “Well, that’s not real.”
The good news, however, was not fake. Stege Nelson, the chief public strategies officer for SAFE (Stop Abuse for Everyone), appeared on the BBC’s list of 100 Women 2021 alongside such notables as author Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie, designer Vera Wang, and Malala Yousafzai, the youngest-ever Nobel Peace Prize winner.
The nod, made public in December, proved especially prescient given the recent concerns raised by a leaked Supreme Court decision that would strike down Roe v. Wade. SAFE serves victims of domestic violence, sex trafficking, child abuse, and sexual assault. And since last fall, Stege Nelson and her colleagues at the Austin, Texas nonprofit have been working to circumnavigate an already existing Texas law that restricts abortions as early as six weeks after conception.
In addition to rape survivors, the organization works with at-risk trans kids—who became the target of Texas Governor Greg Abbott last spring. “All of these moves are aimed at the removal of bodily autonomy,” Stege Nelson notes. “Our goal at SAFE is to allow everyone to have full consent and control of their bodies.”
Stege Nelson, who spent several years in Washington, D.C., and Sierra Leone to advance opportunities for women before returning to her native Austin, says she’s pleased to be on the BBC list of global players. But she’s more proud of her impact at home. “I’m raising an incredibly feminist daughter,” she says, “and an incredibly feminist son.”