Darius White is a first-generation college graduate turned English teacher with both a bachelor’s and master’s degree from Stanford University. A decade into teaching, he works as a full-time high school English teacher and writing coach in the San Francisco Bay Area as well as serves as a board member for the San Francisco Education Fund, which provides volunteers and financial support to the local public school district. He uses his physical classroom and social media platforms to invite activists, advocates, allies, and educators into radical collaboration, inclusion, and liberation work. Lastly, when he is not lesson-planning or grading, he is building out his online platform, JustBlackThoughts.com, an information center and community for Black men in education to connect, converse, and co-create change.

A proud San Francisco Bay Area native, Amber Clayborne founded the Kerengende Foundation on the principles of community, education, and care. With a graduate degree in Human Resource Management, Amber integrates service, teamwork, and resource-mapping into her nonprofit work with survivors of sexual abuse and their families. Through educational workshops and community partnerships, the foundation empowers youth, families, and communities to better understand and prevent sexual abuse and trafficking. Amber is a mother, grandmother and an advocate for children and families impacted by sexual trauma. Her greatest hope is to have a community so informed about body safety, consent and prevention that there will be a significant decline in traumatic incidents experienced by children. She is deeply committed to ensuring a safer world for our children.

Lauren received her Master of Social Work degree and Certificate for Violence and Injury Prevention from the Brown School of Social Work at Washington University in St. Louis. She individualized her MSW concentration to focus on Advocacy and Empowerment for Survivors of Sexual Exploitation. She has worked alongside survivors of both labor and sex trafficking in India, Minnesota, Illinois, and here in St. Louis. She has served in several advocacy capacities, and has done extensive research, training, and teaching on this topic. She currently serves as an Advocate for Crisis Aid, working with survivors of internet crimes against children and their non-offending family members to provide crisis intervention, emotional support, education, safety planning, and resources in the hopes of preventing further victimization online and potential human trafficking. Her advocacy also includes working with adolescent and adult survivors of sex trafficking and facilitating psychoeducational groups such as Finding Healing after Trauma, Healthy Relationships, and Goal Setting. She’s been passionate about pursuing anti-trafficking work and serving survivors for the last 17 years and hopes to continue doing so for the rest of her life.

Dr. Andrea J. Nichols is Lecturer of Women, Gender and Sexuality Studies at Washington University in St. Louis and Professor of Sociology at St. Louis Community College Forest Park. Her practitioner-centered research examines victim advocacy and community-based responses, as well as social work and criminal justice practices with survivors. She regularly teaches the course “Sex Trafficking” and is the author and coauthor of numerous books and articles in the area of sex trafficking and commercial sexual exploitation.

Dr Debbie Lassiter is the Executive Director and Co-Founder of The Convergence Resource Center with over 45 yrs of experience working with traumatized individuals. In 2012 she launched the Human and Sex Trafficking Support Initiative and in 2013 she created The Epidemic and The Game – an annual community awareness event focusing on human trafficking. Dr D is a panelist, presenter and trainer. She is a Certified Heartmath Coach and Trainer and a Certified Ending The Game Facilitator and Trainer. She launched the HEMAD campaign and to date over 45,000 men visibly take a stand against human trafficking. Dr. Lassiter was honored by the Dept Of Justice with the National Crime Victims Award for her work with victims in 2014 and again in 2016 by the Dept of Corrections. Dr. Lassiter is one of the 50 Heroes of Fortune 500 and received the Citizens Distinguished Service Award from the Sheboygan Police Dept . She has provided training for the State of Wisconsin, Milwaukee Public School Counselors, Emergency Medical Staff and Educators in Belize, Heartmath Coaches and Trainers in Mexico, Early Childhood Service Providers, The Wisconsin Association of School Nurses and a host of other organizations and service providers. She is the host of TRIUMPH Rising – a weekly radio show that shares information on human trafficking. Dr Lassiter has a Doctorate in Divinity from St Thomas Christian College (Jacksonville, Fla) and is a licensed Associate Minister at the New Testament Church of Milwaukee. She is a member of the OCVS Advisory Committee, Milwaukee Joint Human Trafficking Taskforce and the Healthcare Collaborative Against Sex Trafficking. Dr. Lassiter delivers the hard truths with humor and humanitarianism making her unique and highly effective.