Lauren Martin is an associate professor in the University of Minnesota’s School of Nursing. Trained in Anthropology, she conducts qualitative, mixed-methods, collaborative and action research on transactional sex, exploitation, and trafficking. In partnership with communities, her scholarship contributes to policy, prevention, and intervention, building on strengths and reducing harm.
Read MoreKayse Lee Maass is an Assistant Professor of Industrial Engineering and leads the Operations Research and Social Justice Lab at Northeastern University. Her research focuses on Operations Research methodologies to address human trafficking from a systems perspective to improve prevention efforts, effective interventions, and equitable access to services.
Read MoreTekoa Pouerie is a Subject Matter Expert, Certified Trainer, and Nonprofit Executive who raises awareness about the negative implications of implicit and explicit bias while advocating for social equity and justice. She has dedicated her professional career to helping others create positive changes within the workplace and communities.
Read MoreJin Huang is a bachelor's student in the Sociology and Economics Departments at Wesleyan University. She is a student in the service-learning course at Wesleyan called “Health of Communities”. Jin has a strong interest in the systematic study of commercial sex work and sex trafficking.
Read MoreGabrielle Guzdek is a student in the class of 2022 studying Biology and Science in Society at Wesleyan University. She is working with Community Health Center, Inc. through a service-learning course at Wesleyan called "Health of Communities". Gabrielle is interested in public health and public policy.
Read MoreDestinee Castillo is a student at Wesleyan University. She is double majoring in Psychology and Science in Society with a minor in African American studies. She is a student in the service-learning course, “Health of Communities”. Her career and research interests are focused on health disparities and vulnerable populations
Read MoreBrian Biroscak is a Senior Research Scientist at Weitzman Institute, which is the research and innovation department of Community Health Center, Inc.—Connecticut’s largest Federally Qualified Health Center that provides primary care services to vulnerable populations, including victims/survivors of sex trafficking. He has published on violence against women research.
Read MoreErin Albright has over 14 years of experience in the anti-trafficking field. Her work focuses on building capacity for better collaboration and increased identification of labor trafficking. Previously, she served as the Director of the New Hampshire Human Trafficking Collaborative Task Force and has experience in law enforcement, services, and policy.
Read MoreEdith Klimoski managed the start-up process and continues to direct Give Way to Freedom, including its Rapid Response Support System. She provides tailored trainings, mentored three public health projects, and sits on several task forces, subcommittees, and collaboratives. She received the Vermont Ally Award, Rotary Unsung Hero Award, and Outstanding Alumna Award from her high school.
Read MoreAdonna Wilson-Baney is a certified forensic interviewer and has over 32 years of experience advocating for people with disabilities. She is currently serving on the National Human Trafficking & Disabilities Working Group and Ohio’s human trafficking legislative workgroup. Adonna holds an MPA from Franklin University.
Read MoreKatherine Yoder is a forensic interviewer and has been an advocate for people with disabilities for twenty years. She holds a master’s degree in criminal justice from the University of Cincinnati and a Bachelor's degree in social psychology from Park University. She is the Executive Director of the Adult Advocacy Centers, which she founded in March 2019.
Read MoreAlinka Gearon is an Associate Professor in Social Work at the University of Bath, specializing in child trafficking and child protection social work. She holds a PhD in Social Work with considerable front-line practice experience working with children, abuse, and exploitation. Her research explores children’s worlds, child protection, and children’s rights.
Read MoreJoseph Magruder is an associate specialist for the California Child Welfare Indicators Project at University of California at Berkeley. For several decades, he worked as a child welfare program specialist for the California Department of Social Services. He now specializes in longitudinal analyses of children’s child welfare system involvement.
Read MoreIvy Hammond is a doctoral student researcher for the California Child Welfare Indicators Project at University of California at Berkeley. She worked for several years as an Emergency Response child welfare worker, and now studies child welfare system responses to commercial sexual exploitation of children (CSEC).
Read MoreLouise Ashwell is a Project Manager and Data Manager at the University of Michigan Schools of Social Work and Nursing. Her current projects include studies on campus sexual assault and sexual health interventions and are funded by the U.S. Department of Justice and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
Read MoreDr. Sarah Peitzmeier is an Assistant Professor at the University of Michigan School of Nursing. She is mixed-methods researcher focusing on violence and sexual health in marginalized populations. Her dissertation examined the effects of different types of violence – client, police, pimp, and intimate partner violence – against sex workers in Russia.
Read MoreDr. Lisa Fedina is an Assistant Professor at the University of Michigan School of Social Work. Her research investigates various forms of violence and health/mental health outcomes. She is interested in structural factors that perpetuate inequalities in violence and health, and improving systems-level (e.g., criminal justice, healthcare) responses to survivors.
Read MoreSheila Lamb is a Cloquet, Minnesota City Council member and youth advocate working with trafficked and at-risk youth. Sheila is a steering committee member of Minnesota’s Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women’s Task Force. Sheila served as an expert witness for the Youth Climate Intervenors regarding Enbridge’s Line 3 and board member for MN350.
Read MoreChris Stark is a writer, organizer, and researcher of Anishinaabe and Cherokee ancestry. Much of Chris’ research focuses on sex trafficking of Native women. Her latest novel, Carnival Lights, focuses on the historic remnants of MMIW and was co-researcher for "Garden of Truth: The Prostitution and Trafficking of Minnesota’s Native Women”.
Read MoreMary Kunesh was elected to the Minnesota Senate in 2020. Senator Kunesh successfully authored and co-chaired the Missing and Murdered Task Force in MN, completed in 2020. Mary is a descendant of the Standing Rock Lakota Sioux Tribe and is committed to supporting positive legislation for our American Indian communities.
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