Andrew has extensive experience in the international development sector, having lived and worked for over 20 years in Asia, the Pacific, Africa, the Middle East, and South America. He has a proven track record of leading organizations to grow and tangibly impact the lives of some of the most vulnerable children, youth, men, and women worldwide. Andrew has worked for non-governmental organizations, including World Vision and Build On, and for the consulting company Hassall GHD, successfully securing and implementing large-scale international development projects for a wide variety of donors. Andrew has been a Country Director in Senegal and the Solomon Islands, and he has been a Board Member of the Solomon Islands Development Services Exchange and Board Chair of the microfinance institution Vision Fund.

Andrew holds a Ph.D. focused on effective community development approaches in Vietnam and he has also been a master’s degree lecturer at RMIT University, Melbourne, lecturing in the courses of development theory, gender, project design, and monitoring & evaluation. Andrew is currently the Global CEO of Hagar International, an international NGO with operations in 12 countries and with over 200 staff globally which over its 29 years,  has become a recognized leader in its work to free and heal communities from the trauma of human trafficking, slavery, and abuse.

Minh Dang, MSW, PhD is the Executive Director of Survivor Alliance, an international NGO that empowers survivors to be leaders in their own communities. She is also a Research Fellow and Lead in Survivor Scholarship and Wellbeing at the University of Nottingham’s Rights Lab. Her doctoral thesis, Wellbeing in our own Words: Survivors of slavery defining wellbeing, emphasizes the importance of moving beyond psychopathy when discussing survivors’ mental health and focusing on wellbeing.

Minh was born and raised in the San Francisco Bay Area region of California and is a proud two-time UC Berkeley alum. Minh earned her B.A. in Sociology and Masters in Social Welfare, with an emphasis on Community Mental Health. Minh loves the outdoors, is a fan of farmers’ markets, and the person making silly faces at your child in the supermarket. You will rarely find her without a journal or post-it notes, and hopes that someone will pay her to launch a stationery line called Minhspiration.

Andrews Kananga is the Executive Director of the Legal Aid Forum in Rwanda since 2008. A lawyer by profession, Andrews has over 18 years of experience in the legal field. Andrews’ legal expertise is around governance and justice sector reforms with a focus on access to justice for the most disadvantaged, human rights, and public interest litigation. Andrews holds an LLM in International Criminal Justice & Law of Human Rights, an LLB, and a PGD in legal practice. An avid Human Rights Defender, Andrews enormously contributed to legal reforms in Rwanda, including the establishment of a legal framework on human trafficking and participating in the drafting of the country’s Anti-human trafficking Law and many more pieces of legislation that favor access to justice for the poor and vulnerable in Rwanda.

Andrews is passionate about research and advocacy and has spearheaded several research works on access to justice in Rwanda and the Region. He is a founding member of the African Centre of Excellence for Access to Justice (ACE-AJ) and is currently the head of research in the same centre.
Andrews is also a member of the Court Mediation Advisory Committee in Rwanda, having been appointed in 2020 by the Honorable Chief Justice of Rwanda.

Mara Vanderslice Kelly is the Executive Director of the United Way Center to Combat Human Trafficking. The Center to Combat Human Trafficking convenes the leading actors in the anti-trafficking field, along with business and civil society partners, to elevate, align and scale the fight against human trafficking and modern slavery.

Prior to joining United Way, Ms. Vanderslice Kelly served in President Obama’s Administration for five years. She served as Deputy Director of the White House Office and Senior Policy Advisor to the White House Domestic Policy Council. In these roles, she helped lead the President’s Advisory Council on Faith-Based and Neighborhood Partnership and her office’s work to combat human trafficking.

Dr. Shawn MacDonald is CEO of Verité, a civil society organization that promotes workers’ rights in global supply chains through research, consulting, training, assessments, and policy advocacy.  Before his appointment as CEO in 2016, Shawn had led Verité’s research, program, and policy work since 2003.  Shawn has broad international experience in labor rights, social entrepreneurship, workplace health, and multi-sector partnerships. Before joining Verité, he was Director of Accreditation at the Fair Labor Association; Vice President of Ashoka; Senior Advisor at Meridian Group International; and co-founder of the Development and Employment Policy Project. He also worked for a variety of civil society organizations in Asia, Africa, and Eastern Europe. He holds a Ph.D. from George Mason University’s Carter School for Peace and Conflict Resolution and an AB in History from Harvard University.

Awah Francisca Mbuli is a survivor of sex and labor trafficking and almost a victim of organ trafficking. She has a suspended Master’s degree in Human Rights and Multiculturalism from the Buskerud International University, Norway. She is the founder and Executive Director of Survivors’ Network (SN), a Cameroonian-based, female-led NGO leading the fight against all forms of human trafficking in Cameroon and Sub-Saharan African countries. She is an innovative and passionate leader who is fighting to prevent others from experiencing what she has been through.

Her work has been recognized nationally and internationally. She has two International Visitors Leadership programs awarded by the U.S Department of State in combatting human trafficking. In 2018 she was named a Trafficking in Persons hero for Cameroon, and she still is today. She also received recognition in 2020 for her work on Combatting Trafficking in persons. This recognition was awarded virtually.

Due to her hard work, she is the 2022 Ashoka fellow from Anglophone West Africa, joining two other women from Nigeria. Her organization, Survivors’ Network, also won the Elkes Impact award for best community-based organization in the fight to combat modern slavery in 2022 at the Global Freedom from Slavery Forum in Morocco, organized by Free The Slaves. She also doubled as their Ambassador for two years.

Francisca’s innovative programs focus on rescuing survivors, assuring their safe return home and reuniting them with their families. As part of this process sur psychosocial services, economically empowering women who are survivors of human trafficking and various violence as well as internally displaced women and children, in various diverse endeavors ranging from urgent economic empowerment to vocational skills training which doubles with a safe/shelter home. Among other accomplishments, she has helped rescue and reintegrate 65 female victims of human trafficking from the Gulf Corporation States to their respective Sub-Saharan African home countries and her work as at now has touched over 5000 women and girls directly and the masses indirectly.

She advocates both with governments and the general population to adjust policies governing the anti-human trafficking laws in her country and to push all
to get on board with this fight as we all know the just published statistic had raised from 40 to 50 million people in modern slavery with the Covid-19 being
one of the causes of the increase.

Some of Awah’s awards include:
– 50 Most Influential Cameroonians
– Mo Ibrahim Foundation Now Generation Fellow
– Obama Africa Leader
– African dream Achievers Award
– US Trafficking in Persons Hero award
– Global Freedom Exchange
– Elkes Impact Award
– Commonwealth Human Rights Initiative Management Committee
– Ashoka Fellow 2022
– Vital Voices Visionaries Fellowship 2022
– World of Difference Award 2022 for Economic Empowerment of Women.

Ambassador Richmond is an attorney and diplomat focused on combatting human trafficking, advancing democracy, and affirming human dignity. He was unanimously confirmed by the US Senate, named one of the federal prosecutors of the year, and called “every trafficker’s worst nightmare” by the head of the FBI’s human trafficking program. As Ambassador, he held the United States highest-ranking position dedicated to combating human trafficking.

As Chief Impact Officer at Atlas Free, Ambassador Richmond helps resource and accelerate organizations that fight human trafficking. Ambassador Richmond is a Senior Fellow at the Atlantic Council, Senior Advisor to Love Does, founder of the Libertas Council, and a frequent speaker on justice, foreign policy, leadership, and vocation.

Philippe Sion is a Managing Director at Humanity United, leading the work of the foundation against Forced Labor & Human Trafficking. In this role, Philippe applies more than two decades of experience in social change. Working with the field and alongside HU’s partners and staff, he develops, refines, and implements strategies with an eye toward learning and impact. He focuses his time on a range of issues, from survivor leadership and movement building to corporate accountability and migration.

Philippe is also a Director on the board of The Freedom Fund.

Prior to joining HU, Philippe Sion was a Managing Director at FSG, a global consulting firm supporting leaders in creating social change. At FSG, Philippe dedicated a large portion of his time to working with foundations on systems change strategies and collective impact. He managed FSG’s partnerships with several Fortune 500 corporations, advising them on corporate philanthropy, corporate social responsibility, and shared value. Philippe also co-led the firm’s working group on diversity, equity, and inclusion.

Philippe previously worked in social and public sector consulting at both the Bridgespan Group and McKinsey & Company, held a research fellowship at the McKinsey Global Institute, and served as an Associate Director of the World Economic Forum, where he oversaw the economics and finance sessions for the annual meeting in Davos.

Philippe has lived and worked in Latin America, Europe, Asia, the Middle East, Africa, and the United States. As the son of two refugees, Humanity United’s mission has both professional and personal resonance for him.

Bukeni Waruzi is the Executive Director of Free the Slaves. He has documented human rights abuses, implemented advocacy campaigns, conducted training workshops, and made public presentations in 40 countries in Africa, Asia, Europe, and the Americas. In the Democratic Republic of the Congo, his home country, he formed the grassroots nonprofit group AJEDI-KA/Child Soldiers Project to confront armed militias’ widespread enslavement of children. He videotaped evidence that led to the imprisonment of a notorious warlord. In Kenya, Waruzi served as a program manager for the Porticus Foundation, overseeing human rights, civic engagement, education, and climate change projects. He served as executive director of Watchlist in New York, an organization that protects children in conflict zones. And he has served as a senior program manager in New York for WITNESS, a group that empowers victims worldwide to collect evidence that brings perpetrators to justice. Waruzi has made presentations to the United Nations Security Council, the International Criminal Court, and the Children’s Caucus of the U.S. Congress.

Adrian Alexander is the Advocacy and Movement Building Country Manager for Free The Slaves based in Trinidad and Tobago. He has been privileged to serve as a volunteer with civil society organizations for the past 20 years. For 14 of those years, he has been involved in the fight against human trafficking. Through this work, Adrian is committed to helping shape a more compassionate, trauma-informed Caribbean.

Rasha Al Manha is Free the Slaves’ MENA Regional Manager, representing the organization in the region and providing ongoing technical assistance to FTS’s partner organizations in strategic design and implementation.

Rasha has worked in a variety of industries for over 20 years, including banking, human resources and training, and project management and development. Rasha has spent the last ten years of her career supporting the strategic direction of large-scale humanitarian programs in Education, Health, Community Engagement, and Governance, as well as Monitoring and Evaluation by managing projects and programs responding to Syrian crises, either inside Jordan or across borders. Throughout her career, she has worked on UNICEF and USAID-funded projects with different national and international NGOs, including Save the Children, Blumont Inc., Abt. Associates Inc., and Jordan River Foundation.

Rasha has several professional certifications, including Project Management Development (PMD – Pro 1), Certified International Professional Trainer (CIPT), in addition to a bachelor’s degree in English Literature and Linguistics.

Kuldeep Singh Chauhan is the Regional Director for Asia at Free the Slaves. Kuldeep has fifteen years of practical experience in community development and human rights. He has experience in training and capacity building in private sector supply chains, stakeholder relations, resource mobilization, and coalition building across Asia. As the Regional Director for Asia at Free the Slaves, he represents Free the Slaves in the region; provides ongoing technical assistance to partner organizations in strategic design, implementation, measurement, and reporting; and holds responsibility for the overall management of the regional program, strategy development, business development, and program oversight.

Evelyn Chumbow is a survivor of child labor trafficking turned anti-trafficking activist and public speaker who focuses her life’s work on ending modern-day slavery. Today, Ms. Chumbow works tirelessly to raise awareness in communities to create employment opportunities for trafficking survivors. She currently serves on the Board of Directors for the Human Trafficking Legal Center and Free the Slaves. She has been invited to brief government agencies about human trafficking from a survivor’s perspective, including the Department of Homeland Security, the FBI, the State Department, and the Department of Justice.

Joanna is Co-Founder and Executive Director of Freedom United, a global community against modern slavery powering action for change. Joanna is also a trustee at Labour Behind the Label Trust – campaigning for workers’ rights in the clothing industry. At the end of 2021 she completed her term as Chair of the Commonwealth Human Rights Initiative UK, during which she received an innovation award for the newly created Commonwealth 8.7 Network on modern slavery. Joanna was previously with Walk Free and Anti-Slavery International, where she developed and directed their work on business engagement, including coordinating the Cotton Campaign in Europe. Joanna is a contributing author to books including Vulnerability, exploitation and migrants: Insecure work in a globalised economy (Palgrave, 2015), and The SAGE Handbook of Human Trafficking and Modern Day Slavery. (SAGE, 2018). Her international human rights experience spans the UK diplomatic service, academia, and philanthropy, managing multi-million dollar budgets. Joanna holds a Masters in Human Rights from the University of London.

Leonie Mutoni is the Programs Manager at the Legal Aid Forum (LAF), a position she has held since 2022. As Programs Manager, she oversees coordination, implementation and reporting of all project activities, programs and initiatives of the organization.  As part of the Management Committee, she assists in developing strategic partnerships and strengthening linkages with donors, government institutions and civil society. She also provides high level technical and administrative support to LAF secretariat.

Leonie has hands-on experience in organizing events and coordinating with stakeholders, including co-organizing the Africa Regional Freedom From Slavery Forum that took place in November 2022, Kigali.

Leonie has a Bachelor’s Degree in Mass Media and Communication, with a concentration in Public Relations

Dr. Njeri Kagotho is a social worker and an associate professor in the College of Social Work, Ohio State University. Njeri identifies as an educator-activist. Informed by critical pedagogy her teaching engages with the central tenets of social justice to amplify social work education and prepare students for radical social change. Dr. Kagotho’s scholarship examines the institutional factors linked to the wellbeing of at-risk and low-income individuals. Her contribution to this body of literature pays close attention to marginalized groups including immigrants and survivors of human trafficking. Specifically, Njeri examines how the intersection of informal institutions (religion, culture, and social norms), and formal institutions (laws, policies, and regulations) inform behavior. When these institutions intersect, the resulting environment creates complex and challenging conditions for marginalized groups already grappling with socio-political and economic inequalities.

Dr. Sharvari Karandikar is an Associate Professor at the Ohio State University College of Social Work. Dr. Karandikar’s community-engaged work promotes the well-being of minoritized and marginalized women living on fringes of the society. To attain this goal, Dr. Karandikar has focused on understanding the lived experiences and expressions of resilience and agency among sex workers, victims, survivors of sex trafficking, surrogate mothers, and egg donors. Her academic journey is ingrained in her social work practice experience in the red-light area of Kamathipura (one of Asia’s largest and most diverse red-light areas) in Mumbai, India.

As a social work researcher, Dr. Karandikar collaborates with community partners and researchers across universities, disciplines, nationalities, and backgrounds. She has published 42 peer-reviewed manuscripts, co-authored one edited book on globalization and gender oppression, and delivered 57 peer-reviewed and 11 invited conference presentations, many of them internationally. The total grant funding she has received for her various studies is $902,355. Dr. Karandikar was recognized with the OSU College of Social Work’s Tony Tripodi Research Excellence award in 2017. In June 2022, she was awarded the Fulbright Specialist designation by a peer-reviewed panel of experts from the U.S. Department of State.

As a social work educator, Dr. Karandikar has designed and taught courses at the bachelor’s, master’s, and Ph.D. levels. Specifically, at OSU, she has taught courses on qualitative research methods, human trafficking, international social work, adolescent sexuality and parenthood, and introduction to social work. In May 2022, she received the Excellence in Teaching award at the doctoral level from the OSU College of Social Work. As an educator, Dr. Karandikar has mentored and supervised student research, for which she was recognized in 2020 with the Excellence in Undergraduate Research Mentoring Award from the OSU Office of Student Life. Additionally, in 2019 and 2015. she was nationally honored and recognized as a feminist mentor by the Council on Social Work Education: Role and Status of Women in Social Work Education.

ORCID: 0000-0002-4010-618X
Google Scholar: https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=jImeM2UAAAAJ&hl=en
Research Gate: https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Sharvari-Karandikar-3

Melissa is the Executive Director of the National Trafficking Sheltered Alliance. Melissa has her master’s degree in International Development from Eastern University and has worked in the anti-trafficking field for over ten years at both the local and national level. For nearly eight years, Melissa worked in a direct service role at a long-term restoration home for survivors, where she noticed firsthand how service providers often felt siloed in their work. It was through this experience that Melissa realized the importance of building bridges and cultivating collaboration- forming a national community led by the belief that we rise by lifting others. As the Executive Director of NTSA, Melissa has had the opportunity to see the diversity of programs supporting survivors across the US and share with the service providers on the ground about the needs, challenges, and wins they experience for survivors in their programs. Before joining the anti-trafficking field, Melissa worked in advocacy and policy, supporting issues related to hunger and poverty.