Koestner founded several campus sexual assault prevention groups after graduating from the College of William & Mary in 1994.

Koester is the executive director of the Take Back The Night Foundation, president of Campus Outreach Services and serves as an advisor for other organizations to help prevent rape and other forms of sexual violence.

[11] It was decided at the hearing that there should not be a severe punishment for the rape and the perpetrator was allowed to stay "on campus on the condition that he not enter anyone's living quarters.

[12] Because she felt a lack of support from her roommate and other women in her all-female dorm, within a couple of months after she was allegedly assaulted, Koestner moved to new quarters on campus.

[16][17] The publicity caused Governor Doug Wilder to ask officials involved in education in Virginia to study campus rape.

[18] A few years after Koestner came forward publicly, W&M changed their policies so that students found guilty of sexual assault are required to be suspended.

[9] Koestner faced backlash for her public story about the rape: she received prank phone calls and social stigma from other classmates.

[18] Koestner chose to come forward to give a human face to the issue of date rape and also because she felt like the academic hearing was a "second victimization.

[12] The alleged rapist came forward anonymously in the press to state that he felt the situation was unfairly exaggerated: he had been convicted by the hearing of "emotionally pressuring, not physically forcing Koestner to have intercourse.

[2][20] Controversy over her paid role in a planned HBO dramatization about her experience led to the creation of a petition that asked for the "man's point of view" to be considered in the story.

[3] She also founded Students Helping Others to Understand Trauma (SHOUT) at Cornell University and at W&M started the Sexual Assault Companions Program.

[27] She also volunteered at a rape crisis center and became a certified peer-educator ad sexual assault counselor in Virginia.