Marilyn Van Derbur was crowned Miss America while she was a student at the University of Colorado.  She chose motivational speaking as her career and was later named "Outstanding Woman Speaker in America" after 30,000 questionnaires were sent to business and civic meeting planners asking whom they considered to be the outstanding speaker. For 16 years, she was the only woman guest lecturer for General Motors.

As a childhood incest survivor, she has devoted much of her adult life to raising national awareness and understanding of sexual abuse and its long-term effects. In 1989 her family funded an adult incest survivor program in Denver, and in 1993 she co-founded two national not-for-profit organizations dedicated to public education and strengthening laws protecting victims of sexual abuse.

For her tireless work in the area of childhood sexual trauma awareness, Marilyn has received many awards and much recognition including, the "Exceptional Achievement in Public Service from the Secretary of Health and Human Services, Washington D.C.". Since her story of incest became public, Marilyn has spoken in more than 235 cities and answered over 8,000 letters and thousands of emails from survivors looking to her for support.
For more information about Marilyn please see her website at http://www.missamericabyday.com/