Human Trafficking in 2018 and Beyond: A Multi-Factorial Practical Approach

November 16, 2018
Elizabeth D. Rockwell Pavilion MD Anderson Library
University of Houston

Marianela Acuña Arreaza, Executive Director, Fe y Justicia Worker Center  

Marianela Acuña Arreaza is a Venezuelan immigrant who serves as Executive Director for FJWC (Fe y Justicia Worker Center). She has specialized in facilitating participatory decision-making, designing educational curricula, and moving networks into action. She is now honored to be leading the Worker Center, which she considers her social justice home.

Victor Boutros, Founding Director, Human Trafficking Institute  

Victor Boutros is the CEO and Founding Director of the Human Trafficking Institute and coauthor with Gary Haugen of The Locust Effect: Why the End of Poverty Requires the End of Violence, a book published by Oxford University Press in 2014. Drawing on realworld cases and extensive scholarship, The Locust Effect paints a vivid portrait of the way fractured criminal justice systems in developing countries have spawned a hidden epidemic of modern-day slavery and everyday violence that is undermining vital investments in poverty alleviation, public health, and human rights. A critically acclaimed work of thought-leadership, The Locust Effect is a Washington Post bestseller that has been featured by the New York Times, The Economist, NPR, the Today Show, Forbes, TED, and the BBC, among others. For their work on The Locust Effect, Boutros and Haugen received the 2016 Grawemeyer Prize for Ideas Improving World Order, a literary prize awarded annually to the authors of one book based on originality, feasibility, and potential for global impact.

Boutros previously served as a federal prosecutor who investigated and tried international human trafficking cases of national significance around the country on behalf of the United States Department of Justice’s Human Trafficking Prosecution Unit. He has taught human trafficking at the FBI Academy in Quantico, trained law enforcement professionals in the United States and other countries on how to investigate and prosecute human trafficking, and taught trial advocacy to lawyers from Latin America, South and Southeast Asia, and Africa.

Prior to his work with the Justice Department, Boutros spent time on similar issues in the developing world. He has worked on improving prison conditions in Ecuador, documented bonded slaves in India, and worked on human trafficking issues as a visiting lawyer with the National Prosecuting Authority of South Africa. Boutros is a graduate of Baylor University, Harvard University, Oxford University, and the University of Chicago Law School, where he was as an editor of the University of Chicago Law Review and received a grant to research human trafficking as a Human Rights Research Fellow. He has written on foreign affairs and human rights, including a feature article in Foreign Affairs and a piece co-authored with US Trafficking in Persons Ambassador John Richmond in the AntiTrafficking Review, and developed and taught a course on human rights, human trafficking, and rule of law in the developing world at the University of Chicago Law School. Boutros speaks to corporate leaders, universities, and think tanks on human trafficking, and has provided briefings to senior government leaders on human trafficking, including legislators, congressional committees, and the President of the United States. Boutros and his family live in the metro Washington, D.C. area.

James Caruthers, Attorney, Children at Risk, Texas  

James “Jamey” Caruthers is Senior Staff Attorney at CHILDREN AT RISK. Jamey graduated from the University of Houston Law Center in 2008, and focused on commercial and corporate litigation before joining C@R in September 2014.  Jamey is a highly sought-after speaker on issues affecting children, especially domestic minor sex trafficking. Jamey and CHILDREN AT RISK work closely with local, state and the federal government on the issue of human trafficking to improve victim services, increase awareness and prevention, strengthen laws, and combat demand. Jamey is the architect of CHILDREN AT RISK’s human trafficking legislative agenda and has drafted numerous bills designed to improve Texas’s response to the crime of human trafficking which are now law. Jamey was first drawn to children’s issues as a result of his family going through the adoption process to adopt their youngest child, Genevieve. They also have a son named Julian.  Jamey is president of the parish council at his church and is active in the Fort Bend County community.

State Representative Gartner F. Coleman, District 147 (D-Houston)  

Garnet F. Coleman has served the people of District 147 in the Texas House of Representatives continuously since 1991. Throughout his years of service, Representative Coleman has earned a reputation as a diligent leader in the areas of health care, economic development and education. He is currently the Senior ranking member of the Public Health Committee as well as the Chairman of the County Affairs Committee. Representative Coleman also serves as a member of the Select Committee on Federal Economic Stabilization Funding, which is charged with ensuring that the state maximize its share of funds under the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act.

For many years Representative Coleman has been deeply committed to expanding access to health care for all Texans. To further this goal he serves as a member of President Obama’s State Legislators for Health Reform, which is a working group of 32 state legislators dedicated to advancing the need for health reform in their communities. Representative Coleman also currently serves a Co-Chair of the Progressive States Network, an organization that promotes and advances key progressive economic and social policies. Additionally, he is one the Board of the Democratic Legislative Campaign Committee where he advocates for the interest of Democratic state legislators. Representative Coleman has served as the Chair of the Legislative Study Group, a non-partisan house caucus dedicated to the development of sound public policy, since 2003 when he was elected to the position by more than 40 of his colleagues. In addition, Representative Coleman has the honor of being a past chairman and current member of the Texas Legislative Black Caucus. As Chairman, Representative Coleman coordinated efforts among members of the Caucus to help preserve the Top Ten Percent Rule, which assists historically-underrepresented students in gaining admission to Texas’ top institutions of higher learning.

Outside his legislative work, Representative Coleman remains active and involved in the Houston community. He serves on the boards of the Mid-Town Redevelopment Authority, the National Mental Health Association, and the Ensemble Theater. In 1991, Representative Coleman founded S.M.A.R.T. Kids, a youth development program that provides much-needed tutoring for inner-city students. He also serves as president and CEO of Apartments for America, Inc., a non-profit affordable housing corporation.

Raised in Houston, Representative Coleman attended Howard University in Washington, D.C. and in 1990 graduated from the University of St. Thomas cum laude with a Bachelor of Arts. He also completed the prestigious Harvard University Senior Executive Program for State and Local Government. Representative Coleman and his wife, Angelique, reside in Houston’s University Oaks neighborhood. They have two children, Austin and Evan.

Imanol de la Flor, Consul Legal Affairs and Protection, Consulate General from Mexico in Houston, Mexican Foreign Ministry - Secretaría de Relaciones Exteriores de México -  

Imanol is a career member of the Mexican Foreign Service and he holds a Master in Laws degree from University of Houston Law Center.  He also pursued graduate studies at The Hague Academy of International Law in the Netherlands, as well as The Andres Bello Catholic University in Venezuela. He has been posted in Mexico City, working on developing state practice and application of the laws of the seas regime, and was a junior member of the successful Mexican candidacy to the International Tribunal of the Laws of the Sea. and currently in Houston. He is 28 years old, has published scholar essays on international law in Mexico and Spain, as well as a book under the seal of the National Autonomous University of Mexico on human rights of migrant workers, he is 28 years old and likes opera and reading French literature.

Emily Freeborn, Senior Counselor, Human Trafficking, City of Houston  

Emily Freeborn is a Staff Attorney for CHILDREN AT RISK working in the Center to End Trafficking and Exploitation of Children. Hailing from Ohio, Emily earned her B.S. in Business Administration and minor in Spanish from The Ohio State University. She later graduated cum laude from New York Law School in 2013. Emily began her legal career in Texas at the Office of Attorney General Child Support Division and became interested in human trafficking after working with victims on a service project with the Houston Young Lawyers Leadership Academy. She formerly served as a Staff Attorney for Catholic Charities where she screened newly arriving unaccompanied immigrant children for humanitarian relief due to persecution, abuse, neglect, abandonment, and human trafficking. She also directly represented immigrant youth in immigration and state court proceedings. Emily joined CHILDREN AT RISK in October 2016 where she advocates for greater protection and services for victims of human trafficking and leads local demand reduction tactics as the Houston Coordinator for the CEASE (Cities Empowered Against Sexual Exploitation) Network.

Ed Gallagher, Assistant U.S. Attorney Southern District of Texas, Adjunct Faculty, Human Trafficking Law, U.H. Law Center.

Edward Gallagher is currently an assistant U.S. attorney with the Organized Crime Drug Enforcement Task Force, for the U.S. Attorney’s Office in the Southern District of Texas. He is responsible for prosecuting major drug trafficking organizations. From 2002 to early 2016, Gallagher was Deputy Criminal Chief in the Criminal Division overseeing the Major Offender’s Section which is responsible for the prosecution of immigration crimes, organized crime, gangs, and the civil rights/human trafficking. Gallagher spent many years as the district’s coordinator for immigration, human trafficking and international affairs.

Gallagher graduated from Indiana University of Pennsylvania with a Bachelor of Arts degree in 1982 and earned his law degree from Villanova University in 1985. He began his career as a federal prosecutor in January 1990 following a five-year career as a special agent and legal advisor with the Federal Bureau of Investigation in Houston. His law enforcement background includes seasonal employment as a police officer with the Town of Ocean City, Maryland from1980 to1982.

Gallagher prosecuted general crimes cases from January 1990 to October 1991. From November 1991 to March 2002, Mr. Gallagher prosecuted civil rights, public corruption and organized crime cases. He was the chief of the Organized Crime Strike Force for the District where he coordinated a number of complex overt and covert multi-agency investigations with federal and local agencies in a variety of criminal prosecutions. Other areas of prosecution experience include government contract fraud, labor racketeering, Asian and Eastern European organized crime groups, and international investigations of groups engaged in human smuggling/trafficking and visa fraud.

Gallagher received the Director’s Award from Attorney General John Ashcroft in 2002 for his successful prosecutions of three international human smuggling groups. In August 2004, Gallagher was named coordinator for the Human Trafficking Rescue Alliance, a task force of federal and local law enforcement agencies working with non-governmental organizations to combat human trafficking. In December 2009, Gallagher received the Director’s Award from Attorney General Eric Holder for coordinating the HTRA in its training and prosecution efforts.

Gallagher has written papers and lectured to both local and federal prosecutors, investigators and private attorneys on such subjects as government procurement fraud, enterprise investigations using the RICO statute, use of undercover operations and electronic surveillance, human trafficking, labor prosecutions, and immigration attorney visa/labor certification fraud. He is currently an adjunct professor at the University of Houston Law Center where he teaches human trafficking law. He will receive his master’s degree in Pastoral Studies from St. Thomas University in December and is a February 2019 candidate for ordination as a deacon in the Catholic Church.

Jim Granato, PhD, Executive Director, Hobby School of Public Affairs, University of Houston

Jim Granato received a Bachelor of Science degree in political science and business administration from Southern Illinois University (1982). He earned his master’s degree in political science at Texas A&M University. Dr. Granato received his PhD in political science and certificate in political economy from Duke University in 1991. He is the executive director of the University of Houston’s Hobby School of Public Affairs and a professor in the UH department of political science.
Dr. Granato has also served as the political science program director and visiting scientist at the National Science Foundation (NSF).
Dr. Granato taught in the department of government at the University of Texas (2005-2006) and in the department of political science at Michigan State University (1991-2001). His teaching and research interests include American politics, political economy (focusing primarily on monetary policy issues), public policy, econometrics, and the unification of formal and empirical analysis (empirical implications of theoretical models or EITM).

Elise Griesmeyer - de Broeck, Catholic Charities Cabrini Center's Crime Victims Supervisor  

Elise Griesmyer serves as the Senior Managing Attorney for the Crime Victims Assistance Program at Catholic Charities’ St. Frances Cabrini Center for Immigrant Legal Assistance. In her work for the Cabrini Center, she represents immigrant victims of crimes, including human trafficking, domestic violence, sexual assault, and other serious crimes, to apply for immigration benefits, including humanitarian relief in the form of U Visas, T Visas, and remedies under the Violence Against Women Act. She works in conjunction with law enforcement agencies and other organizations to provide education and training about the rights of immigrant crime victims and provides legal “know your rights” presentations at crisis shelters and community organizations. She is a frequent lecturer at the University of Houston Law Center, the South Texas College of Law, and victims’ rights coalition meetings and conferences. Before joining Catholic Charities, she worked for Paz & Associates in Houston, Texas, representing clients in criminal, civil, and immigration proceedings. Elise completed her Juris Doctorate in 2009 at the University of Houston Law Center and received a B.A. from the University of Notre Dame in 2005.

Catholic Charities was founded in 1943, incorporated in 1952, and functions with the vision of having our board, staff and volunteers serve as people of faith who help people in need achieve self-sufficiency and live with dignity. Initially, our agency provided maternity and counseling services, along with emergency food and financial assistance. These offerings were expanded in the 1970s and 1980s with the addition of a senior services program, a foster care program, homes for immigrant children, a refugee resettlement program, and a center for immigrant legal assistance. Today, our agency provides an even wider range of services, reaching out to almost 87,629 people a year at locations in Harris, Fort Bend and Galveston Counties. Our services are made available to all – without regard to religious affiliation – with ninety-two cents of every dollar dedicated to program services. The Cabrini Center for Immigrant Legal Assistance, one such program, has offered low-cost, high-qualify legal relief to the Houston community for more than 25 years. Within Cabrini, the Crime Victims Assistance Program operates to provide free legal immigration services to non-citizen victims of crimes, including domestic violence, sexual assault, and human trafficking, who qualify for humanitarian visas.

Jennifer Hohman, Fight for Us and Houston 20  

Jennifer Hohman is an anti-Trafficking advocate and the founder for Fight for Us and Houston 20.She currently serves as Director of Information Technology at ConocoPhillips, the world’s largest independent energy exploration and production company and a consultant for Hewlett Packard, where she shifted her focus to software ideation and invention to automate business processes and provide efficiency for Fortune 100 companies in the financial, manufacturing, health and oil and gas industries. She is a recipient of Houston Woman Magazine’s 2017 Gutsy Gal Award, for fronting a fight against Houston’s sex and human trafficking. Currently she resides in Houston, Texas with her amazing husband, two rambunctious sons and two mischievous English Springer Spaniels.

Pat Holmes, Lawyer and writer of the book “Searching for Pilar”  

Patricia Hunt Holmes spent 30 years as a public finance attorney with the international law firm of Vinson & Elkins LLP. She was consistently listed in Best Lawyers in America, Texas Super Lawyers, Top Lawyers in Houston, and awarded the highest degree by her peers in Martindale Hubbell. She was a frequent speaker at national public finance and health care conferences. Patricia has also served on the faculty of the University of Missouri-Columbia, University of Tennessee, and University of Texas Health Science Center Houston. She has written and published in the fields of intellectual history and law.

Alfonso Lopez de la Osa Escribano, Director, Center of U.S. and Mexican Law, University of Houston Law Center 

Alfonso Lopez de la Osa Escribano is the Director of the Center for U.S. and Mexican Law (USMEX LAW), and Adjunct Faculty at the University of Houston Law Center where he teaches “Comparative Health Law”. Professor of Public and Administrative Law at the Complutense University of Madrid in Spain for ten years (in excedentia), his academic research and teaching focus in Public and Comparative Public Law, International Law perspectives, European Union Law, and on Human Rights and the enforcement to protect them (for instance, a right to healthcare access). He is interested also in Health Law. He participates in numerous conferences and seminars internationally. He is regularly invited as Visiting Professor at Aix- Marseille University, the University of Lyon III, and the University of Montpellier, in France and at the Anahuac University in Mexico City, among others.

He got his Law Degree (1995) and a Master in European Union Law (1996) by the University Complutense of Madrid. He made his Ph.D at the University of Paris I Panthéon-Sorbonne, first obtaining a Diploma (D.E.A.) on Droit public comparé des Etats Européens (Public Comparative Law in European countries) (1997), and then writing a dissertation on a comparative study about the convergence of liability legal systems in public hospitals in France and Spain, Magna Cum Laudae (original title: La convergence de la responsabilité hospitalière en France et en Espagne. Etude comparée). During his doctoral period he was a Parliamentary Assistant to a Member of the European Parliament, in Brussels and Strasbourg, between 1999 and 2001. Since 1999 he has been a practicing lawyer at the Madrid Bar, Spain, doing litigation before civil, criminal and administrative jurisdictions. He is the author of a book, several chapters of collective books and various articles in the field of Public Law, Health Law and Comparative Law in France, Spain, and Mexico. Native Spanish, he speaks French, English, and has an intermediate level of German, Italian and Portuguese.

Mario Madrazo Ubach Director General, Control and Migratory Verification, Instituto Nacional de Migración (National Migration Institute), Mexico  

Mr. Mario Madrazo Ubach has 11 years of experience in the areas of National Security and Public Safety.

He holds a law degree, a Specialization in Intelligence for National Security, and is currently a candidate for Master in International Security Studies from the University of the German Armed Forces (Bundeswehr University, Münich).

From 2006 to 20011 he served as advisor to the National Defense and Bicamaral National Security Commissions.

Later, he served as Director of Crime Prevention and Director of Criminal Analysis at the Public Security Secretariat of Puebla, where he ended his role as head of the Department of Intelligence and Investigation at the same Secretariat.

At the beginning of the present federal administration, he joined the National Institute of Migration (INM), under the Secretariat of the Interior.

He has served as Director General of Information and Investigation at INM since September 2014 and serves as the General Director of Migratory Control and Verification, in charge of the National Center for Alerts, the Center for Monitoring Strategic Facilities and supervision of 191 points of entry to Mexico and 56 stations and holding facilities. He also leads the cooperation of INM with Mexican and international law enforcement authorities.

He has participated in several high level meetings and has a background participating in academic programs as lecturer and adjunct professor for Universidad Anahuac, Centro Superior de Estudios Navales ( CESNAV) and the Center for European Security Studies at the George Marshall Center among others.

Dr. Nikolay Marinov, Associate Professor of Political Science, University of Houston  

Nikolay Marinov conducts research at the nexus of international relations and comparative politics. His forthcoming book looks at what happens when elections turn proxy wars, in which Great Powers intervene to promote democratic processes, or to push their local allies. Marinov's published research includes work on countriesʼ post-coup trajectories, on peacekeeping and electoral business cycles, on foreign aid, election observation and economic sanctions. Marinov has helped collect, with Susan Hyde, the NELDA dataset of elections around the world. He received his BA from the American University in Bulgaria and he holds a PhD in Political Science from Stanford University. Previously, he has held position at the University of Sydney, UCLA, Yale, and the University of Mannheim. Dr. Marinoc has a Ph.D. in Political Science from Stanford University, an M.A. in Political Science from Stanford University and a B.A. from the American University in Bulgaria.

Gonzalo Martinez de Vedia, Program Manager, Human trafficking, McCain Institute, Arizona State University 

Gonzalo Martinez de Vedia is the program manager for the Buffett-McCain Institute Initiative to Combat Modern Slavery, a comprehensive program to counter human trafficking in the agricultural sector in Texas.

Before joining the McCain Institute for International Leadership, Martinez served as senior policy associate at Humanity United, where he helped manage the Alliance to End Slavery and Trafficking (ATEST), and human trafficking specialist at the Worker Justice Center of New York.

Under various state and federal government grants, Martinez provided comprehensive case management for trafficking survivors, led targeted outreach to high-risk workplaces, and trained thousands of law enforcement officers and service providers on trafficking identification and response.

He has also served as a human rights commissioner for the County of Ulster, New York, and policy co-chair for Freedom Network USA. He has informed rights-related coverage for NPR Weekend Edition, This American Life, and the New York Times, among many other national and local media outlets.

Martinez was born in Buenos Aires, Argentina. He holds a bachelor’s degree in Government from Cornell University, where he was the founding president of the Immigrant Farmworker Initiative. His latest publication — Labor Trafficking: The Garcia Case and Beyond — went to print in 2017 with the Lawyers and Judges Publishing Company in Phoenix.

Diane McManus, Clinical Supervising Attorney, Civil Practice Clinic, University of Houston Law Center  

Diane McManus is a Clinical Supervising Attorney in the Civil Practice Clinic at the University of Houston Law Center. She received a B.A. in Comparative Literature the University of Maine, a M.A. in English Language Literature from Michigan State University and a J.D. from the University of Houston Law Center.

Prior to joining the Law Center, Professor McManus was a staff attorney and manager with Lone Star Legal Aid (formerly Gulf Coast Legal Foundation) where she arranged for staff attorneys to do intakes at over 6 shelters in Harris, Fort Bend and Montgomery counties to better serve victims of domestic violence. She served as the Chair of the Statewide Family Law Task Force for Legal Aid attorneys, served on the Board of AVDA and United Against Human Trafficking. Professor McManus has been a speaker on family and probate issues at local and state conferences.

Professor McManus has a passion for horses and is a regular attendee at the Annual Symposium on Equine Law held in Lexington, Kentucky.

Dr. Phuong Nguyen, Assistant Professor, Baylor College of Medicine (BCM), Program Director, BCM Anti-Human Trafficking Program  

Phuong T. Nguyen, Ph.D. is an Assistant Professor at Baylor College of Medicine (BCM) and Senator for the Baylor College of Medicine Faculty Senate. Dr. Nguyen is the Program Director of the Baylor College of Medicine Human Trafficking program and Director of Psychology Services at Ben Taub Hospital (BTH). He also serves as the Training Director for the BCM Psychology Internship Program and the BTH/BCM Psychology Postdoctoral Fellowship Program, which includes the country’s first formal psychology postdoctoral fellowship track specializing in Human Trafficking. Dr. Nguyen received his Ph.D. in Clinical Psychology from the University of Massachusetts Boston and completed a predoctoral internship and postdoctoral fellowship at Massachusetts General Hospital/Harvard Medical School. At BCM, Dr. Nguyen enjoys a mixture of training, clinical work, and research with psychiatric patients from underserved and under-represented groups. Currently, Dr. Nguyen’s clinical and research interests are focused on the experiences of victims and survivors of Human Trafficking. Dr. Nguyen and his colleagues at BCM established the BCM Anti-Human Trafficking Program to improve the identification, treatment, and advocacy of human trafficking victims and survivors.

Elisa Ortega Velazquez, Research Professor International Law, IIJ – UNAM (Autonomous National University of Mexico)  

Elisa Ortega Velazquez has a PhD in law and master’s in public law from the Carlos III University of Madrid, and a law degree from the Instituto tecnologico Autonomo de México. She has a post-doctorate degree in law at the Institute of Juridical Research at UNAM, and has held research stays at the University of Chile and at the University of Warwick. She belongs to the national system of researchers in Mexico. Her lines of research are: law and migration; migrant children and adolescents; Asylum and refugees; Inter-American human rights system; Critical law studies; and public international law. She has published several publications on her lines of research. Her most recent book, 2017, is entitled Standards for migrant children and adolescents and State obligations in the Inter-American human rights system, published by UNAM and CNDH. She has coordinated the diploma in migration and human rights of the Institute of Juridical Research of the UNAM since 2016 and co-coordinates the institutional line of research on "migration, mobility and rights" of the Institute.

Pablo Pinto, PhD, Director, Center for Public Policy, Hobby School of Public Affairs, University of Houston

Pablo M. Pinto is an Associate Professor and Director of the Center for Public Policy at the University of Houston’s Hobby School of Public Affairs. He is also the co-editor of the journal Economics & Politics, and is a non-resident Scholar in the Latin America Initiative of the Baker Institute at Rice University, and adjunct research scholar fo the Saltzman Institute of War and Peace Studies at Columbia University. Pinto’s areas of expertise are international and comparative political economy, comparative politics, and quantitative methods. He is the author of Partisan Investment in the Global Economy (Cambridge University Press) and co-author of Politics and FDI (Michigan University Press). His research has been published in International Organization, Comparative Political Studies, Legislative Studies Quarterly, International Studies Quarterly, Economics & Politics, Political Analysis, State Politics & Policy Quarterly, Electoral Studies, the Review of International Political Economy, edited volumes and other outlets. Pinto holds an M.A. from Aoyama Gakuin University in Japan, and a Ph.D. in Political Science and International Affairs from the University of California, San Diego. He received a Law Degree from Universidad Nacional de La Plata, Argentina. Prior to joining the University of Houston in 2014, Pinto was a member of the faculty of Columbia University.

Patricia Ravelo, Medical, Gender and Legal Anthropology, Centro de Investigaciones y Estudios Superiores en Antropología Social – CIESAS (Research Center on Social Anthropology), México  

Patricia Ravelo Blancas has a Ph.D. in sociology from the National Autonomous University of Mexico as well as a specialization in women's studies at the Colegio de México; She is a professor-researcher at the Center for Research and Higher Studies in Social Anthropology. She participated from 2001 to 2009 as a visiting professor at the University of Texas at El Paso. She co-coordinated the Ciesas-UNAM-CONACYT project to implement the Protocols of action in prevention, care, punishment and eradication of Violence against women in south-east Mexico (2011-2013). Her subjects of specialization are gender, violence and trafficking of women; Collective actions and Antifeminicide proposals, of non-violence and peace. She has published, books, articles and videos on these topics. She teaches the gender, violence, sexualities and migrations of the Postgraduate course in Social Anthropology of the Sciences in Mexico City, co-coordinates the bi-national seminar diversity without violence with UTEP and UACJ of a broader interinstitutional project and co-coordinates the project on migrant women in the streets situation.

Frances Recknor, DrPH, LCSW, Clinical Assistant Professor, Menninger Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences, Baylor College of Medicine  

Frances Recknor, DrPH, LCSW is a clinical assistant professor at the Baylor College of Medicine Human Trafficking Program in Houston, Texas. Active in Houston’s anti-trafficking community since her internship with United Against Human Trafficking in 2013, she has partnered locally with the victim service provider sub-committee of the Human Trafficking Rescue Alliance of the Southern District of Texas, Doctors for Change, Houston Rescue and Restore Coalition, and the Texas Medical Center Healthcare Consortium on Human Trafficking. Dr. Recknor is a member of the research sub-committee of HEAL Trafficking, an international group of multidisciplinary professionals utilizing a public health paradigm to end trafficking and support its survivors. In her position at Baylor, she is involved in research related to health, public health and human trafficking. Prior to earning her doctorate in public health at the University of Texas Health Science Center, she worked for fifteen years as a social worker at MD Anderson Cancer Center and Texas Children’s Hospital. Dr. Recknor’s research interests include exploitative practices in human trafficking, transnational gestational surrogacy, cross border reproductive care, and inter-country adoption; also, health and human rights, gender- based violence, child protection, and bioethics.

Constance Rossiter Social Responsibility Director, Houston YMCA, Trafficked Persons Assistance Program  

Constance Rossiter, a Licensed Professional Counselor and Senior Fellow of the American Leadership Forum, is the Program Director for the Trafficked Persons Assistance Program (TPAP) at YMCA International Services in Houston where she has been responsible for program oversight for 11 years. The program provides comprehensive services to victims of all forms of human trafficking, foreign national and domestic.

Constance also has extensive experience working with victims of domestic violence, sexual assault, and other at-risk populations with a special interest in trauma and cultural diversity. She is a member of the Texas Human Trafficking Prevention Task Force, the Human Trafficking Rescue Alliance (HTRA), the Homeless Youth Network, and she serves on the Child Sex Trafficking Team Workgroup.

Kaylen Runyan, Community Education Specialist, United Against Human Trafficking (UAHT) 

Kaylen joined UAHT in August 2017 subsequent to graduating with her Masters in Communication from Abilene Christian University. Kaylen’s time in academia focused specifically on the direct correlation between trauma and trafficking, identifying the necessity for trauma-informed training implemented by anti-trafficking organizations.

Kaylen has been involved in the anti-trafficking nonprofit sector since 2013, where she has gained experience working directly with victims of human trafficking at both Redeemed Ministries and The Landing. Her fervor for justice is rooted in displaying light and truth surrounding a heinous reality of injustice, and is dedicated to actively working to fight against trafficking. Aside from her passion for societal justness, Kaylen is keen on coffee consumption and rock climbing.

Sherri Zack, Assistant U.S. Attorney Southern District of Texas; Chairwoman, Human Trafficking Rescue Alliance (HTRA)  

Sherri L. Zack is an Assistant United States Attorney for the Southern District of Texas. Since her arrival in 2008, she served as the Deputy Coordinator of the Human Trafficking Rescue Alliance until November of 2017, when she became the Human Trafficking Coordinator for the Southern District of Texas. Additionally, from October 2014, until November 2017, she served as the District’s Project Safe Childhood Coordinator. Based on her experience in those areas she has lectured at prosecution/law enforcement training conferences throughout the United States. Since joining the United States Attorney’s Office she has argued four cases before the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals. In 2013, Ms. Zack received the “Stars of Texas Bars” award for “Best News Article” for an article she co-authored for the Houston Lawyer Magazine on the prosecution of sex trafficking cases in the federal system.

Prior to joining the United States Attorney’s Office in September of 2008, Ms. Zack spent a year as an Assistant District Attorney in Harris County, TX. From 1994 to 2007, Ms. Zack was an Assistant State Attorney at the Broward County Florida State Attorney’s Office where she specialized in the prosecution of sex crimes and child abuse cases. Ms. Zack has lectured for the National Association of District Attorneys, the Florida Prosecuting Attorneys Association and law enforcement agencies on many occasions. Her presentations included trial advocacy, presentation of DNA evidence, jury selection in sex crimes cases, and presentation and rebuttal of expert witness testimony.

She is a graduate of Nova Southeastern Law School, where she was named the Best Oral Advocate among all Florida law schools at the 1992 Robert Orseck Memorial Moot Court Competition. In 1991 she graduated from the University of Florida with a bachelor’s degree in History.