Our Founders

Jill Sorensen & Cheryl Davis Masri

In 1993 Jill Sorensen founded Knock Out Abuse Against Women along with her dear friend, Cheryl Masri. With a desire to help women and children who are victims of domestic violence, they created a local fundraiser to raise money for the House of Ruth, a local shelter. Over the past 17 years, Knock Out has grown to support more than 15 DC metro area shelters. Jill's responsibility and focus is to develop new and creative ways for Knock Out Abuse to raise money and bring awareness to the plight of abused women and children. It is Jill's wish that Knock Out Abuse will eventually have a national reach, through school programs for pre-adolescent teens, such as fundraisers and concerts.

Jill works as an actress/screen writer/producer and commutes regularly to Los Angeles and New York. She has appeared in Eve Enzler's "The Vagina Monologues” with Sally Kirkland at the Directors Guild Theatre in Los Angeles. After arriving to the US from Sweden she worked for ten years as a fashion model with the Ford Modeling agency in New York. She also serves on the board of The Humane Society of New York. Jill resides in Virginia with her son Luke.

Cheryl Davis Masri, co-founder of Knock Out Abuse, has a professional background in advertising and graphic design. Her former Georgetown based firm, Davis & Co., created award-winning corporate logos and image campaigns for a wide range of national and international clients.

"When Jill and I partnered to create Knock Out Abuse, I knew I could bring a number of my communications skills to the table." Cheryl's responsibility is to develop marketing materials to serve as a model for the future Knock Out Abuse expansion to major cities in the United States. "Domestic violence is a spirit-robbing plight - our dream is to see a Knock Out Abuse event in every state."

Mrs. Masri lives in Washington, DC with her husband Hani. She is involved in several charitable efforts focused on women, children and animal-rights.