About the award:
Peggy Klinke was brutally murdered by a stalker on January 18, 2003. A year later, her sister Debbie Riddle — in collaboration with members of Congress and the National Center for Victims of Crime (NCVC) — successfully launched the first National Stalking Awareness Month. “Knowing Peggy’s personality, she would have been on her cell phone at my funeral trying to take action,” Debbie says, “trying to make something good come out of something so tragic.” This award aims to honor Peggy’s legacy and thank incredible people like Debbie who are making a difference in the lives of stalking victims and survivors. Learn more about Peggy’s story here.
Eligibility:
It takes all of us — advocacy and support services, legal systems, and victims/survivors and their friends and family — to better recognize and respond to stalking. Eligible nominees include (but are not limited to) victim service providers, campus professionals, public awareness educators, law enforcement, attorneys, activists, and survivors located in the United States. The nominees will be reviewed by SPARC staff and an advisory team of stalking survivors.
Nomination form:
Click here to nominate someone for the 2027 Peggy Klinke Award.
Past Winners
2026: Lenora Claire
Called “The Erin Brockovich of Stalking” by Vice in 2017, Lenora Claire is a survivor and activist who has channeled her personal experiences into fighting for systemic change around stalking awareness and response to victims. Lenora’s efforts are inspiring, fearless, and multifaceted; she is a founding member of both the Los Angeles District Attorney’s Crime Victims Advisory Board, through which she has advocated for legislative reform to improve support for victims of stalking, as well as Lenora Claire Consulting, where she works with media productions to provide a safe space for victims/survivors to share their stories with dignity. Lenora has leveraged the same resilience and ingenuity that facilitated her own stalker’s capture and conviction in 2018 to personally help countless survivors across the country obtain restraining orders, plan for safety, and navigate the criminal justice system. Learn more about her incredible work at LenoraClaireLLC.com and watch our virtual celebration honoring and thanking Lenora Claire for her dedication to enhancing the response to stalking victimization!
2025: Anna Nasset
Anna Nasset‘s strength, determination, and dedication to empowering survivors and educating responders on stalking — as well as her bravery in sharing her own harrowing story of surviving stalking and pursuing justice — is inspiring and impactful. She is an international speaker, subject matter expert, and published author whose story and message has reached thousands. Anna is one of few people who hold the freedom to speak openly about her experiences, as the individual who stalked her received one of the longest known sentences for this crime in U.S. history: a mere maximum sentence of ten years in prison for aggravated felony stalking. To learn more about Anna’s work, visit ANassetConsulting.com.
2024: Debbie Riddle
Debbie Riddle became an advocate for stalking awareness when her youngest sister and the award’s namesake, Peggy Klinke, was murdered by a stalker on January 18, 2003. The month after Peggy’s murder, Debbie began to speak out about stalking, using Peggy’s story as a catalyst for change, and she is now one of the country’s leading speakers on stalking and has made strides toward changing the way communities deal with stalking crimes. Just a few months after Peggy’s murder, Debbie began advocating for the U.S. Congress to recognize January as National Stalking Awareness Month (NSAM), and Congress recognized the first annual NSAM the following year. In 2022, Debbie was awarded the Governor’s Award for Excellence in the state of North Carolina for all her efforts to promote stalking awareness. It is the highest honor a state employee may receive for dedicated service to the State of North Carolina and its residents. Today, she continues to speak at training sessions, webinars, college campus trainings, high school and youth groups throughout the U.S. Debbie was the first recipient of the Peggy Klinke Award.