Note: all appearances are subject to change.
NEW ALERT:
6:40pm on Saturday February 4th
KEYNOTE SPEAKER
Congresswoman Carolyn B. Maloney
*Ticket purchasers to both The Dancing Boys of Afghanistan and Very Young Girls will be invited to Keynote.
Panel 1: Anti Human Trafficking Efforts in Post Conflict Regions
Friday Feb 3rd, 6:15pm, following screening of “The Whistleblower.” Buy tickets now.
Panelists: Kathryn Bolkovac, Siddharth Kara, Kat Rohrer, Roger-Claude Liwanga
Moderator: Alicia Foley
Alicia Foley has worked on issues of human trafficking since 2006, when she joined the staff of The Protection Project at the Johns Hopkins School of Advanced International Studies (JHU-SAIS) in Washington DC. Alicia has worked on a variety of human rights issues, focusing on child sex trafficking in both domestic and international contexts and other forms of violence against women. Currently Alicia is a member of the adjunct faculty at Suffolk University Law School where she is co-instructing a course focused on sex trafficking law and film. In addition, Alicia is engaged in extensive research on the reintegration of formerly trafficked women and guest lectures at local Universities. Alicia is a graduate of Northeastern University; holds a J.D. from the Suffolk University Law School; and received her L.L.M. in International Law, with a Specialization in the Protection of International Human Rights from The Washington College of Law at American University.
Kathryn Bolkovac
Kathryn Bolkovac is a former police investigator from Nebraska who served as an International Police Task Force human rights investigator in Bosnia. She cooperated with Human Rights Watch to expose the misconduct and human rights abuses committed against young girls, forced into prostitution and used as sex slaves by U.S. military contractors such as DynCorp and other UN-related police and international organizations. She lives in Lincoln, Nebraska, and Amsterdam, the Netherlands.
Siddharth Kara
Siddharth Kara is an Affiliate of the Human Rights and Social Movements Program, and a Fellow with the Carr Center Program on Human Trafficking and Modern-Day Slavery. He is the author of Sex Trafficking: Inside the Business of Modern Slavery, the first of three books he is writing on the subjects of human trafficking and contemporary slavery. Kara currently advises the United Nations and several governments on antislavery policy and law, and he continues to research slavery around the world. He has written an award winning feature film screenplay on human trafficking that is set for production in 2011. Previously, Kara was an investment banker at Merrill Lynch, then ran his own finance and M&A consulting firm. He holds a Law degree from England, MBA from Columbia University, and BA from Duke University.
Filmmaker Kat Rohrer
Kat Rohrer is the director and co-producer of Fatal Promises. In 2002 Kat founded Green Kat Productions with her business partner Tom Greenman. Based in NYC they have produced and Kat has directed a vast array of short films, music videos, PSAs and commercials. Her short Film “The Search” won multiple awards. Kat has also acted as DP for various award winning documentaries. Her latest film, the feature length documentary “Fatal Promises” deals with Human Trafficking. The film is a labor of love for her and an attempt to make a difference the only way she knows how, through film. To find out more about Kat and her work, please visit: www.greenkatproductions.com or www.fatalpromises.com.
Roger-Claude Liwanga
Roger-Claude Liwanga is the co-founder and executive director of Promote Congo, Inc. which is a US-based organization dedicated to promoting human rights in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) by providing microloans to underserved communities, collaborating with grassroots organizations on legislation and law enforcement, and conducting human rights education programs. Until recently, he was working as a legal consultant for The Carter Center where he designed a training module to train Congolese judges and prosecutors on the protection of children against trafficking for economic exploitation in the mines. In his position of Promote Congo’s director, Mr. Liwanga is developing programs that consist of setting up a comprehensive strategy to eradicate forced labor and forced prostitution of children in the artisanal mining areas in the DRC. Mr. Liwanga holds an LL.M. in Human Rights Law from University of Cape Town (South Africa); a Licence en Droit privé et judiciaire from Université Protestante au Congo; and a Certificate in International Human Rights Law from Institut International des Droits de l’Homme, Strasbourg-France.
Panel 2: Survivors Working as Advocates
Saturday February 4, 10:00am, following the screening of “Red Leaves Falling.” Buy tickets now.
Panelists: Participants from the MYMC Mentors Project – Tanee Hobson, Ann Wilkinson, Latiana Appleberry
Moderator: Lisa Goldblatt-Grace
Lisa Goldblatt Grace is the Co-founder and Director of My Life My Choice. Since 2002, MLMC has offered the only comprehensive prevention curriculum aimed at reaching girls most vulnerable to commercial sexual exploitation. Further, MLMC offers a unique continuum of services including prevention groups, training, survivor mentoring, and program consultation. Ms. Goldblatt Grace has been working with vulnerable young people in a variety of capacities for over twenty years. Her professional experience includes running a long term shelter for homeless teen parents, developing a diversion program for violent youth offenders, and working in outpatient mental health, health promotion, and residential treatment settings. Ms. Goldblatt Grace has served as a consultant to the Massachusetts Administrative Office of the Trial Court’s “Redesigning the Court’s Response to Prostitution” project and as a primary researcher on the 2007 U.S. Department of Health and Human Services study of programs serving human trafficking victims. In addition, Ms. Goldblatt Grace has written in a variety of publications regarding commercial sexual exploitation and offered training on the subject nationally. Ms. Goldblatt Grace is Adjunct Faculty at the Boston University School of Social Work. She is a Licensed Independent Clinical Social Worker and holds masters degrees in both social work and public health.
Tanee Hobson
Tanee Hobson is a Survivor Mentor and Group Facilitator with My Life My Choice. A survivor of sexual exploitation who had been in Massachusetts DCF custody since the age of two, Tanee is a former client of My Life My Choice who uses her life experience to help reach other exploited and high-risk girls. Tanee is a frequent presenter at public speaking events, and has represented MLMC in panels at the Germaine Lawrence School and Attorney General Martha Coakley’s hearing for human trafficking legislation in Massachusetts. Currently studying Human Services at Northern Essex Community College, Tanee plans to continue working with exploited girls in the future and become a national leader in the movement to end the Commercial Sexual Exploitation of Children.
Ann Wilkinson
Ann Wilkinson has been a Mentor and Group Facilitiator for MLMC since 2006. Ann brings eighteen years of experience as Counselor, Group Facilitator, and Mentor to multi-stressed youth and women. Prior to coming to My Life My Choice, Ann worked in the fields of domestic violence, homelessness, and substance abuse treatment in a variety of leadership roles. Her work experience has included being the Senior Manager at Elizabeth Stone House, and the Director of Women’s Programs at Peace at Home. Ann utilizes her personal experiences in “the Life” to inform the work she does with adolescent girls and adult women, helping them build a life free from exploitation.
Latiana Appleberry
Latiana Appleberry is a Survivor Mentor and Group Facilitator with My Life My Choice. Latiana is a survivor of sexual exploitation who has now been out of the Life for four years. An individual mentor and group leader, Latiana is particularly interested in working with inner-city girls. She is currently studying Social Work at Roxbury Community College, after which she intends to become a social worker and use her experiences with exploitation to help other girls.
Panel 3: Organized Crime and Sex Trafficking
Saturday, February 4 ,11:30am, following the screening of “Price of Sex.” Buy tickets now.
Panelists: Mimi Chakarova, John P. Cerone, Julie Dahlstrom.
Moderator: Alicia Foley
Alicia Foley has worked on issues of human trafficking since 2006, when she joined the staff of The Protection Project at the Johns Hopkins School of Advanced International Studies (JHU-SAIS) in Washington DC. Alicia has worked on a variety of human rights issues, focusing on child sex trafficking in both domestic and international contexts and other forms of violence against women. Currently Alicia is a member of the adjunct faculty at Suffolk University Law School where she is co-instructing a course focused on sex trafficking law and film. In addition, Alicia is engaged in extensive research on the reintegration of formerly trafficked women and guest lectures at local Universities. Alicia is a graduate of Northeastern University; holds a J.D. from the Suffolk University Law School; and received her L.L.M. in International Law, with a Specialization in the Protection of International Human Rights from The Washington College of Law at American University.
Filmmaker Mimi Chakarova
For the past decade, photographer and filmmaker Mimi Chakarova has covered global issues examining conflict, corruption and the sex trade. Her film “The Price of Sex,” a feature-length documentary on trafficking and corruption premiered this spring. Chakarova was awarded the Nestor Almendros Award for courage in filmmaking at the 2011 Human Rights Watch Film Festival in New York. She was also the winner of the prestigious 2011 Daniel Pearl Award for Outstanding International Investigative Reporting. This is Chakarova’s 14th year teaching visual storytelling at UC Berkeley’s Graduate School of Journalism. She’s also taught at Stanford University’s African and African American Studies and Comparative Studies for Race and Ethnicity. She is the recipient of the 2003 Dorothea Lange Fellowship for outstanding work in documentary photography and the 2005 Magnum Photos Inge Morath Award for her work on sex trafficking. Other awards include a People’s Voice Webby as well as a nomination for a News & Documentary Emmy Award. Chakarova’s work has appeared in National Geographic, The New York Times Sunday Magazine, The Atlantic Monthly, Ms., The Sunday Times Magazine, London, CBS News’ “60 Minutes,” PBS’ FRONTLINE/World and the Center for Investigative Reporting among others. In 2007, Chakarova became the series curator of FRONTLINE/World’s FlashPoint, featuring the work of photojournalists from around the world. She is currently a correspondent at the Center for Investigative Reporting. Capitalism, God, And A Good Cigar: Cuba Enters The Twenty-first Century, published by Duke University Press in 2005, features over 75 of Chakarova’s documentary photographs of Cuba. Mimi Chakarova received her BFA in photography from the San Francisco Art Institute and her MA in visual studies from UC Berkeley. She has had numerous solo exhibitions of her documentary projects on South Africa, Jamaica, Cuba, Kashmir and Eastern Europe.
John Cerone
Professor Cerone teaches Public International Law, Human Rights Law, the Law of Armed Conflict, and International Criminal Law, and serves as director of the law school’s Center for International Law and Policy. Before joining the New England faculty in 2004, Professor Cerone was executive director of the War Crimes Research Office at American University Washington College of Law, where he served as a legal adviser to various international criminal courts and tribunals. As a practicing international lawyer, Professor Cerone has worked for a number of different intergovernmental and nongovernmental organizations, including the United Nations, the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe, the International Secretariat of Amnesty International, and the International Crisis Group. He also has extensive field experience in conflict and post-conflict environments, such as Afghanistan, Kosovo, Sierra Leone, and East Timor. Professor Cerone is the U.S. Member of the International Law Association’s (ILA) International Human Rights Law Committee. He has served as Co-Chair of the Human Rights Interest Group of the American Society of International Law (ASIL), and as Chair of the International Human Rights Section of the Association of American Law Schools (AALS). He is accredited by the United Nations to represent the ASIL before various U.N. bodies and is an elected member of the International Institute of Humanitarian Law. In 2009 he served as special adviser to the first U.S. delegation to the UN Human Rights Council. He has taught courses and given guest lectures in more than 40 countries across all regions of the globe. He is the author of several articles and book chapters on international law, as well as the casebook Public International Law: Cases, Problems, and Texts (with Dinah Shelton and Stephen McCaffrey).
Julie Dahlstrom
Julie Dahlstrom is an attorney and the Program Manager of the Immigration Legal Assistance Program of Lutheran Social Services of New England (“LSSNE”). She has represented numerous clients to apply for T-visas as trafficking survivors, U-visas as survivors of violent crime, asylum, and relief under the Violence Against Women Act. At LSS, She also manages LSS Human Trafficking Legal Assistance Center, which provides case management and legal services to survivors of sex and labor trafficking state-wide. Ms. Dahlstrom received a Juris Doctor, cum laude, from Boston College Law School and a Bachelor of Arts, cum laude, from Boston College.
Panel 4: Navigating Political Framework to Advance Social Justice
Saturday February 4, 2:00pm, following the screening of “Fatal Promises.” Buy tickets now.
Panelists: Kat Rohrer, Kate Nace Day, Tara O’Donnell, Representative Eugene O’Flaherty, Audrey Porter, Sue Finegan
Moderator: Alexandra Ames Lawrence
Trained as an art historian, Alexandra Ames Lawrence has worked with private collections and at museums for nearly two decades, including the Museum of Modern Art, New York and the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston. Alex’s commitment to work to help those exploited in the global sex trade and to eradicate demand for commercial sex was solidified while serving as the director of an art museum in Prague. Her awareness of sex trafficking in Europe and its links worldwide led Alex to advocate for several organizations harnessing the power of the arts in working with at-risk children in Southeast Asia including Stairway Foundation whose film, Red Leaves Falling, she introduced at BITAHR’s Film Forum in 2010. She serves on the board of the Maine Humanities Council and holds a B.A. in Fine Arts from Harvard University and an M.A. from the Institute of Fine Arts, New York University.
Kate Nace Day
Kate Nace Day is Founder of Film and Law Productions and a Professor of Suffolk University Law School where she teaches the civil, constitutional and international rights of women, including women and children trafficked for sex. She also co-teaches a seminar on Sex Trafficking in Film and Law with Alicia Foley, Founder of BITAHR. Together, they developed the BITAHR Human Rights & Sex Trafficking Film Forum. Kate received her JD at University of California School of Law atBerkeley(Boalt Hall).
Tara O’Donnell
Tara O’Donnell Esq., is a partner and member of the Donoghue, Barrett & Singal Government Relations practice area and has over twenty years of experience in government. Ms. O’Donnell serves on the Judicial Council for the Democratic State Committee, Legislative committee for the Women’s Bar Association and is a member of the Boston Bar Association. She is a Board member of Hospitality Homes and serves on the Board of Pathways to Wellness. Ms. O’Donnell received a Juris Doctor cum laude, from Suffolk University School of Law and a Bachelor of Arts, cum laude, from Bowdoin College.
Representative Eugene O’Flaherty
State Representative Eugene L. O’Flaherty represents the Second Suffolk Representative District of Massachusetts, which consists of the Boston neighborhood of Charlestown and most of Chelsea.
Representative O’Flaherty graduated from Malden Catholic High School and received a Bachelor of Science degree from Suffolk University. He was awarded a Juris Doctorate from the Massachusetts School of Law and was admitted to the Massachusetts bar in 1994 and the Federal bar in 1995.
He was elected to his first term in the House of Representatives in 1996 and was sworn in on January 1st, 1997. Currently in his 8th term in the House of Representatives, Representative O’Flaherty serves as the House Chairman of the Joint Committee on The Judiciary. He has held this Chairmanship under three different Speakers of the House since 2002.
In addition to his legislative duties, Representative O’Flaherty is a practicing lawyer with O’Donovan, Dwyer & O’Flaherty, P.C..
The youngest of five brothers and the only member of his immediate family born in the United States, Representative O’Flaherty lives in Chelsea with his wife, Patricia.
Audrey Porter
Audrey Porter is the Associate Director of My Life My Choice, a program of Justice Resource Institute. Since 2002, MLMC has offered the only comprehensive prevention curriculum aimed at reaching girls most vulnerable to commercial sexual exploitation. Further, MLMC offers a unique continuum of services including prevention groups, training, and survivor mentoring. In 2010, MLMC was awarded “Social Innovator” by Root Cause’s Social Innovation Forum. Ms. Porter has also served as a primary consultant to the Massachusetts Administrative Office of the Trial Court’s “Redesigning the Court’s Response to Prostitution” project. Drawing from her personal experience in “the Life”, Ms. Porter seeks to help vulnerable girls avoid being recruited into the commercial sex industry and/or leave exploitation behind them. To this end, Ms. Porter facilitates MLMC exploitation prevention groups in group homes, DCF offices, schools, and DYS facilities throughout Greater Boston, as well as trains service providers in Massachusetts and nationally on recognizing the signs of exploitation and helping girls exit. In addition, Ms. Porter works individually mentoring girls who are victims of CSEC or are deemed high risk. Ms. Porter has presented nationally on the topic of the commercial sexual exploitation of children and is a well respected resource in the Boston area. She is a 2008 recipient of the prestigious Petra Foundation Fellowship.
Sue Finegan
Sue is a litigation partner at Mintz, Levin, Cohn, Ferris, Glovsky and Popeo, P.C.. She currently serves as the Chair of the Pro bono Committee and focuses exclusively on managing the firm’s multifaceted pro bono program, consisting of over 300 varied cases throughout the firm’s eight offices. Her pro bono experience has primarily focused in the last twenty years on sexual assault and domestic violence, through representing individual survivors, advising nonprofits and coalitions, drafting appellate and amicus briefs, and promoting legislation. From 2004-2007, Sue served as Legal Director of the Victim Rights Law Center, overseeing civil legal services to sexual assault survivors in Massachusetts and providing training to federally funded legal services programs nationwide. Sue is an appointed member of several statewide commissions in Massachusetts, including the Judicial Nominating Commission, the Access to Justice Commission, and the Commission on Judicial Conduct, and the Chair of the Supreme Judicial Court’s Standing Committee on Pro bono Legal Services. Sue is the recipient of the Dartmouth College Alumni Award, the Boston College Law School Curtin Center for Public Interest Pro bono Service Award, and the Mintz Levin Pro bono Award. She received her B.A. from Dartmouth College and her J.D. from Boston College Law School. Following law school, Sue was a law clerk for the Honorable Andrew A. Caffrey at the U.S. District Court and for the Honorable Francis P. O’Connor at the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court.
Filmmaker Kat Rohrer
Kat Rohrer is the director and co-producer of Fatal Promises. In 2002 Kat founded Green Kat Productions with her business partner Tom Greenman. Based in NYC they have produced and Kat has directed a vast array of short films, music videos, PSAs and commercials. Her short Film “The Search” won multiple awards. Kat has also acted as DP for various award winning documentaries. Her latest film, the feature length documentary “Fatal Promises” deals with Human Trafficking. The film is a labor of love for her and an attempt to make a difference the only way she knows how, through film. To find out more about Kat and her work, please visit: www.greenkatproductions.com or www.fatalpromises.com.
Panel 5: Journalism’s Role in Combating Global Atrocity
Saturday February 4, 4:30 pm, following the screening of “The Dancing Boys of Afghanistan.” Buy tickets now.
Panelists: Najibullah Quraishi, Stefanie Friedhoff, Nasser Weddady, Marcia G. Yerman, Heather Faris
Moderator: Phillip Martin
Phillip Martin is Senior Investigative Reporter for WGBH Boston Public Radio. He is a regular panelist for WGBH’s TV’s Basic Black and an occasional panelist for WGBH’s Beat The Press. He is currently hosting PBS World TV Channel’s Presidential Primary coverage 2012. He is a 2012 Senior Fellow at the Schuster Center for Investigative Reporting at Brandeis University and an adjunct professor at the graduate Heller School of Public Policy at Brandeis. Since joining WGBH in the spring of 2010, Phillip has reported on human trafficking in southern New England, carbon offset schemes, police training and race, the Occupy Movement and the impact of federal regulations on the fishing industry in New England. Phillip is Executive Producer for Lifted Veils Productions, Inc., non-profit public radio journalism dedicated to exploring issues that divide and unite society. http://www.liftedveils.org/. His Color Initiative, is an occasional series of reports about the global impact of skin color that airs on The World national radio program, a co-production of WGBH, the BBC and PRI http://www.theworld.org/2009/07/24/color-initiative/. Martin worked as a Supervising Senior Editor for NPR from 2003 to 2006, and was NPR’s first and only National Race Relations Correspondent from 1998 to 2001. In 1995, in his role as a senior producer, he helped create The World on PRI/BBC. He has received various journalism honors, including the 2011-2012 Margret and Hans Rey WGBH producer award, the 2011 regional Edward R. Murrow Award for Investigative Reporting. The 2010 Asian American Journalism Award for National Radio Reporting, the 2008 Rueben Salazar Award, the 2005 NABJ Radio Documentary Award for a NPR radio series, “South Africa: Ten Years later”. Martin was a Harvard University Nieman Fellow from 1997 to 1998 and a US-Japan Media Fellow in 1997. He earned a Masters Degree in Law and Diplomacy from the Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy at Tufts University and studied international protection of human rights law at Harvard Law School and journalism at the University of California at Berkeley in the Program for Minority Journalists.
Filmmaker Najibullah Quraishi
Najibullah Quraishi is an Afghan-British Journalist. His professional career began in Afghanistan, where he worked as producer, reporter and presenter for a weekly television social program “Shahr-e ma, Khana-e ma (Our City, Our Home) for 10 years before moving to the UK and joining the Clover Films in 2002. After successfully collaborating on the film ‘Afghan Massacre: Convoy of Death’, in the same year he won The Rory Peck Impact and Sony International Award for a film about the SAS in Afghanistan.
Since joining the Clover Films, where he works as director, reporter and cameraman as well as chief investigator for documentary films in Asia and Arab countries, he produced a total of six films and won several awards including the Alfred I DuPont Award 2011 (the ‘broadcast Pulitzer’, presented by the Graduate School of Journalism, Columbia University); the History Makers Award 2011 for ‘Best Current Affairs Documentary’; One World Media Award ‘Best Documentary’ 2010; BAFTA nomination ‘Best Documentary’ 2010; AIB (Association of International Broadcasters) Award ‘Best Current Affairs Documentary’ 2010; AIB Award ‘Best Investigative Documentary’ 2010; UNAFF (United Nations Association Film Festival); Winner of the Rory Peck and Sony International Impact awards(twice, 20002 and 2010) ‘Best Documentary Award’ 2010; Grierson Award: Shortlisted for ‘Best Documentary on a Contemporary Issue’ 2010.
His most recent works include ‘The Dancing Boys of Afghanistan’, a series of films for WNET/Wide Angle (women in war and peace); Behind Taliban Lines, Fighting for Osama, and Opium Brides (aired 3rd Jan 2012 from PBS Frontline).
Nasser Weddady
Nasser Weddady is Civil Rights Outreach Director of the American Islamic Congress, as well as chair of AIC’s New England Council interfaith initiative. Known throughout the Middle East as a human rights activist and “cyber dissident,” he is a prolific speaker, blogger and noted Twitter personality. A native of Mauritania, Nasser grew up in Libya and Syria, traveling extensively through the Middle East, before coming to the U.S. seeking asylum in 2000. Nasser’s engagements with AIC reflect his background in anti-slavery activism in his homeland. Nasser has organized conferences across the Middle East that offer budding activists the leadership skills to pursue their own human and civil rights campaigns. Most recently, he spearheaded a series of workshops to launch AIC’s Tunisia Bureau, and has been a featured guest on CNN, NPR and Al Jazeera as an expert in social media’s impact on activism, journalism, and the “Arab Spring.” This year, Palgrave MacMillan will release Arab Spring Dreams, an anthology of essays by young Middle Eastern reformers co-edited by Nasser and rising journalist-pundit Sohrab Ahmari.
Marcia G. Yerman
Marcia G. Yerman is co-founder of cultureID, a 501(c)(3) for those doing work in the cultural arena with political/social intent and content. cultureID connects non-profit organizations and creatives, to amplify a full range of global issues. Individuals, institutions, arts organizations, and non-profits comprise the community. Ms. Yerman is a writer, activist, artist and curator based in New York City. Her articles, profiles, interviews, and essays focus on women’s issues, human rights, the arts and culture. Her writing has been published at Women News Network, Huffington Post, AlterNet, The Women’s Media Center, and The Raw Story—among others. Ms. Yerman has served as a consultant to non-profit organizations and the business sector. Her background includes work as both a curator of exhibitions reflecting diversity, and as an artist. Ms. Yerman is active in the new media space, recognizing it as a force for building relationships to bring awareness to social justice issues. At cultureID, she focuses on outreach, documentary film, art, and liaison to not-for-profit organizations.
Heather Faris
Heather Faris is a community organizer and writer. She is the founding director of The Cambridge Cambodia School Project and has taught writing at Northeastern University. Her interest in creating educational opportunities in Cambodia grew from researching the child sex industry. She has photographed child slaves in Cambodia and written about human trafficking and the long-term effects of war in Cambodia. She is a former film critic and has a master’s degree in psychotherapy.
Stefanie Friedhoff
Stefanie Friedhoff is special projects manager at the Nieman Foundation for Journalism at Harvard University, where she directs Nieman’s Trauma Journalism Program as well as a specialized fellowship in Global Health Reporting. She is also a freelance journalist for U.S. and European media such as Time (U.S.), and Folio/Neue Zuercher Zeitung. Friedhoff started a career as a freelance correspondent based in Cambridge, Mass., in 1998. Previously, she worked for BZ, Berlin’s largest daily newspaper, where she was news editor and editor of the Sunday magazine. She was a 2001 Nieman Fellow.
KEYNOTE ADDRESS
Carolyn B. Maloney
As the first woman to represent New York’s 14th Congressional District, Carolyn B. Maloney has been recognized for her extensive accomplishments on financial services, national security, and promoting gender equality. A champion for domestic and international women’s issues, she has tackled a number of persistent problems, such as sexual assault in the military and the pay gap between men and women. Maloney is an original cosponsor of the “Trafficking Victims Protection Reauthorization Act” and has worked to combat sex trafficking internationally, nationally, and in New York City. In 2002, she was recognized by United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA) for ‘Carrying the Weight of the World’ and received their Women’s Leadership Award. Her legislative efforts have been featured on NBC Nightly News, ABC World News Tonight, The New York Times, The Washington Post, The Wall Street Journal, and other local, national, and international major media outlets.
Panel 6: Cultural Influence on Youth
Saturday February 4, 7:15pm, following the screening of “Very Young Girls.” Buy tickets now.
Rachel Lloyd book signing of Girls Like Us following panel.
Panelists: Rachel Lloyd, Karen McLaughlin, Marcia G. Yerman, Rhea G. Dr. Eli Newberger
Moderator: Judy Boyle
Judy Boyle is the Founder and Director of The NO Project, an independent anti -slavery public awareness initiative that focuses on the role of Demand and specifically targets youth awareness through Film, Art, Music, Hip Hop, Education and Social Media. The primary goal of The NO Project is to effect change in the next generation. The courage, ability and willingness of young people to confront those who sustain the demand for Human Trafficking lies at the heart of all NO Project actions. Judy’s background includes professional theatre, teaching and teacher education. She is the author of several textbooks for children and teenagers learning English as a Second Language. Consequently, current NO Project actions also focus on the potential power of the literary/publishing world, specifically the pivotal role global educational publishers could play by including age-appropriate content on Human Trafficking and Slavery in all educational publications.
Rachel Lloyd
Rachel Lloyd is the Executive Director and Founder of GEMS and the author of Girls Like Us (HarperCollins). She earned her BA in psychology from Marymount Manhattan College, and an MA in applied urban anthropology from the City College of New York. She has received numerous awards, including the prestigious Reebok Human Rights Award. Lloyd is an Ashoka Fellow and a Prime Mover Fellow, and was a leading advocate for the Safe Harbor for Exploited Youth Act, which makes New York the first state to protect, not prosecute, sexually exploited children. She lives in New York City.
Marcia G. Yerman
Marcia G. Yerman is co-founder of cultureID, a 501(c)(3) for those doing work in the cultural arena with political/social intent and content. cultureID connects non-profit organizations and creatives, to amplify a full range of global issues. Individuals, institutions, arts organizations, and non-profits comprise the community. Ms. Yerman is a writer, activist, artist and curator based in New York City. Her articles, profiles, interviews, and essays focus on women’s issues, human rights, the arts and culture. Her writing has been published at Women News Network, Huffington Post, AlterNet, The Women’s Media Center, and The Raw Story—among others. Ms. Yerman has served as a consultant to non-profit organizations and the business sector. Her background includes work as both a curator of exhibitions reflecting diversity, and as an artist. Ms. Yerman is active in the new media space, recognizing it as a force for building relationships to bring awareness to social justice issues. At cultureID, she focuses on outreach, documentary film, art, and liaison to not-for-profit organizations.
Dr. Eli Newberger
Dr. Eli Newberger, a pediatrician on the faculty of Harvard Medical School, founded the Child Protection and Family Development Programs at Children’s Hospital in Boston. In his outpatient clinic in 1986, he and his colleagues organized one of the the first hospital-based battered women’s advocacy programs, the AWAKE project. Like the child protection program it became a model for similar programs in Boston and across the U.S.
In the Saturday evening panel, Dr. Newberger will note the biological and psychological factors that, in addition to cultural values, drive violent behavior in boys and men. Both nature and nurture are at play. Violence and victimization are gendered. Understanding patterns of perpetration is deepened by knowledge of men’s and women’s brain responses to social cues, as well as behavioral tendencies scripted over generations of male and female evolutionary adaptation. Males’ needs for control of their social of their social environments will be emphasized, along with their implications for prevention and intervention in child sexual abuse, domestic violence, and antisocial aggressive behavior in boys and men. In advance of the conference, participants are requested to read the chapter on Self Control in Dr. Newberger’s book, “The Men They Will Become: The Nature and Nurture of Male Character” at this web page: http://www.elinewberger.
In October, 2011, Eli Newberger and his wife, Dr. Carolyn Newberger, received the Family Service Association of Greater Boston’s Family Legacy Award from Mayor Thomas Menino in acknowledgment of their research and clinical work in strengthening families and protecting women and children.
Rhea G.
As one of GEMS Fellows, Rhea G. is a graduate from the agency’s 16-week intensive Youth Leadership program, which helped her to develop public speaking and self-awareness skills and learn how to connect with and mentor her peers. She provides support to girls and young women from the ages of 12-24, who need help exiting the commercial sex industry, entering school, and developing healthy relationships. She has worked closely with the Youth Development Coordinator to organize recreational groups for members.
Rhea also works closely with GEMS’ Outreach Team and other Fellows to provide preventive education, early intervention, and peer mentoring to girls and young women in detention centers, residential facilities, and schools throughout the city. In addition, she tables independently with other fellows while mentoring current Youth Leaders.
Rhea received her GED in March and her Associates in Applied Science for Medical Assistant in June 2011. She is currently working toward her Bachelors in Applied Science in Nursing, with a goal of becoming a Nurse in labor and delivery.
Panel 7: Understanding Demand and the Underlying Economics of Commercial Sexual Exploitation
Sunday February 5, 10:30 am, following screenings of documentary previews. Buy tickets now.
Panelists: Jane Wells, Kate Nace Day, Siddharth Kara, Carrie Baker, Lina Nealon, Cherie Jimenez
Moderator: Karen McLaughlin
Ms. McLaughlin served for five years from 2005-2010 as the director of the U.S. Department of Justice Task Force to Combat Human Trafficking in Massachusetts. In that role, she coordinated over 50 federal, state and local law enforcement, prosecution and non-governmental partner agencies in their efforts to support victims, investigate and prosecute cases of those who engage in this growing domestic and international form of slavery. Working to fight human trafficking in the policy arena, she was a major architect of legislation at the state level and is advising the United States Congress on pending federal legislation that provides services for victims and mandates stringent enforcement measures against traffickers. On behalf of the U.S. Department of Justice, she examined multijurisdictional task forces combating child sexual exploitation; the resulting training, research and findings served as a model for the Internet Crimes Against Children Task Forces.
In her present role, she is a consultant for a ground breaking U.S. initiative to end the demand for commercial sexual exploitation established by Hunt Alternatives Fund. She continues to address human trafficking through enforcement, education, health care and corporate sectors.
Recently, Ms. McLaughlin strengthened global efforts to combat human trafficking as a consultant to a United States Department of State initiative addressing the labor, sex and organ trafficking trade in China. In early 2011, she consulted with government officials in Israel and members of the Knesset relating to pending legislation to prevent human trafficking and create gender equity education programs. The State Department tapped her expertise to represent the US government at an international conference of experts on human trafficking prevention with 27 countries in the European Union. Since 2009, Ms. McLaughlin serves as an advisor to the
In 2008, Ms. McLaughlin was elected to the International Scientific Professional and Advisory Council (ISPAC) of the United Nations Crime Prevention and Criminal Justice Programme which advises the U.N. on matters of worldwide crime policy. Related to transnational crime, Ms. McLaughlin coauthored the United Nations Handbook on Justice for Victims and the U.N. Guide on Victims of Crime for Policymakers.
After the September 11, 2001 terrorist strike in the U.S., Ms. McLaughlin directed a national terrorism initiative which evaluated the country’s response, recovery and preparedness. In 1997, she was presented with National Crime Victim Service Award, the highest federal honor for service to victims. Bestowed by President, this prestigious acknowledgement was a tribute to Ms. McLaughlin’s tireless efforts on behalf of underserved victim populations and in particular, for her work on behalf of victims of hate crime and underserved victims. For nearly a decade in the 1990s she directed the federal Department of Justice and Department of Education National Center for Hate Crime Prevention, where she authored the country’s first curricula, Healing the Hate, to respond to and prevent crime as a result of intolerance.
In her earlier work advocating for victims of crime, she was the founding executive director of the Massachusetts Office for Victim Assistance, the first independent state victim assistance agency in the country.
As President of the National Organization for Victim Assistance (NOVA), Ms. McLaughlin was instrumental in establishing national crisis teams to respond to mass catastrophes and terrorism attacks both in the U.S. and internationally. Her service to victims of crime, terrorism, and humanitarian crises has taken her to numerous countries consulting with governments and non-governmental organizations.
Carrie Baker
Carrie N. Baker is an Assistant Professor in the Program for the Study of Women and Gender at Smith College in Northampton, Massachusetts. Dr. Baker teaches courses on gender, law and public policy, including topical courses on sex trafficking, sexual harassment, and reproductive justice. She holds a B.A. in Philosophy from Yale University and an M.A., J.D. and Ph.D. in Women’s Studies from Emory University. She was Editor in Chief of the Emory Law Journal while in law school and later served as a law clerk to United States District Court Judge Marvin Shoob in Atlanta, Georgia. Before coming to Smith, she was on the faculty of Berry College in the Department of Sociology and Anthropology, teaching sociology, women’s studies, and legal studies courses. Her primary areas of research are women’s legal history, gender and public policy, and women’s social movements. Her work has been published in Feminist Studies, Women in Politics, The Journal of Women’s History, NWSA Journal, The Journal of Law and Inequality, Emory Law Journal, and the online journal Women and Social Movements in the United States. She published The Women’s Movement Against Sexual Harassment (Cambridge University Press, 2008) won the National Women’s Studies Association 2008 Sara A. Whaley book prize. She has also written a feature article on domestic minor sex trafficking that appeared in the Summer 2010 issue of Ms. magazine and that won the Jane Velez-Mitchell Journalism Award.
Cherie Jimenez
Cherie Jimenez spent almost twenty years in the sex trade, knowing first-hand how the sexual and physical violence inherent in prostitution erodes an individual’s human dignity, concept of self-worth and basic wellbeing. Out of economic desperation, Ms. Jimenez went from working escort services to the street, working in New York, Boston, Connecticut, Detroit, eventually becoming addicted to heroin while involved in a violent relationship, often with a quota imposed. Ms. Jimenez eventually got herself out at age 39, put herself through college and later in 2006, started Kim’s Project, a program that would enable women to exit the industry of exploitation and trafficking. Ms. Jimenez earned a degree in management to gain the skills needed to develop effective programs that would create change for others as well as to challenge the many facets of social and economic injustices. Kim’s Project will soon become the Josephine Butler Center, which will offer a comprehensive and needed “exit program” here in Boston, recognizing those impacted by the sex trade as critical partners rather than powerless victims. The Center will focus on those over 18 but with the understanding that child trafficking, trafficking of people over 18, and adult prostitution are all interlinking parts of a system that cannot be compartmentalized.
Jane Wells
Jane Wells is an Emmy-nominated filmmaker and journalist. She is the Founder of 3 Generations, a 501c3 not for profit organization whose mission is to tell the stories of survivors of human rights abuses.
Past campaigns of 3 Generations have focused on the genocides in Darfur, Rwanda and Cambodia, the role of International Criminal Court and Chinese abuse of Tibetans. She produced the award-winning feature The Devil Came on Horseback about the genocide in Darfur.
Currently both 3 Jane and 3 Generations are focused on the Commercial Sexual Exploitation of Children in the United States: on telling the stories of survivors and framing this as a human rights abuse. Last year her (very) short film I’m A Victim Not A Criminal was premiered at BITAHR and has been seen by over 200,000 people.
She is presently the Director and Producer of a feature documentary, 10,000 Men due in 2013, which takes a comprehensive look at the sexual exploitation of children in this country, the men who fuel the industry and those whose job it is to stop them.
Lina Nealon
Lina Nealon is the director of Demand Abolition, a program at Hunt Alternatives Fund that supports the movement to end modern-day slavery by combating the demand for illegal commercial sex in the US. Conducting and disseminating research, educating policymakers, consulting with criminal justice professionals, and convening key stakeholders, Demand Abolition is catalyzing social change that reflects the dignity of all people. Previously, Ms. Nealon served as policy specialist and trainer with The Institute for Inclusive Security, a research and advocacy organization that promotes the full participation of all stakeholders, especially women, in peace processes. Her work has led her to countries such as Afghanistan, Liberia, Kenya, and Israel, where she has led trainings for leaders in government, law enforcement, and civil society. Ms. Nealon’s dedication to eradicating slavery was inspired by volunteer efforts with the Coalition of Immokalee Workers and organizations in Lithuania combating child sex trafficking. She is a member of Harvard’s Kennedy School Working Group on Human Trafficking and Modern-Day Slavery and the Massachusetts Anti-Human Trafficking Taskforce, and serves on the advisory council of Women2Women International. Together with her husband, Ms. Nealon has organized the collection and shipment of over 10,000 books to the University of Liberia library and a girls’ school in Afghanistan that was once the country’s largest Taliban madrassa. She is confident that her one-year-old daughter Žemyna will grow up in a world where human beings are no longer bought and sold for sex.
Kate Nace Day
Kate Nace Day is Founder of Film and Law Productions and a Professor of Suffolk University Law School where she teaches the civil, constitutional and international rights of women, including women and children trafficked for sex. She also co-teaches a seminar on Sex Trafficking in Film and Law with Alicia Foley, Founder of BITAHR. Together, they developed the BITAHR Human Rights & Sex Trafficking Film Forum. Kate received her JD at University of California School of Law atBerkeley(Boalt Hall).
Siddharth Kara
Siddharth Kara is an Affiliate of the Human Rights and Social Movements Program, and a Fellow with the Carr Center Program on Human Trafficking and Modern-Day Slavery. He is the author of Sex Trafficking: Inside the Business of Modern Slavery, the first of three books he is writing on the subjects of human trafficking and contemporary slavery. Kara currently advises the United Nations and several governments on antislavery policy and law, and he continues to research slavery around the world. He has written an award winning feature film screenplay on human trafficking that is set for production in 2011. Previously, Kara was an investment banker at Merrill Lynch, then ran his own finance and M&A consulting firm. He holds a Law degree from England, MBA from Columbia University, and BA from Duke University.
Panel 8: Impacts of Sexual Exploitation on Health
Sunday February 5, 12:30pm following the screening of “Sacrifice.” Buy tickets now.
Panelists: Judy Norsigian, Michelle Lockwood, Carol Anne Marchetti, Rebecca Merrill
Moderator: Dr. Eli Newberger
Dr. Eli Newberger, a pediatrician on the faculty of Harvard Medical School, founded the Child Protection and Family Development Programs at Children’s Hospital in Boston. In his outpatient clinic in 1986, he and his colleagues organized one of the the first hospital-based battered women’s advocacy programs, the AWAKE project. Like the child protection program it became a model for similar programs in Boston and across the U.S.
In October, 2011, Eli Newberger and his wife, Dr. Carolyn Newberger, received the Family Service Association of Greater Boston’s Family Legacy Award from Mayor Thomas Menino in acknowledgment of their research and clinical work in strengthening families and protecting women and children.
Judy Norsigian
Judy Norsigian, Executive Director of Our Bodies Ourselves and co-author of Our Bodies, Ourselves (9th edition released in October 2011), is also a member of the editorial teams for Our Bodies, Ourselves: Menopause (2006) and Our Bodies, Ourselves: Pregnancy and Birth (2008). She speaks and writes frequently on a wide range of women’s health concerns and has appeared on numerous national television and radio programs. Recognitions include: the Public Service Award from the Massachusetts Public Health Association (1989); Radcliffe College Alumnae Association Annual Recognition Award (1995); the 2002 Massachusetts Health Council Award; and an honorary doctorate from Boston University in May 2007.
Michelle Lockwood
Michelle Lockwood is a licensed clinical psychologist with specialties in child and adolescent mental health, evaluation and treatment of trauma, psychopharmacology and forensic psychology. Michelle received her Bachelor of Science in Psychology with Honors from Brown University in 1992, her Doctorate in Clinical Psychology from the Massachusetts School of Professional Psychology in 2004 and a postdoctoral Master of Science degree in Clinical Psychopharmacology, also from the Massachusetts School of Professional Psychology, in 2008. She trained at Children’s Charter, a child and family trauma clinic in Waltham MA, the Victims of Violence Program through the Cambridge Health Alliance, and the Cambridge Court Clinic. She has a special interest in the impact of trauma and attachment on development and has experience in the evaluation and treatment of children, adolescents and adults who have been impacted by traumatic events, including sexual assault and abuse. In her current role, Michelle provides specialty forensic evaluations for the Massachusetts juvenile court system.
Carol Anne Marchetti
Carol Anne Marchetti, PhD, RNCS, SANE, is an Associate Professor of Nursing at Northeastern University in Boston. Carol Anne is a board-certified Child/Adolescent Psychiatric and Mental Health Clinical Nurse Specialist, and a Massachusetts Sexual Assault Nurse Examiner. Her research interests focus on the needs of individuals who have experienced sexual assault, particularly with regard to psychological responses to trauma, decision-making, and police reporting.
Rebecca Merrill
Rebecca J. Merrill is the Executive Director of The Boston Initiative to Advance Human Rights, whose mission is to free women and children from all forms of commercial exploitation. She has been working on combating the issue of sex trafficking and commercial sexual exploitation for the four years. In her current role, Rebecca leads BITAHR’s team in developing and executing programs that comprise a comprehensive approach to fighting sex trafficking.
Rebecca has a strong background in public health and health management coupled with significant experience in non profit law and business organization. Rebecca received her B.A. in Psychology, cum laude, from North Carolina State University in 2004, her Master of Health Administration degree from Pfeiffer University in 2007, and her Juris Doctorate, magna cum laude, from Suffolk University Law School in 2010.
Panel 9: Take Action
Sunday February 5, 2:45pm, following the screening of “Call and Response.” Buy tickets now.
Panelists: Justin Dillon, Mia Alvarado, Katherine Bright, Judy Boyle, Naeemah Smith
Moderator: Ilene Seidman
Ilene Seidman is an Associate Dean and Clinical Professor of Law at Suffolk University Law School. Dean Seidman writes in the area of sexual assault and violence against women and has introduced and teaches a course on sexual assault at the law school. She has served as an advisor to the Victim Rights Law Center, an organization that provides representation to victims of sexual assault in civil, criminal and university disciplinary proceedings, and is currently the Co-Chair of the Board of Directors of the VRLC. She has also served as a consultant to the legal project of the Boston Area Rape Crisis Center. Dean Seidman has been representing indigent clients for over thirty years, specializing in family law cases on behalf of victims of domestic violence and sexual assault. She has done numerous local and national presentations on sexual assault and domestic violence.
Filmmaker Justin Dillon
Justin first got involved in the anti-slavery movement when he and his band, “Tremolo”, hosted benefit concerts for organizations addressing the problem of modern-day slavery. Justin took his passion for abolitionism to another level when he made his directorial debut in the film, “CALL+RESPONSE”. The “rockumentary” was one of the top documentaries of 2008 and combined critically acclaimed artists such as Moby, Natasha Bedingfield and Matisyahu with social luminaries such as Cornell West, Ashley Judd, Julia Ormond, Nicholas Kristof, and Madeline Albright.
Over 350,000 people have seen the film in public venues, which has helped raise over $250,000 for front line groups helping to free slaves and rehabilitate victims.
In 2011, Justin founded the non-profit organization Slavery Footprint. Partnering with the U.S. State Department, they launched an online and mobile platform that answers the question, “How many slaves work for you?” It allows consumers to visualize how their consumption habits are connected to forced labor and provides them with an opportunity to have a conversation with the companies that manufacture the goods they purchase. Slavery Footprint is also engaged in off-line community education, mobilization programs, and supply chain assessment.
Justin Dillon and his work have been featured on CNN, New York Times, Today Show, MSNBC, Dr. Phil Show, Washington Post, Chicago Sun, and Huffington Post. He has spoken at a variety of venues including the White House, Dept. of State, United Nations Events, Clinton Global Initiative, Princeton, Harvard, and Columbia University.
Most recently, Justin produced the CNN documentary “Common Dreams”. In the film, Justin and Grammy award winning hip-hop artist Common travel toHaitito experience for themselves the plight of the estimated 300,000 children working as domestic servants. The film was shown in nearly 200 countries and has raised thousands of dollars for the “Restavek Freedom Foundation.”
Katherine Bright
In addition to Katherine’s leadership with the Boston Initiative to Advance Human Rights 2012 Film Forum, she has worked to empower homeless teenage mothers and their children through direct service work at a local teen living program. Katherine’s unique experience as a case manager fueled her academic research on the issue of commercial sexual exploitation and sex trafficking. This academic endeavor led to completion of her Master’s degree from Boston College where her thesis examined the connection between domestic sex trafficking and housing vulnerability. In the past, Katherine has conducted qualitative research with low-income mothers in South Boston and has worked in the foster care system in San Diego, CA. She received her Bachelor of Arts in Sociology from San Diego State University.
Katherine’s continual focus is on bringing greater attention to sex trafficking and commercial sexual exploitation within US borders, challenging the misconception that it only occurs in developing nations.
Naeemah Smith
Life Coach, GIFT Program, Roxbury Youthworks, Inc. Naeemah Smith has been a Life Coach with the GIFT Program since June 2010. This program is specifically designed to meet the needs of adolescent girls identified as either victims of or at high risk for commercial sexual exploitation. She has been working in the field since 2007 in and around the Boston area with adults, youth and children. Naeemah is a 2013 candidate for a Bachelor’s Degree in Social Psychology from the University of Massachusetts at Boston.
Judy Boyle
Judy Boyle is the Founder and Director of The NO Project, an independent anti -slavery public awareness initiative that focuses on the role of Demand and specifically targets youth awareness through Film, Art, Music, Hip Hop, Education and Social Media. The primary goal of The NO Project is to effect change in the next generation. The courage, ability and willingness of young people to confront those who sustain the demand for Human Trafficking lies at the heart of all NO Project actions. Judy’s background includes professional theatre, teaching and teacher education. She is the author of several textbooks for children and teenagers learning English as a Second Language. Consequently, current NO Project actions also focus on the potential power of the literary/publishing world, specifically the pivotal role global educational publishers could play by including age-appropriate content on Human Trafficking and Slavery in all educational publications.
