Keynote Speaker & Panelist

Welcoming

Iisaaksiichaa Ross Braine (Apsaalooke Nation)

Tribal Liaison / Tribal Relations and Director of wǝɫǝbʔaltxʷ, Office of Minority Affairs and Diversity

Human Trafficking and Forced Labor Introduction

Sutapa Basu, Ph.D.

Sutapa Basu is the Director of the University of Washington (UW) Women’s Center and co-chair of its Task Force against Human Trafficking. Under Dr. Basu’s leadership, the UW Women’s Center has grown into one of the largest university-based women’s centers in the country where women and men work in partnership to build a culture of gender equity. At the UW Women’s Center, she ensures that through an array of educational, professional, and personal support programs, women and girls have access to the resources and information needed to make the best decisions for their future and succeed in their academic pursuit. The work of the Women’s Center is grounded in her dedication to empower women to speak out, take leadership roles, and demand equal treatment for women. Dr. Basu works extensively with women’s groups both locally and in India to promote gender equality and social justice. She is a recognized national leader and advocate for young immigrant women, particularly those who have been victims of human trafficking abuse.

In 2001, under Dr. Basu’s leadership, the UW Women’s Center hosted the first ever anti-human trafficking conference in the state where the issues around human trafficking within Washington State were brought forth. Through this conference, she helped create the first statewide task forced dedicated to human trafficking, the first statewide anti-trafficking legislation, new protections for mail-order brides and framed human trafficking as an enormous public health issue, which has since become one of the major frameworks for contextualizing human trafficking. The Women’s Center continues to be a hub for anti-human trafficking research, policy development, and education.

Trade Agreements and Forced Migration Panel

Sara Curran, Ph.D.

Sara Curran is the Director of the Center for Studies in Demography & Ecology at the University of Washington. She is also an Adjunct Professor of Sociology and Global Health and a faculty affiliate with the Center for Studies in Demography & Ecology and the Center for Global Studies. Dr. Curran joined the faculty of the UW Henry M. Jackson School of International Studies and the Daniel J. Evans School of Public Policy & Governance in 2005. She holds degrees from the University of Michigan (B.S., Natural Resource Management), North Carolina State University (M.S., Sociology and Economics), and the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill (Ph.D., Sociology).

Dr. Curran researches gender, migration, and environment in developing countries. Current projects include social change and migration, climate change and migration, and disaster disparities. She is writing a book titled Demographic Dynamics and Development Transformations in Thailand and has authored work that appears in Demography, Population and Development Review, Social Science Research, Teaching Sociology, Journal of International Women’s Studies, and Journal of Marriage and the Family.

Lynne Dodson, Ph.D.

Lynne Dodson was sworn into office as Secretary-Treasurer of the Washington State Labor Council, AFL-CIO, in January 2011. Lynne is the first woman to be elected as an executive officer in the history of the Council, which was formed in 1957 with the merger of the Washington Federation of Labor and the Washington Congress of Industrial Organizations Council.

Prior to her election, Dr. Dodson was a professor at Seattle Central Community College, President of AFT Local 1789 and First Vice President of AFT Washington. She is still a proud member of AFT, Local 1789. She has a Ph.D. in Social Welfare from the University of Washington, an M.S. in Community/Clinical Psychology from Cal State Long Beach, and is a graduate of Inchelium High School in Inchelium, WA, on the Colville Reservation.

Dr. Dodson serves on several boards and commissions, including the executive committees of the Washington Labor Education and Research Center, the Washington Fair Trade Coalition, the Economic Opportunity Institute, and as a member of the Governor’s Commission for National and Community Service.

Neha Misra, J.D.

Neha Misra is the Senior Specialist for Migration and Human Trafficking at the Solidarity Center, AFL-CIO. Previously, Ms. Misra was the Deputy Country Director and Program Manager for the Solidarity Center’s Counter Trafficking in Persons Project in Indonesia. She worked in Indonesia for over five years, starting with the Solidarity Center as the Director of its Democracy Project. Before her assignment in Indonesia, she worked in Bosnia and Herzegovina on post-war elections and democracy, and in the United States as a Senior Attorney-Advisor with the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ). While at DOJ, she also served as the President of American Federation of Government Employees (AFGE) Local 3525. She is currently a member of the Board of Advisors for the Global Workers Justice Alliance.

Ms. Misra has a Juris Doctor degree from the Washington College of Law, American University, where she focused her studies on international human rights law, and a Bachelor of Science degree in International Business Economics and Public Policy from Indiana University.

Larry Mosqueda, Ph.D

Lawrence Mosqueda holds a BS in Political Science from Iowa State University and an MA and Ph.D. in Political Science from the University of Washington. He is Professor Emeritus at The Evergreen State College where he taught for 26 years, and has previously taught at the Claremont Colleges and the University of Colorado at Denver.

Dr. Mosqueda has been active with Central American solidarity groups since 1980, including the Committee in Solidarity with the People of El Salvador (CISPES). He has participated in solidarity/research trips to El Salvador, Nicaragua, and Cuba, including being an election observer in Nicaragua and El Salvador several times. He traveled to Gaza on a Human Rights delegation in 2009 and is active with Palestinian solidarity. He also is active with the Olympia Movement for Justice and Peace (OMJP) and the author of Chicanos, Catholicism and Political Ideology.

Survivors of Human Trafficking & Forced Labor Panel

Khurshida Begum

Khurshida Begum educates and challenges individuals and organizations to recognize human trafficking and its negative effect on all communities everywhere. Her mission is to urge people to understand this complex issue and to keep our vulnerable people protected from being exploited.

Ms. Begum founded ASHHO, which in Bengali means to “come” join the movement, because all people matter. ASHHO provides comprehensive training to educate and empower communities on human trafficking. The training includes guidance on identifying victims and on helping survivors by connecting them with crucial services and resources. Ms. Begum teaches by sharing her personal experience of being a trafficking survivor from Bangladesh. What she learned through her experience, and the strategies she used to overcome her situation, are instructive—both for survivors and those tasked with identifying or assisting them.

Emma Catague

Emma Catague is one of the founding mothers of the Asian and Pacific Islander (API) Safety Center and former board co-chair. Additionally, she is the former Community Organizing Program Manager, and Advocate against Domestic Violence, Sexual Assault and Human Trafficking at what is now API Chaya. Now retired from API CHAYA, Ms. Catague continues her advocacy on domestic violence, sexual assault, and trafficking prevention/intervention through her volunteer work at the Filipino Community of Seattle. She conducts outreach in underserved communities to organize against domestic violence, sexual assault, and trafficking with an emphasis on culturally and linguistically appropriate education methods.

Ms. Catague, a domestic violence survivor, is a dedicated advocate for ending violence against women and children. She has 35 years of experience in community and labor organizing, advocating for human rights, immigration issues, bilingual education, youth development, employment rights, and working for social change. In addition she has received several awards and recognitions for her work, including being recently honored by City of Seattle Council for her dedicated community work in ending human trafficking and violence against women and children. She is now working at the Filipino Community of Seattle as the Senior Lunch and Naturalization Program Coordinator.

Germelyn Pasia

Germelyn Pasia is a survivor of human trafficking since 2011. Originally from Philippines, she currently lives in Seattle with her two sons, Marc and Sam. Ms. Pasia is a volunteer at the Filipino Community in Seattle where she works as a receptionist.

Ms. Pasia’s journey is a common experience to the many women and children trafficked from the Philippines to the State of Washington. Targeted by the people that she knew and trusted, she was trafficked with a promise of a better life for her and her family. Because of her strong will to survive, the government successfully tried and convicted her traffickers. Her goals are to continually advocate for other victims of human trafficking.

Tools for Social Change

Winona Hollins-Hauge

Winona Hollins-Hauge is the Regional North/Northwest Director of the Intercultural Cancer Council (ICC), which promotes policies and programs to eliminate the unequal burden of cancer among racial and ethnic minorities. She is the ICC’s representative and the board chair of the Community Advisory Board of the University of Washington – School of Public Health’s Health Promotion Research Center. Ms. Hollins-Hauge also serves as Inclusion and Diversity Chair for Grandmothers Against Gun Violence, a grassroots organization that advocates for stronger gun legislation, and on the Alliance for Gun Responsibility’s Community of Color Task Force.

In addition to her advocacy work, Ms. Hollins-Hauge is a clinical therapist and career, family, and health counselor, and has formerly worked as an outreach manager and clinical social worker for Fred Hutchinson and Children’s Hospital. Ms. Hollins-Hauge received her B.A. and Masters of Social Work from the University of Washington.

Hao Nguyen

Hao Nguyen is the Anti-Human Trafficking Program Coordinator at API Chaya, a nonprofit organization that provides culturally and linguistically relevant services to victims of human trafficking, domestic violence, and sexual assault. Ms. Nguyen came on staff in 2009 after she finished her Master of Social Work from the University of Washington. In the last 7 years, she has provided intensive case management to more than a hundred victims of human trafficking of all forms, primarily adult foreign nationals. In 2013, she formed the first human trafficking survivor leadership group at API Chaya and it has became an important part in many survivor lives.

Ms. Nguyen is a presenter and panelist at state and national conferences, community events, and universities on topics including identifying victims of human trafficking, intersection of domestic violence, sexual assault, & human trafficking, cultural competency, and trauma-informed case management. She is currently the Housing Committee Co-chair of Washington State Task Force Against the Trafficking of Persons.

Lan Pham

Lan Pham is the Manager of the City of Seattle – Mayor’s Office on Domestic Violence and Sexual Assault. She supervises a team of planning and contracting specialists and manages investments and programs focusing on gender-based violence prevention, intervention, coordinated response, and offenders’ accountability.

Prior to working at the City of Seattle, Ms. Pham was the Executive Director of the Asian and Pacific Islander Women and Family Safety Center (now API Chaya), which specializes in community organizing, education and support services for immigrant and refugee survivors of domestic violence, sexual assault, and human trafficking. Previously Ms. Pham was Program Director of the International Community Health Services (ICHS), where she managed counseling, outreach, and education programs, and oversaw the ICHS’s universal domestic violence screening research project.

Ms. Pham is an alumnus of the University of Washington School of Social Work, where she has been a part-time lecturer since 2012.

Tools for Social Change

Rick Torrance

Rick Torrance is the Managing Director of the Office of Crime Victims Advocacy and Public Safety (OCVA) at the Department of Commerce. Under his direction, the OCVA identifies services and resources needed by victims of human trafficking, domestic violence, and other crimes, grants funds for community programs, assists community planning and service implementation, and advises local and state government agencies on best policies and practices. His previous experience includes managing the Foreclosure Fairness Program, the Community Services Block Grant and the Long-Term Care Ombudsman Program.

Mr. Torrance has a bachelor’s degree in Philosophy from Central Washington University and a masters in Environmental Studies from the Evergreen State College

Ethical Sourcing

Daniel Cardozo

Daniel Cardozo is a co-owner, board member, and West Coast Sales Manager of Ethix Ventures, which creates custom-printed merchandise that is sweatshop-free, union made, fair trade, and eco-friendly. Mr. Cardozo represents Ethix Ventures on the Washington Fair Trade Coalition, and previously served on the City of Los Angeles Sweat-free Procurement Advisory Group and at Bend the Arc’s Los Angeles office. He is in the process of implementing the “Righteous Sales Group,” a fellowship for college students to learn about sweatshops and get direct training in business that preserves people, the planet, and profit equally. Mr. Cardozo received his B.A. from U.C. Berkeley.

Mary Kay Gugerty

Mary Kay Gugerty is a professor at the Daniel J. Evans School of Public Policy and Governance at the University of Washington where she has taught since 2001. She serves as the senior faculty advisor for the Nancy Bell Evans Center on Nonprofits and Philanthropy and teaches courses on nonprofit and public management, program evaluation, performance measurement, international development management, and African development.

Dr. Gugerty’s research interests focus on three areas: evaluation and impact measurement in the social sector; advocacy, accountability and voluntary regulation programs among nonprofit and NGOs; and agricultural and rural development in sub-Saharan Africa. Current work examines agricultural household decision-making, women’s participation in agricultural supply chains, and the determinants of smallholder agricultural productivity.

Dr. Gugerty holds a Ph.D. in Political Economy and Government from Harvard University and a MPA from the John F. Kennedy School of Government at Harvard. She also holds a BA in Political Science and Economics from Georgetown University.

Ben Hensler, J.D.

Benjamin Hensler has been Deputy Director and General Counsel to the Workers Rights Consortium (WRC), an independent labor rights monitoring organization, since 2008. Mr. Hensler has more than 20 years of experience in advocacy and research on labor rights issues in the garment and textile industries, including senior positions at the Union of Needletrades, Industrial and Textile Employees (UNITE) and the AFL-CIO.

Mr. Hensler has a B.A. summa cum laude in Politics from Princeton University, and a J.D.. from Yale Law School. Before joining the WRC, he worked as a legal fellow at the firm of James and Hoffman in Washington, DC and as a judicial clerk to Judge Marsha Berzon at the U.S. Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals in San Francisco. Among other publications, he authors the annual update on corporate codes of conduct for the American Bar Association’s treatise on International Labor and Employment Law.

Dana Raigrodski, S.J.D.

RaigrodskiDana Dana Raigrodski is Director of the General LL.M. Program at the University of Washington School of Law and the Executive Director of Global Affairs at the Law School. She serves as a Commissioner on the Washington State Supreme Court Gender & Justice Commission and is a member of the University of Washington Women’s Center Anti-Trafficking Task Force, where she helps put together various conferences, panels and CLE programs on human trafficking, forced migration and corporate supply chains. Dr. Raigrodski’s scholarship and research interests examine human trafficking, migration and globalization, criminal procedure and jurisprudence, feminist legal theories, and law and development. Prior to joining academia, Dr. Raigrodski practiced law for the Israeli Defense Forces Military Advocate General Staff Command in Tel Aviv, serving as a military prosecutor and legal counselor. She holds an LL.B from Tel Aviv University and an LL.M and a S.J.D. from Tulane University. She is a member of the New York and the Israel Bar.

Student & Community Activism Panel

Honorable Jeanne Kohl-Welles, Ph.D.

Councilmember Jeanne Kohl-Welles represents King County Council District 4, which encompasses a large part of the City of Seattle. Prior to serving on the Council, she represented the 36th Legislative District in the Washington State Senate since 1994 after serving for three years in the state House of Representatives. She is a member of the UW Women’s Center Anti-Trafficking Task Force, the Commercially Sexually Exploited Children Statewide Coordinating Committee, and the new State Task Force Against Human Trafficking that came from her Senate Bill 5884 enacted in 2015. In addition, she is a national and international speaker on women in politics, public policy, and human trafficking, as well as a speaker for the Humanities Washington Speakers Bureau.

Councilmember Kohl-Welles holds a Ph.D. in Sociology of Education and M.A. in Sociology from UCLA and a B.A. and M.A. in Education from California State University Northridge (CSUN).

Teresa Mosqueda

Teresa Mosqueda was named WSLC Political and Strategic Campaign Director in May 2015. In this position she advances the council’s work developing shared agendas, strategic organizing campaigns (raising wages, naturalization, revenue reform, etc.), and recruiting, training and electing political champions for working people. For the last five years, she led the state’s Stop Wage Theft Coalition and Farmworker Coalitions focused on improving enforcement, increasing earnings, and strengthening worker protections for our state’s most vulnerable workers.

Ms. Mosqueda first joined the WSLC as a member of the lobbying team in January 2011, and in May 2013, she began serving as the Government Affairs Director and the council’s lead on health care policy. A former Chair of the Healthy Washington Coalition, the state’s largest health care advocacy group, Ms. Mosqueda was appointed by the Governor to serve on the Health Insurance Exchange Board, where she served four years advocating for low-income people and the under-served.

Sarah Hamm Rush

Sarah Hamm Rush is a global health and international development professional who has worked for over a decade on anti-human trafficking issues. She serves as Vice President of the Board at Seattle Against Slavery, a grassroots coalition working to mobilize our community in the fight against sex and labor trafficking.

Sarah completed concurrent Master degree programs from University of Washington at the Jackson School of International Studies and the Daniel J. Evans School of Public Policy and Governance in 2012. Her graduate thesis focused on global human trafficking with a case study on Japan and policy recommendations to specifically address the demand side of the sex trafficking market. This research inspired her to become involved addressing human trafficking in Seattle by joining the significant and impressive efforts underway locally.

Over the last decade, Sarah has worked conducting strategy, research, and communications projects for global organizations in the public, private, and nonprofit sectors. Her work has covered a range of issue areas including human trafficking, global gender equality, global health, international development, and agricultural development. Her expertise has been shaped by her time spent consulting, teaching, conducting on-the-ground research, and living and working abroad. Sarah currently works as an Associate Program Officer for the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation’s Integrated Delivery team, where she supports the HIV delivery portfolio.

Honorable Velma Veloria

Velma Veloria, born in the Philippines, is the first Filipina American to be elected to the Washington State Legislature, serving from 1992 until 2004. Among her many accomplishments in office include the passage of HB1175, which made the State of Washington the first state in the nation to criminalize human trafficking. Linking her concerns of human trafficking to international trade agreements, she authored legislation that created a Joint Legislative Oversight Committee on International Trade Policy in the State Legislature.

As a former labor organizer, Ms. Veloria has demonstrated a track record of successfully lobbying for and educating the broader community on important working family issues and in motivating and mentoring a multicultural workforce. In 2011, Ms. Veloria was recognized by the National Women’s Political Caucus (NWPC) with the Women of Courage Award, which is presented to women from diverse backgrounds that have demonstrated courage by taking a stand to further civil rights and equality and who exemplify women’s leadership. Currently, she serves as co-chair of the University of Washington Women’s Center Human Trafficking Task Force.

Keynote Speaker

Peter Piot, C.M.G. M.D. Ph.D.

Peter Piot is the Director of the London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine. He was the founding Executive Director of UNAIDS and UN Under Secretary-General.

Dr. Piot co-discovered the Ebola virus in 1976, and led research on HIV/AIDS, sexually transmitted diseases and women’s health in Africa. He was a professor at the Institute of Tropical Medicine, Antwerp, University of Nairobi, and College de Frances, Paris, and a Senior Fellow at the University of Washington, and Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation.

He is a member of the US National Academy of Medicine, the Royal Academy of Medicine of his native Belgium, and the Academy of Medical Sciences, UK. He was the President of the International AIDS Society and was knighted as a Baron. He has published over 550 scientific articles and 16 books, including “No time to lose”. He was the recipient of the Calderone Prize, the Hideyo Noguchi Africa Prize for Medical Research, the Prince Mahidol Award, the Canada Gairdner Global Health Award, and the Robert Koch Gold Medal.

Healthcare & Human Trafficking Panel

Sutapa Basu, Ph.D.

Suzanne Poppema, MD

Dr. Suzanne Poppema moved to the state of Washington after graduating from Harvard Medical School to complete her residency in Family Practice at the University of Washington. Dr. Poppema has been involved in reproductive health care since the first days of her private practice. A Clinical Associate Professor of Family Medicine, she has been teaching residents and medical students since the 1980’s. Dr. Poppema was instrumental in helping write Clinical Policy Guidelines for abortion care while serving on the Board of Directors of the National Abortion Federation (of which she was President in 1998-2000). Dr. Poppema sold her Family Practice and specialized in Family Planning and abortion services from 1990 to 2000. While now retired from clinical practice, she is a Past Chair of the board of Physicians for Reproductive Health (PRH).

Dr. Poppema continues to teach and present at medical meetings nationally and internationally. Dr. Poppema is the author of “Why I Am an Abortion Doctor” a memoir. She served 10 years on the Lakeside School Board of Trustees, Seattle and is currently serving on the Advisory Board at the UW Women’s Center, a perfect opportunity for Dr. Poppema to continue to help women achieve their highest life goals.

Norma Timbang

norma

Norma Timbang is a co-founder and former executive director of the Asian & Pacific Islander Women & Family Safety Center (now API Chaya), a co-founding organization of the Washington Anti-Trafficking Network. API Chaya was the first organization in Washington State to receive funding to support the development of community responses to human trafficking. Ms. Timbang has served on the Washington State Task Force on Human Trafficking and helped organize community, policy, and academic forums towards the development of local and federal policy. Currently Ms. Timbang is a lecturer at the University of Washington School of Social Work, an organizational development consultant, and a private mental health therapist. Norma facilitates workshops and processes on how to identify and address microaggressions and internalized oppression; organizational healing; integration of social justice principles into practice for health, human services, and grassroots community organizations; and use of psychometric assessments with high risk youth. She also serves as a board member of the Filipino Community of Seattle and continues her work at API Chaya as a program advisor.