James dold, DIRECTOR

James Dold is the Founder & CEO of Human Rights for Kids (HRFK) a D.C.-based non-profit organization dedicated to promoting and protecting the human rights of children in the U.S. and around the world. Under James’ leadership HRFK has successfully authored or co-authored Amicus Briefs in state and federal courts, including the U.S. Supreme Court, on human rights issues impacting children. HRFK’s advocacy has led to the introduction of more than two dozen child rights bills in Congress and states across the U.S. Read full bio.

gina reiss, Board Chair

Gina Reiss is an entrepreneurial, executive leader who has dedicated her career to an intersectional approach to social justice and human rights: advocating for women’s and LGBTQ+ rights in the US, combating sex trafficking in the brothels of Cambodia, keeping girls educated and safe from child marriage in Jijiga refugee camps of Ethiopia, and empowering communities to prevent child labor in the Ghana’s fisheries. Gina has raised over $35 million for nonprofits and has managed diverse teams in the US, Southeast Asia and East Africa. Fast Company selected Ms. Reiss among their 2012 “League of Extraordinary Women.” Read full bio.

Shayna horwitz, secretary

Shayna Horwitz is the former development and communications director for the Human Trafficking Legal Center. Prior to joining the Human Trafficking Legal Center, Horwitz worked as a media relations and marketing specialist for Meridian International Center, a diplomatic and global leadership institution that strengthens U.S. engagement with the world. She currently serves on the Board of Directors for Survivor Alliance and Hillel at Virginia Tech.

Horwitz was previously associate director for development at Northwestern Hillel in Chicago. Prior to that role, she lived in Beijing, China, for two years working for Operation Smile and the Institute for the International Education for Students (IES Abroad). She received her bachelor’s degree in nonprofit management with a minor in international studies from Virginia Tech, and a master’s degree in global communication from the Elliott School of International Affairs at The George Washington University.

Paulina Lin, treasurer

Paulina was born in a Thailand refugee camp after her parents fled the war in Viet Nam. At the age of 2 years old, she and her family resettled in San Diego, CA where she spent the rest of her childhood. Growing up in a low-income family and being the first of her family to go to college heavily influenced and fuelled her passion to get involved in the Asian American/Southeast Asian community during her time at the University of California, Berkeley. This is where she began to contextualize her experiences and sought out ways to fight against social injustices. After graduation, Paulina continued to find different ways to work with the community such as sitting on advisory boards, mentoring, and volunteering her time, all while advancing her career. She is currently a mother of three: Mason (6), Samantha (5) and Ava (2). Although life can get hectic at times, her children are her greatest motivation. In her free time, she enjoys cycling on her stationary bike.

Paulina is currently a Director of Technical Accounting at Palo Alto Networks. In her role, she advises the business in various technical areas and ensures the company’s accounting is in compliance with the Generally Accepted Accounting Principles (GAAP). Read full bio.

monika parikh

Monika Parikh is the Founder of Partnerships for Trauma Recovery, a San Francisco Bay Area-based 501(c)3 dedicated to healing trauma among international survivors of human rights abuses. Her professional career includes on-the-ground human rights program development in South Asia, West Africa and Latin America, and psychosocial programs for refugees and immigrants in the United States. As the Director of Partnerships for Free the Slaves, Ms. Parikh designed and led the development of the organization's global partnerships program. She has conducted policy research and advocacy on issues including U.S. foreign policy, modern slavery and multinational financial institution accountability, for organizations such as the Rockefeller Foundation, the Center for International Policy and Humanity United. She has worked in management consulting and investment banking in New York City. She holds an MA from Princeton University's School of Public and International Affairs, an MA from the Wright Institute, and a BA in finance from the Wharton School of Business at the University of Pennsylvania. Currently, her work focuses on supporting human rights and social justice movements that value the lived and direct experience of survivors, advocates and community members, and their individual and collective wellbeing. She also seeks to promote the wellbeing of family, friends and rockstar advocates engaged in the good work, through her unwavering commitment to collective joyful experiences and cathartic laughter.

Kristen Leanderson Abrams

Kristen Leanderson Abrams is the senior director of Combatting Human Trafficking at the McCain Institute. In this capacity, she provides strategic leadership and operational management for the Institute’s program to combat all forms of human trafficking.

Abrams has extensive experience managing programs and advocating for solutions to prevent and end human trafficking and modern slavery around the world. Prior to joining the McCain Institute, she ran a consulting practice providing advice to non-profits working to end exploitation and promote human rights. She also served as the acting director of the Alliance to End Slavery and Trafficking (ATEST).

Earlier in her career, Abrams led international pro bono programs at DLA Piper. In that capacity, she developed and implemented interdisciplinary anti-human trafficking, rule of law, economic development, access to justice, and women’s rights projects in under-resourced regions in the United States and throughout Africa, Latin America and Southeast Asia. While at DLA Piper, Abrams also provided counsel on matters of public international law, political law and corporate social responsibility.

Abrams began her career as a legislative aide in the U.S. House of Representatives. She holds a juris doctor degree from The George Washington University Law School and a bachelor’s degree from Vanderbilt University.

Crystal C. Rozelle-Bennett, LMSW

Crystal is an educator, an advocate, a survivor, and a self-proclaimed thriver! For the past 25 years she has been driven by her personal experiences of trauma to elevate and amplify the voices of individuals and communities, to promote healing and opportunities to move from surviving to thriving. 

Crystal has worked alongside professionals to create trauma informed, culturally inclusive and person-centered spaces. Her work experiences include advocacy within the child welfare system, oversight of child and youth programs, crisis hotline response, delivery of community based mental health services and implementing trauma informed strategies and programs for school districts. 

She has been called upon to provide training, coaching and consultation across the nation in the subject areas of Human Trafficking, Suicide Prevention, Motivational Interviewing, Reproductive Justice, Community and Collective Care, Child Trauma & Maltreatment and Racial Trauma. 

Crystal serves as an adjunct at Florida State University and Southwestern College where she teaches courses on Trauma Informed Social Work and Multicultural Counseling, respectively. She is a fierce advocate for social justice and leads courageously to dismantle oppressive systems and create equitable and just services, policies, and programs.  

Emily Wyman

Emily is a research and partnerships consultant who specialises in research for evaluation, advocacy, strategy development, and multisectoral cooperation. Her work has focused on a range of social justice issues including labour exploitation; child trafficking and child protection; sanctuary seeker and human trafficking survivor support; youth resilience to extremism; and employee wellbeing in the workplace.

She has provided research and evaluation support to stakeholders across national and state governments, UN agencies, businesses, large international NGOs and grassroots community organisations in work spanning four continents. Previously, as Head of Data Impact and Methods Development at the Rights Lab University of Nottingham, she led high-impact research projects; provided methods advisory across research programmes; innovated methods for detecting social injustice, and amplifying the voices of people impacted by it; and helped generate and deliver over £1.5 million for research impact.

In her previous career as an academic, she spent over a decade researching the barriers to effective human cooperation, and the factors that enable it. Her publications have been cited more than 1600 times, and she uses learnings from this research to support cooperation in coalitions and networks for collective impact.

Vandee Crane

Twenty years ago, Vandee Crane began her career as a behavioral health clinician, hoping to make a long-lasting, impactful change in society. However, it didn’t take long for her to realize that our society, the systems within it, and the people running those systems were broken beyond repair. And it is time to reinvent the wheel, or rather remember it...we must go backward to move forward; to rise, rEVOLutionize, and inspire healing. Vandee's passion is supporting other Women of Color, families and communities in reclaiming their power through the philosophies of ReMatriation and Safety Culture. You can learn more about Vandee and her work at riseinlovefoundation.org, by purchasing her internationally acclaimed personal memoir "My Body, My Soul: One Woman's Journey to Reclaim Both", or by viewing the award winning documentary, Women of the White Buffalo.