Lisa Phillips Transforms Shadow Into Purpose—Becoming a Powerful Voice for Sexual Abuse Survivors Everywhere

But behind the perfectly lit photo shoots and red carpets, Lisa’s path was shaped by something far darker: an encounter with Jeffrey Epstein that would forever change her life.

Today the former model, acclaimed podcaster and unflinching survivor has alchemized her trauma into purpose, wielding her voice to empower victims of sexual abuse and to strip away the shame that so often silences them. Her podcast From Now On refuses to stop at headlines. Instead, it descends into the lived truths of survivors—spanning notorious cases such as Epstein and Marilyn Manson as well as the everyday stories equally deserving of light.

Recently Lisa was nominated for a Women Podcasters Award, The Ambies Awards for Excellence in Audio and various Webby Awards. These accolades signal more than industry recognition. They prove that her subject matter is resonating widely and that her audience is rapidly growing, drawn to the honesty and urgency of her work.

“I didn’t even understand what grooming was until it happened to me,” Lisa shares, her voice steady but weighted with lived experience. “Epstein was charming, intelligent and knew exactly what questions to ask to make you feel seen. This is why I do the podcast. It’s because I was groomed, and I want to educate others.”

She was born in California and now calls the South Bay home, her journey took her far from our coastline. She spent her early years in England, then hopscotched between Idaho, Florida, Virginia and Belgium—adapting to new cities and schools every few years.

“I was a competitive kid,” she says. “I did piano, swimming, cheerleading, gymnastics—you name it. But moving so much made me build a shell.” The middle child of three, she often felt overlooked. “I was always chasing that ‘look at me, I’m here!’ kind of validation.”

At 15 she launched her modeling career through national competitions like the YM CoverGirl Model Search. By 16 she was shooting in New York before her family’s move to Belgium, where she signed with a Brussels agency and soon worked in Paris and London. Later she headed to Miami at the height of its 1990s fashion boom—a whirlwind chapter filled with commercials, magazine spreads and even a role opposite Jamie Foxx in the movie Any Given Sunday. 

But behind the glamour was an industry where boundaries were often dangerously blurred. She recalls early shoots with famous photographers where young models were placed in compromising situations.

“People think modeling is just showing up and looking pretty,” she says. “It’s long hours, constant pressure and a culture where women are treated as objects. And that’s where predators thrive.”

In the early 2000s, during a shoot in the Caribbean, she accepted an invitation from another model to visit Epstein’s private island. She recalls swimming in the turquoise water, sharing dinner with the man she calls “very charming”—and then a late-night knock on her door that led to an assault involving multiple women.

“I was confused, trapped on an island and didn’t understand the full scope of what was happening,” she recalls. “I just knew something terrible had been done to me.”

Lisa wouldn’t share her story publicly for nearly 15 years. Like so many survivors, she buried the trauma, turning her attention instead to building a career, getting married and raising three sons. In 2012 she launched Mugshot Management, scouting and placing models around the world. But in 2019, when Epstein died in prison, the memories came rushing back.

“I hadn’t thought about him in years, and suddenly I was having an emotional breakdown,” she says. “It was this mix of grief for the person I thought he was and rage for what he did to me and so many others.”

Lisa began appearing in documentaries, at first speaking on behalf of friends and fellow survivors, like Virginia Giuffre, before she was ready to share her own story. Yet the absence of support—from her partner at the time and even from some friends and family—proved devastating.

“It’s one of the hardest truths survivors face: Not everyone will want to hear your story,” she explains. “Some people distance themselves. Others outright dismiss it.”

That isolation became the catalyst for her next chapter. Through survivor networks, she discovered a community—women and men who understood the trauma, the shame and the immense courage it takes to break the silence.

“When you’ve been through it, you can hold space for someone else without flinching,” she says. “That’s when I knew I had to create a space where these conversations could live.”

In 2023 she launched her podcast—a raw, unfiltered series giving survivors the space to tell their stories in their own words. Her interviews feature women who have faced predators like Bill Cosby, Harvey Weinstein and Larry Nassar, as well as those from lesser-known cases that underscore how deeply abuse runs through entertainment, sports and beyond.

Lisa’s advocacy is as much about prevention as it is about healing. “Education is power,” she says. “If I’d known what grooming looked like, I might have recognized it sooner. My goal is to equip the next generation so they can navigate these industries with their eyes open and their boundaries intact.”

She’s quick to point out that healing is not a destination but a process. For her, EMDR therapy has been especially transformative. “Two years ago I wouldn’t have been able to sit here and tell you this without breaking down,” she says. “Now I can talk about it without it defining me.”

The work has not come without personal cost. Speaking out meant sacrificing relationships and confronting painful pieces of her family history. Yet it has also given her an unshakable sense of purpose.

“There’s freedom in telling your story on your own terms,” she says. “And there’s power in realizing it no longer controls you.”

In early September, just before this story went to print, Lisa stood on Capitol Hill alongside other Epstein survivors to demand accountability. At a rally and press conference, she urged Congress to end the secrecy surrounding the case by supporting the bipartisan Epstein Files Transparency Act, which would force the Department of Justice to release all unclassified information related to Epstein and his associates.

Addressing the crowd, Lisa was resolute: “We know the names.” Survivors, she said, are now compiling their own confidential list of Epstein’s associates, determined to ensure that the truth cannot be buried.

From her days on international runways to her present role as an unflinching voice for survivors, Lisa’s story is one of reclamation. She proves that the same voice once used to sell fashion can also dismantle dangerous systems, that beauty and strength are not mutually exclusive, and that even the darkest experiences can be transformed into light for others.

“Survivors are not just statistics,” she says. “We are your friends, your neighbors, your coworkers. And when one of us speaks, it gives another the courage to speak too. That’s how change happens: one story at a time.”