Justin Dillon, Director, Call + Response

Justin Dillon, musician and director/producer, was a member of the band Dime Store Prophets in the 1990’s, before leaving to pursue music in the band, Tremolo.  Dillon came across the issue of Human Trafficking while touring in Russia.  He met scores of girls whose ambition to come to west was being preyed upon by traffickers. During his visit, his interpreter, a young girl, shared with him the many “opportunities” that were being offered to her to come to west. Dillon investigated the bogus job opportunities and became incensed at how easy it was to trick them. After sharing with them the dangers of these proposals, he vowed to do something about this issue once he returned home. 

Upon arriving back in the United States he looked around to find organizations that were addressing the problem and found that they were few, small, and under-funded, but passionate. He immediately started hosting benefit concerts for these organizations in order to support and spread their work. His desire to put on a benefit concert soon grew into a “rockumentary” that combined both critically acclaimed artists and social luminaries in the film, CALL+RESPONSE.

Patricia McCormick - Author of Sold

She has written for The New York Times, Parents Magazine, The New York Times Book Review, Ladies Home Journal, Town & Country, More, Reader’s Digest, Mademoiselle and other publications and has been an adjunct professor of journalism at Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism and an instructor of creative writing at the New School University. McCormick's awards include the American Library Association Best Book of the Year, New York Public Library Best Book for the Teenaged, and the Children’s Literature Council’s Choice.

Bradley Myles - Deputy Director of the Polaris Project

Bradley Myles currently serves on the Executive Management Team of the Polaris Project, directing national anti-trafficking program efforts, leading all training and technical assistance projects, handling the majority of government relations, coordinating the efforts of local offices, supporting Federal and State policy advocacy efforts, consulting on numerous anti-trafficking research studies, and helping to steward the work of Polaris’ 30 staff and 15 Fellows. Mr. Myles currently oversees multiple national programs as Deputy Director, including the operation of the HHS-funded national 24-hour human trafficking hotline entitled the National Human Trafficking Resource Center (NHTRC), and the CSEC Community Intervention Project (CCIP). Mr. Myles has provided consultation, training, and technical assistance on anti-trafficking strategies to hundreds of audiences, including human trafficking task forces and coalitions, government agencies, Federal and local law enforcement, U.S. Members of Congress, media, service providers, and foreign delegations. He has been a key advocate in unifying and bridging the national anti-trafficking program areas of multiple Federal government agencies, and he has also played a leadership role in the implementation of the DC Human Trafficking Task Force.

Dorchen Leidholdt - Director, Battered Women's Legal Services

Dorchen A. Leidholdt is the Director of the Center for Battered Women's Legal Services at Sanctuary for Families in New York City.  As the largest legal services program for domestic violence victims in the country, the Center provides legal representation to battered women in family law, criminal, civil rights, and immigration cases and advocates for policy and legislative changes that further the rights of abused women.  Leidholdt also serves as Co-Executive Director of the Coalition Against Trafficking in Women (CATW), which she helped found in 1988. The Coalition has influenced international legislation, most notably the Trafficking Protocol to the United Nations Convention on Transnational Organized Crime, to expand protections for trafficking victims and strengthen penalties against traffickers. In 1994 Dorchen was awarded the United Nations Capitol Association Human Rights Award; in 1999 the New York City Bar Association's Legal Services Award, the Korean-American Family Service Center’s Recognition Award, and the City of New York Award for "outstanding leadership in breaking the cycle of domestic violence"; in 2000 the New York University School of Law Public Interest Law Foundation Award for "outstanding contributions in public interest law" and the Lawyers Committee Against Domestic Violence "In the Trenches" Award; in 2002 the "Women of Power and Influence" Award by the National Organization for Women—New York City Chapter; and in 2007 the League of Women Voters of the City of New York "Woman of Distinction" Award.

Kika Cerpa - Sex Trafficking Survivor

Lauran Bethell, Creator New Life Center, Thailand; Global Service Missionary

Donna Hughes - Eleanor M. and Oscar M. Carlson Endowed Chair Women's Studies Program, University of Rhode Island

Donna M. Hughes is a leading international researcher on trafficking of women and children. She has widely published on the trafficking of women and girls for sexual exploitation in the United States, Russia, Ukraine, and Korea.  She is frequently consulted by governments and non-governmental organizations on policy related to women's human rights, particularly on trafficking of women and girls for sexual exploitation. She has testified before the U.S. House International Relations Committee, the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, the Moscow Duma, and the Czech Parliament.  Her research has been supported by the U.S. State Department, the National Institute of Justice, the National Science Foundation, the Association of American Colleges and Universities, the Norwegian Agency for Development Cooperation, the International Organization for Migration, the Council of Europe, the Coalition Against Trafficking in Women, the Rhode Island Board of Governors for Higher Education, University of Rhode Island Foundation, the University of Rhode Island Council for Research, and the University of Bradford, UK.  She is the author of Trafficking for Sexual Exploitation.

Stephanie Davis, Policy Advisor on Women’s Issues, Office of the Mayor, Atlanta

Stephanie Davis serves as the Mayor of Atlanta's Policy Advisor on Women's Issues and is charged with helping to end child prostitution, empowering women through financial literacy, and institutionalizing the living wage. As the first director of the Atlanta Women's Foundation where she served for 11 years, Davis was responsible for raising several million dollars, establishing an endowment and positioning the Foundation to be the fastest growing women's fund in the country. Davis has been the Rosalynn Carter honorary fellow in women and policy for Emory University and currently services on the Board of The White House Project to promote women's leadership in all spheres.

Alesia Adams - Youth Development and Sexual Trafficking Prevention Coordinator, Salvation Army

For the last ten years Ms. Alesia Adams has been actively involved in advocating on behalf of young women and children who have been sexually exploited. Ms. Adams was the founder and developer of the Center to End Adolescent Sexual Exploitation (CEASE). CEASE provided advocacy on behalf of sexually exploited children involved in the juvenile court process. In 2003, the CEASE program was selected by the Department of Justice's Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency as a demonstration project, receiving a three-year million dollar grant as a best practice model program and slated for duplication in fourteen states across America. Ms. Adams was also instrumental in the passage of new legislation that made pimping and pandering of a minor a felony in the State of Georgia and the development of Angela's House, the first safe house for sexually exploited females in the southeastern United States. Ms. Adams has been quoted in numerous publication and studies and appeared as a guest speaker on Oprah Winfrey's Oxygen Channel, PBS and CNN.  Ms. Adams has lectured nationally in over 150 conferences for the U.S. Department of Justice, schools, churches, law enforcement, therapists and judges.

Rachel Sparks - Founder, Producer, Sold Project

Rachel Sparks, founder and producer of the Sold Project, a documentary film detailing the darkest areas of red light districts and the lives of trafficked and prostituted women and children. Sparks graduated in business administration and adolescent ministry from Indiana Wesleyan University. In 2006, she moved to New York to work with children, and there she became active in the fight against child sex trafficking. No longer content to live as she had been, she began wrestling with how to get involved. The result: The SOLD Project. Currently residing in Los Angeles, her full-time job has now become fundraising, networking, building a non-profit organization.

Rachel Goble - Executive Director, Associate Producer, Sold Project

Rachel Goble, Executive Director and Associate Producer of the Sold Project, graduated from Westmont College in 2005 with a Bachelors in business and marketing. She worked in youth ministry before heading back to school at Fuller Seminary to pursue a Masters in Intercultural Studies with a concentration in children at risk. Her masters thesis brought her to India and South Africa, where she spent three months listening to the stories of children who had been trafficking, and meeting with organizations dedicated to prevention, rescue and rehabilitation of trafficking victims.

Alia El-Sawi - Anti-Human Trafficking Program Coordinator, Tapestri Inc.

Alia El-Sawi has been with Tapestri Inc. since September 2005 and currently serves as the Anti-Human Trafficking Program Coordinator.  In this capacity, she designs and provides trainings and outreach to mainstream service providers, law enforcement, and community organizations on human trafficking.  She works to establish collaborative relationships with other nonprofit organizations and law enforcement around the issue of human trafficking.  She also provides direct services to survivors of human trafficking.  Alia has written several articles on the issue of women in developing communities.  She has a Bachelor's degree in International Affairs and French from Mercer University.  She will be speaking with one of her clients at Tapestri, Joana Santos, a Brazilian woman who was trafficked into the sex spas of Atlanta.