Family Court of the District of Columbia Superior Court | Welcome to the 2011 Family Court Interdisciplinary Conference

Biographies of Interdisciplinary Conference Participants

Walter E. Washington Convention Center, Friday October 27, 2017

Judges' Bios

Faculty Bios

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Honorable Chief Judge Robert E. Morin was appointed to the Superior Court of the District of Columbia in 1996. In June 2016, he was designated for a four-year term as Chief Judge, beginning his term on October 1, 2016. Chief Judge Morin graduated from the University of Massachusetts with a degree in Sociology in 1974. He received his law degree from Catholic University Law School in 1977. After graduating from law school, Chief Judge Morin joined the law firm of Furey, Doolan & Abell, where he focused primarily on civil and criminal litigation. In 1980, he accepted a position as a Clinical Supervisor in the Criminal Division of the DC Law Students in Court Program in Washington, DC In 1982, Chief Judge Morin assisted in establishing and worked at the Southern Center for Human Rights in Atlanta, Georgia. The Center was established to provide representation of indigent persons charged in capital cases or under a sentence of death, and to train lawyers to provide such representation. In 1984, Chief Judge Morin returned to the Washington Metropolitan area and accepted a position with the Office of the Public Defender for the State of Maryland to undertake representation of defendants in the lead death penalty cases in that state. From 1986 until his investiture in 1996, Chief Judge Morin was a partner in the law firm of Fisher, Morin & Hansen, located in Washington, DC where he specialized in the area of the defense of serious criminal and death penalty cases. Since 1986, Chief Judge Morin has served as an Adjunct Professor of Law at the Georgetown Law Center, teaching Evidence and Capital Punishment. Since joining the Court, Chief Judge Morin has served on a variety of committees of the Court including the Criminal Justice Act and Family Court Panel Committees, the CJA Plan Implementation Committee, the Criminal Rules Advisory Committee, and the Superior Court Rules Committee. He has served in the Criminal Division, Civil Divisions and Family Court. From 2010 through the end of 2015, he served as Deputy Presiding Judge and then Presiding Judge of the Criminal Division.

Honorable Carol Ann Dalton was appointed to the Superior Court of the District of Columbia in 2008. Judge Dalton is the Presiding Judge of the Family Court. From January 2014 through December 2016, Judge Dalton was the Deputy Presiding Judge of the Family Court. Since her appointment as an Associate Judge, she has served on the Mental Health, Private Adoptions, Juvenile Behavioral Diversion, Domestic Relations and Child Abuse and Neglect Calendars. From 2002 until her appointment as Associate Judge in 2008, Judge Dalton was a Magistrate Judge in the Family Court presiding mainly over child abuse and neglect matters. From 2000 until her appointment as a Magistrate Judge in 2002, Judge Dalton was Director of the D.C. Superior Court’s Counsel for Child Abuse and Neglect Office. Over the years Judge Dalton participated as a member of a number of committees tasked with improving court procedures and practices in the area of family law. These committees included: Family Court Training; Family Court Implementation; Family Court Advisory Rules and Practice Standards; Superior Court Domestic Relations; Neglect and Abuse Subcommittee; Initial Arraignments Working Group; Mental Health Stakeholders and Mental Health and Habilitation Subcommittee. Prior to Judge Dalton’s tenure with the Superior Court, she maintained a private legal practice that included child abuse and neglect, probate, and corporate law. Judge Dalton received a B.A. from the City College of the City of New York, a J.D. from New York Law School, and a LLM from the George Washington University’s National Law Center. Judge Dalton has been a resident of the District of Columbia for 30 years. She is a former D.C. Advisory Neighborhood Commissioner. Judge Dalton served as Chair of several committees of the D.C. Women’s Bar Association and volunteered and WhitmanWalker and other local not for profit organizations.

Honorable Peter A. Krauthamer was appointed to the District of Columbia Superior Court in 2011 by President Barack Obama. Judge Krauthamer has resided in the District of Columbia and Silver Spring, Maryland since 1970. He graduated from Bethesda Chevy Chase High School and received a Bachelor of Arts degree from Brandeis University in 1979, and a Juris Doctorate from Boston University School of Law in 1982. After graduating from law school, Judge Krauthamer began his career as a staff attorney at the Public Defender Service for the District of Columbia (PDS) in 1983. While at PDS, Judge Krauthamer handled juvenile delinquency cases, adult misdemeanors and tried numerous felony cases, including serious and complex felony one cases. During his tenure at PDS, Judge Krauthamer served as Deputy Chief of the Trial Division in 1988, Trial Chief in 1990, and Training Director in 1992. He joined the Federal Public Defender Service for the District of Columbia from 1994 to 1995, and then joined the Howard University School of Law Faculty as an Assistant Professor where he taught Evidence and also served as a Clinical Supervising Attorney for the Criminal Justice Clinic from 1995 to 2000. Thereafter, Judge Krauthamer served as Deputy Director for the District of Columbia Pretrial Services Agency until 2004 when he rejoined PDS as its Deputy Director until his judicial appointment. Since his appointment to the Superior Court bench, Judge Krauthamer served in the Civil Division from January 2012 until January 2013, when he began his current assignment in the Family Court. Judge Krauthamer is married and has two sons.

Honorable Yvonne M. Williams was nominated by President Barack Obama in February 2011 and confirmed by the United States Senate in August 2011. Judge Williams was born in Detroit, Michigan and raised in Chicago, Illinois, where she graduated from Whitney M. Young Magnet High School. She received her Bachelor of Arts degree in Sociology from the University of California at Berkeley and her Juris Doctor from Northeastern University School of Law. Upon graduation from law school, Judge Williams received a National Association of Public Interest Law (now Equal Justice Works) Fellowship to work at the NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund (“LDF”). As an attorney at LDF, Judge Williams represented plaintiffs in federal individual and class action employment discrimination cases throughout the country. In October 1999, Judge Williams began as a staff attorney in the Trial Division of the Public Defender Service for the District of Columbia (“PDS”) where she represented indigent clients charged with criminal offenses in D.C. Superior Court. Judge Williams also worked in the PDS Appellate Division, where she wrote appellate briefs and argued several cases before the District of Columbia Court of Appeals. In 2005, Judge Williams joined Miller & Chevalier Chartered as a Senior Associate. There, she conducted and managed internal investigations, in both criminal and civil contexts, for mid-size and multi-national corporations and defended corporations against claims of employment discrimination, and individuals in matters involving allegations of defamation, government contracting fraud, insider trading, conspiracy, and other fraud-related allegations. In 2007, Judge Williams went to work for Wilson, Sonsini, Goodrich & Rosati, where she managed and conducted internal investigations for multi-national corporations. In late 2008, Judge Williams returned to Miller & Chevalier Chartered as Counsel, and remained there until her appointment to the bench. In her final years there, she litigated employment matters before federal and state courts as well as administrative agencies. While in private practice, Judge Williams was very active in the Washington, D.C. legal community. She was a member of the Board of Directors of the Women’s Bar Association of the District of Columbia, a member of the Judicial Evaluation Committee for the D.C. Bar, and a member of the Nominating Committee of the Labor and Employment Law Section of the D.C. Bar. Judge Williams also served as President of the Board of Directors for D.C. Law Students in Court (“LSIC”), a non-profit organization in which law students, under the supervision of LSIC staff attorneys, provide legal representation to indigent D.C. residents with landlord-tenant and criminal cases pending in D.C. Superior Court. For her work as a lawyer and her commitment to strengthening the legal profession, in July 2011, Judge Williams was honored by the National Bar Association as one of the nation’s “Top 40 Lawyers Under 40.” 928867.1 Since joining the Court, Judge Williams has served on several committees including the Judicial Education Committee, the Criminal Justice Act Panel Committee, and the Domestic Relations and Juvenile Subcommittees. She has served in the Criminal and Family Divisions of the Court. She also serves as the Chair of the Commission on the Selection and Tenure of Administrative Law Judges at the Office of Administrative Hearings.

Honorable Mary Grace Rook was appointed by Chief Judge Rufus G. King, III and installed as Magistrate Judge on August 18, 2006.

Judge Rook was born and raised in Paterson, New Jersey. She received her Bachelor of Arts degree in sociology from the Catholic University of America and her Masters in Social Work from the University of Connecticut, where she specialized in clinical practice. She received her law degree from Catholic University’s Columbus School of Law. Prior to receiving her undergraduate degree Judge Rook spent two years living in the Philippines and worked as the director of a crisis intervention center at Clark Air Force Base. During her time there, she received a service award for civilian assistance as a result of her role in the 1975 Saigon airlift.

Upon graduation from law school, Judge Rook worked as Counsel for Child Abuse and Neglect, and also worked with the Dalton and Dalton Law Firm on special education cases. In 1999, Judge Rook took on the role of special education attorney in the civil division for the Public Defender Service, where she assisted the juvenile trial attorneys whose clients had outstanding special education needs. Judge Rook was a planner and teacher at the Public Defender Service’s (PDS’) first special education training in 2000.

Following her work as a special education attorney, Judge Rook served as Coordinator of the Juvenile Services Program for PDS. In this capacity, she was responsible for training and supervising staff attorneys and law clerks that worked with PDS at the Oak Hill Youth Center and the Youth Services Center. Judge Rook was part of the truancy workgroup that developed the middle school truancy diversion program.

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Maxine Akai, LICSW, LCSW-C, is a Clinical Social Worker with 10 years of experience, including a background in child welfare, education, hospital and mental health in Maryland and Washington, D.C. In 2006, Ms. Akai graduated magna cum laude from Salisbury University with a Bachelor’s Degree in Social Work and a minor in Psychology. She then attended the University of Maryland at Baltimore where she received her Master’s Degree in Social Work in 2007. As a Prince George’s County native and a child of a Haitian mother and a Nigerian father, Ms. Akai has sought to give back to communities locally and internationally. Ms. Akai sits on the Board and is an active member of Uplift Haiti, a 501(c)(3) tax-exempt charity that teams with local communities in accomplishing sustainable projects for improving health, education, employment, and the local economy and infrastructure in Haiti. This unique perspective provides her with a more well-rounded approach to working with colleagues and underserved communities.

Currently, Ms. Akai is employed as a Social Worker with the Department of Behavioral Health (DBH) and is co-located at Child and Family Services Agency in Washington, D.C. In this capacity, Ms. Akai serves as a liaison between both agencies, facilitates Clinical Supervision for a team of Social Workers, and makes recommendations for/troubleshoots issues related to service recommendations. In this setting, she also holds team meetings for youth identified as at-risk/confirmed to be commercially sexually exploited, coordinates trainings for mental health and affiliated agencies on the subject, and is the representative for DBH at the city’s multiagency committee on said youth.

More importantly, Maxine is the mother of a rambunctious 7 year old with whom she enjoys travelling.

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Megan Aniton, J.D. has been an Assistant Attorney General (AAG) at the Office of the Attorney General (OAG) for the District of Columbia since 2012. Ms. Aniton began her time at the OAG as an AAG in the Child Protection Section and is currently assigned to the Juvenile Specialty Courts Unit (JSCU) in the Public Safety Division. In her capacity as an attorney in JSCU, Ms. Aniton is assigned cases involving youth who are involved in or at risk of sexual exploitation. Before joining the OAG, Ms. Aniton worked as an analyst in the Exploited Children’s Division at the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children. Ms. Aniton serves as a mentor on the Abrahamson Scholarship Foundation, an organization that provides personal and professional support to D.C. public high school graduates currently enrolled in college. Ms. Aniton received her B.A. in Psychology and Criminal Justice from the University of Michigan and her J.D. from the University of Pittsburgh, School of Law.

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Katherine Chon is the Founding Director of the Office on Trafficking in Persons (OTIP) within the Administration for Children and Families (ACF) at the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS). She advises the Assistant Secretary by providing subject matter expertise and overall leadership of anti-trafficking activities under the purview of ACF.

OTIP is responsible for the development of anti-trafficking strategies, policies, and programs to prevent human trafficking, build health and human service capacity to respond to human trafficking, increase victim identification and access to services, and strengthen health and wellbeing outcomes of survivors of human trafficking. OTIP collaborates with federal partners and other government and non-government stakeholders to raise public awareness, identify research priorities for ACF’s antitrafficking work, and make policy recommendations to enhance anti-trafficking responses. OTIP also serves as the Secretariat for the HHS Task Force to Prevent and End Human Trafficking.

Prior to government service, Ms. Chon was the cofounder and president of Polaris, establishing the global organization’s innovative programs to assist victims of trafficking, expand anti-trafficking policies, and fundamentally change the way communities respond to modern slavery. Ms. Chon received her Bachelor of Science in Psychology from Brown University and Master of Public Administration from Harvard Kennedy School.

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Sarah Comeau, J.D. graduated from American University’s Washington College of Law (WCL) cum laude in 2011. Prior to co-founding the School Justice Project, Ms. Comeau was an associate at a District of Columbia law firm that specialized in special education advocacy, representing students and families of students involved in both the juvenile justice and abuse and neglect systems. After graduating from law school, Ms. Comeau was awarded a J.D. Distinguished Fellowship at the Juvenile Services Program at the Public Defender Service for the District of Columbia.

22 THE FAMILY COURT OF THE DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA SUPERIOR COURT Ms. Comeau focused her law school career on indigent representation and the protection of civil and human rights. She was a student defense practitioner at WCL’s Criminal Justice Clinic, a law clerk at a Maryland law firm specialized in post-conviction representation, and an advocate for international human rights. Ms. Comeau received her bachelor’s degree in Integrated Marketing Communications from Ithaca College’s Roy H. Park School of Communications.

Ms. Comeau is an attorney admitted to practice in the District of Columbia and an inactive member of the New York Bar. She is a member of the District of Columbia Superior Court Special Education Attorney Panel.

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Erin Cullen, J.D. is the Deputy Attorney General for the Family Services Division of the Office of the Attorney General for the District of Columbia. The Family Services Division is comprised of the four Child Protection Sections whose responsibility is to represent Child and Family Services Agency in all child abuse and neglect proceedings before the Family Court of the District of Columbia. Ms. Cullen has served on various committees affiliated with the Family Court, including the Commercial Sexual Exploitation of Children (CSEC) committee, where she played an instrumental role in developing a multi-disciplinary monthly case review and improving communication between the child welfare and juvenile justice systems. She has been a champion of raising awareness in the community on the issue of sex trafficking and has been an active participant in the development of HOPE Court. Ms. Cullen is a graduate of Loyola University in Maryland , the Catholic University of America, and Columbus School of Law.

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Kenya K. Davis, J.D., a senior felony prosecutor for the United States Attorney’s Office for the District of Columbia, is the Co-Chair of the D.C. Human Trafficking Taskforce. Ms. Davis has been assigned to focus exclusively on prosecuting human trafficking cases and works with several law enforcement and advocacy partners to bring justice for trafficking victims. Additionally, she has coordinated and conducted several trainings for community groups, schools, and juvenile justice facilities through the Office of the U.S. Attorney’s Community Prosecution Division. As a litigator for over 15 years, Ms. Davis began at Debevoise & Plimpton in New York. While representing Securities and White Collar clients, she and her co-counsel from the Legal Aid Society filed and investigated a prisoners’ rights class action suit on behalf of incarcerated women in New York state prisons against state employees and individual defendants, for sexual assaults perpetrated by corrections officers. As a result of her work on prisoners’ rights, Ms. Davis was awarded the Legal Aid Society Pro Bono Award. Ms. Davis received her Bachelors of Business Administration in Finance and Political Science from Emory University and her Juris Doctorate from Columbia School of Law.

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Jose de Arteaga, J.D., grew up in Puerto Rico and thereafter moved to Wisconsin. He is a former foster parent and State of Wisconsin Probation and Parole Agent. Mr. de Arteaga earned a law degree from the University of Wisconsin Law School. He has always been a champion of and passionate about civil rights on many different levels. After graduating law school he fought for working families at the United Steel Workers of America. Thereafter, he moved to Washington, D.C. to represent the D.C. employees in the AFSCME union and The Doctors Council. He then accepted his current position with the District of Columbia Department of Youth Rehabilitation Services as a Program Manager in the Revenue Maximization Division.

In addition, Mr. de Arteaga enjoys his pro bono work with “Landmine Blow,” an all-volunteer non-governmental organization (NGO), dedicated to raising awareness of the global landmine and cluster munitions crisis through building water wells in conflict affected communities around the world.

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Katherine Deye, MD, FAAP received her undergraduate degree in Molecular Biology from Princeton University and her medical doctorate from Jefferson Medical College, where she was elected to the Alpha Omega Alpha Medical Honor Society and received the Edward J. Moore Memorial Prize in Pediatrics. She completed her pediatrics training at the Children’s Hospital of Pittsburgh. After several years practicing general pediatrics, she completed the Ewing Fellowship in Child Abuse Pediatrics at Children’s National Health System and Inova Fairfax Hospital for Children in 2009. Since that time, she has worked as a board certified Child Abuse Pediatrician at Children’s National Health System, and she also recently joined the staff of Inova Fairfax Hospital for Children. She is an Assistant Professor of Pediatrics at George Washington University and Virginia Commonwealth University.

Dr. Deye is the co-founder and medical director for the CAREs Clinic at Children’s National, a medical home for trafficked and at-risk youth recently opened in conjunction with the Adolescent Medicine Division. In addition to providing direct care for maltreated children, Dr. Deye teaches both medical trainees and non-medical professionals about various aspects of child abuse. She serves as the Medical Director of the Pediatric Sexual Assault Program at Inova Fairfax Hospital. Dr. Deye has presented both locally and nationally, has authored a number of publications on the topic of child maltreatment, and is the principal investigator in a current study on sex trafficked youth at Children’s National. Dr. Deye is an active member of multiple regional multidisciplinary teams including the D.C. Multidisciplinary Team on Abuse & Neglect and the D.C. Human Trafficking Task Force. Her additional responsibilities include providing expert witness testimony, and teaching law enforcement personnel, attorneys, judges and other professionals about child abuse and neglect.

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Kasandra Dodd, MSW, LICSW, LCSW-C is a clinical supervisory social worker in the Washington, D.C. metro area. She has 15 years of experience in the child welfare field specializing in work with adolescents in foster care. She has accrued a wealth of knowledge as a case carrying social worker, diagnostic therapist, Independent Living Specialist, and managing supervisor. Ms. Dodd is adept at problem solving , crisis management and proven leadership skills. She was nominated and has participated in the D.C. Government Certified Public Manager courses, and has been on committees working toward the development of various older youth initiatives and policies at the D.C. Child and Family Services Agency (CFSA). Ms. Dodd has working knowledge of trauma systems therapy, youth development, family systems, and child welfare trends/system changes. Currently, she is the co-chair of the CFSA Human Trafficking Practice Committee Subgroup. Ms. Dodd obtained her Master’s degree from the Howard University School of Social Work and her Bachelor’s degree from the University of Georgia School of Social Work. She is dually licensed in Washington, D.C. and Maryland as a clinical social worker.

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Aubrey Edwards-Luce, J.D. is a policy attorney at Children’s Law Center. Ms. Edwards-Luce advocates with D.C. government agencies and the D.C. Council to improve services and supports for the District’s most vulnerable children and families, including child survivors of sex trafficking. She is a member of the HOPE Court Committee and the D.C. Human Trafficking Task Force. She worked closely with D.C. Council staff and community stakeholders on the Child Neglect and Sex Trafficking Amendment Act of 2017. Ms. Edwards-Luce joined Children’s Law Center in 2014 and gained two years of experience in the Guardian Ad Litem Project, where she represented the best interests of children in abuse and neglect proceedings. She attended Washington University in St. Louis for law school, where she gained policy experience and advocacy experience in both the child welfare and delinquency systems. Prior to law school, Ms. Edwards-Luce completed her master’s degree in Social Work (MSW) at the Brown School of Social Work with a concentration in children, youth and families and a certificate in violence prevention.

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Eduardo R. Ferrer, J.D. serves as the Policy Director of the Georgetown Juvenile Justice Initiative advocating to improve the D.C. juvenile justice system and as a Visiting Professor in the Georgetown University Law Center supervising students in the Juvenile Justice Clinic. Professor Ferrer is also a certified trainer in the National Juvenile Defender Center’s Juvenile Immersion Training Program (JTIP) and conducts trainings for juvenile defense attorneys across the country.

Professor Ferrer also serves as the Vice-Chair of the Board of Directors of DC127 and served previously as the Chair of the Board of Trustees of The Next Step Charter School and the Chair of the Board of Directors of the Campaign for Youth Justice. He also served as the Advisory Neighborhood Commissioner for Single Member District 1B10 from 2009- 2010.

Professor Ferrer is a proud double Hoya, receiving his B.S. in Business Administration from the McDonough School of Business at Georgetown University in 2002 and his law degree from the Georgetown University Law Center in 2005.

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Aisha Braithwaite Flucker, J.D. is a Section Chief for the Office of the Attorney General for the District of Columbia (OAG), Family Services Division, Child Protection Section (CPS). As the Section Chief, Ms. Flucker manages a team of CPS trial attorneys who represent the Child and Family Services Agency (CFSA) in neglect, guardianship, adoption, and termination of parental rights cases. Ms. Flucker is also a member of the Mayor’s Advisory Committee for Child Abuse and Neglect and attends Infant Mortality Review and CFSA’s Child Fatality Review meetings. Prior to being the Section Chief, Ms. Flucker was a trial attorney with CPS from 2006 to 2016. During that time, Ms. Flucker was selected to represent CPS at Safe Shores-The D.C. Children's Advocacy Center, where she was a member of the multi-disciplinary team that conducted forensic interviews of child victims of sexual and physical abuse. In 2010 and 2012, OAG acknowledged Ms. Flucker’s dedicated service and awarded her with the Exemplary Service Award. Prior to joining the Office of the Attorney General, Ms. Flucker worked in Prince George’s County, Office of Law, as an assistant county attorney in Child In Need of Assistance cases. In 1997, Ms. Flucker received a Bachelors of Arts, magna cum laude, from Howard University. From 1997 to 1999, Ms. Flucker worked for Maximus, Inc., a human services consulting firm, where she assisted underserved mothers with finding employment. In 2002, Ms. Flucker received a Juris Doctorate from American University’s Washington College of Law, where she was a Marshall-Brennan Fellow and a line editor for the Gender, Social Policy and the Law Journal. As a Marshall-Brennan Fellow, Ms. Flucker taught constitutional law to high school students in the District of Columbia Public Schools (DCPS). While in law school, Ms. Flucker interned for the Department of Justice, United States Attorney’s Office, Appellate Division and was a summer associate at the Venable Law Firm.

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Amy E. Fortin, LICSW is a licensed, clinical social worker and the Program Coordinator for the Juvenile Behavioral Diversion Program (JBDP) for the D.C. Department of Behavioral Health (DBH). The JBDP is a specialized behavioral health diversion program through D.C. Superior Court in which youth and families are connected to mental health services to improve their long term outcomes and reduce recidivism. Ms. Fortin provides live, clinical consultation and oversight of the services in hearings. She is the Co-Chair of the Suitability Committee of the program which reviews cases of youth for clinical eligibility for the JBDP. Ms. Fortin has been practicing social work in the District since 2004 in a variety of mental health settings, such as providing intensive, forensic case management to adults with mental illness, and trauma histories and therapy to children, youth and their families. Ms. Fortin was also an editor of DBH’s Children’s Plan and the coordinator of its city-wide, cross-agency planning process in 2010. The Children’s Plan outlined a set of principles and actions to build a coordinated System of Care that provides high quality and evidence-based services and supports to children with severe emotional disturbance and their families. Ms. Fortin completed her masters degree in Social Work at the University of Pennsylvania’s School of Social Policy and Practice. She is currently participating in the development of the HOPE Court of D.C. Superior Court, a specialized court program for youth survivors of commercial and sexual exploitation. Ms. Fortin resides in Silver Spring, Maryland with her husband and two sons.

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Tina Frundt is a leading figure in the crusade to help children sexually exploited for commercial purposes. Ms. Frundt herself is a survivor of domestic sex trafficking, and now dedicates her life to helping women and children heal from domestic sex trafficking and commercial sex exploitation.

Since founding Courtney’s House in August 2008, Ms. Frundt and her organization have helped more than 500 victims escape from being trafficked and find a new life. She also trains law enforcement and other non-profit groups to help and provide resources to victims. She is a member of the Anti-Trafficking Task Force in Washington, D.C., and Human Trafficking Task Force in Prince George’s County, Maryland.

Ms. Frundt has been featured on numerous national television shows and publications, including The Oprah Show, The Montel Williams Show, CNN, and Redbook Magazine. In 2010, she was awarded the Frederick Douglass Award, which is given to an individual who has survived slavery and is using their life in freedom to help others.

She has also testified before the U.S. Congress about her own experiences and the need for greater protection and services for trafficked persons. In December 2015, Ms. Frundt was named to the United States Advisory Council on Human Trafficking by President Obama.

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Detective Jeremiah Johnson is an eight year veteran of the Metropolitan Police Department of the District of Columbia and is currently assigned to the FBI Child Exploitation Task Force. Detective Johnson primarily investigates sex trafficking of children but also assists in cases involving other forms of exploitation, to include child pornography. He was previously assigned to the department’s child abuse unit and specialized in the sexual exploitation of children. Detective Johnson is a trained forensic interviewer of children and has conducted numerous interviews regarding the sexual abuse and sex trafficking of children. As a member of the D.C. Human Trafficking Task Force, he regularly collaborates with other community partners and is an advocate for bringing awareness to the issue of human trafficking in the Washington, D.C. area.

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Maheen Kaleem, J.D. is a staff attorney at Rights4Girls, a human rights organization committed to ending gender-based violence in the U.S., where she focuses on the intersection between domestic child sex trafficking and juvenile justice involvement for girls and ending the Sexual Abuse to Prison Pipeline. She is a faculty member and trainer with the National Council of Juvenile and Family Court Judges Domestic Child Sex Trafficking Judicial Training Institute, and serves a number of local coalitions including the Washington Area Women’s Foundations Young Women’s Initiative Advisory Committee, The D.C. Girls Coalition, and the Youth Justice Project.

Ms. Kaleem has significant experience working with system-involved youth and their families, with a particular focus on sexually exploited youth. She is actively involved in Rights4Girls’ work on the Department of Justice Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention National Girls’ Initiative core steering committee, and has worked to pass federal, state, and local policies that protect victims of child sex trafficking from being criminalized. She has also advocated on a number of youth justice issues including ending the practice of trying youth as adults, stopping school push-out, and addressing the educational needs of formerly incarcerated youth. Ms. Kaleem was an Equal Justice Works Fellow, a Stoneleigh Emerging Leader Fellow, and a National Juvenile Justice Network Youth Justice Leadership Institute Fellow. She is a committee chair for Law4BlackLives-D.C., the Equity Officer for the American Civil Liberties Union of the District of Columbia (ACLU of DC), BMore Awesome, and an Advisory Board member of BMore Awesome, a Baltimore-based organization seeking to support organizing, arts education, and leadership for justice-involved youth. Ms. Kaleem holds a Bachelor of Science in Foreign Service (B.S.F.S.) in International Politics from Georgetown University and a J.D. from Georgetown University Law Center, and is member of the New York State Bar.

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Elizabeth M. Landau, J.D. is a Staff Attorney at the Amara Legal Center, where she provides direct legal services to victims of commercial sexual exploitation. Ms. Landau’s passion for this work began at an internship for Veronica’s Voice, an organization assisting women in the commercial sex industry. In addition to working with their alternative sentencing program, Ms. Landau observed therapeutic case management strategies including intensive trauma recovery, addiction recovery, and physical health services. Her experiences there led to a year in Prague, Czech Republic working on issues facing human trafficking victims. She provided direct services while also assisting in building a network of non-governmental organizations (NGOs) internationally, compiling best practices on helping victims of trafficking, and giving presentations and workshops on three continents. Ms. Landau recently completed a fellowship with Global Justice Initiative assisting with its Forced Marriage Prevention Program and wrote two articles published in the American Family Law Journal. Ms. Landau serves on a steering committee developing a Reduced Fee Lawyer & Mediator Referral service and the board of Jana’s Campaign, a national education and violence prevention organization. Ms. Landau is licensed to practice Law in New York, New Jersey, and the District of Columbia.

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Tim Matsui is an Emmy-nominated multimedia journalist and producer focusing on human trafficking, alternative energy, and the environment. He was an intern at MediaStorm in 2010. Mr. Matsui’s clients have included Newsweek, Stern, Der Spiegel, GEO, Wired and many other domestic and international publications.

Today, Mr. Matsui partners with editorial outlets, nonprofit organizations, corporations, and self publishes to tell meaningful stories built upon the tenets of journalism. A non-profit founder and recipient of grants from the Alexia Foundation, Open Society Foundations, and Fund for Investigative Journalism, Mr. Matsui seeks to inform and engage viewers through his projects, using media for social change.

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Kate Myers has been a Child and Adolescent Forensic Interviewer at Safe Shores-The DC Children’s Advocacy Center since 2014. Ms. Myers has received extensive education in forensic interviewing, including Child Sex Trafficking Forensic Interview Training through the National Criminal Justice Training Center, as well as Advanced Forensic Interviewing Training through the National Children’s Advocacy Center. Prior to her time at Safe Shores, Ms. Myers served at Survivors and Advocates for Empowerment as the Lead Advocate for SAFE’s On- Call Advocacy Program, which provides 24-hour crisis intervention services and systems advocacy to victims of domestic violence in the District of Columbia. She completed her Bachelor of Arts in Foreign Languages and minor in Women & Gender Studies at George Mason University.

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Deepa Patel, CSOTP, LCSW is the Executive Director of Trauma and Hope, LLC. Her practice specifically focuses on victims of violence, sexual exploitation, gang prevention and intervention, and sex offender evaluations and treatment. She previously was the Coordinator of the Sex Offender Program and the Director of the Gang Intervention and Sexual Exploitation Programs at an agency in Northern Virginia. Ms. Patel is a Licensed Clinical Social Worker, a Certified Sex Offender Treatment Provider (CSOTP), and a Gang Specialist through the National Gang Crime Research Center. She is a dynamic clinician who has developed an expertise in treating non-voluntary clients, specifically juvenile and adult gang members and sex offenders. For the past twelve years, Ms. Patel has developed a proficient style of work with adolescents who are gang involved. Through her understanding and clinical devotion to her clients, she has widened her competency to develop an outpatient and inpatient treatment program for female gang controlled sexual exploitation victims. The inpatient treatment program specifically serves victims of sexual exploitation and has been implemented in six residential facilities. Ms. Patel has a unique ability to relate to her clients that has resulted in her having significant success treating her clients.

Ms. Patel is often sought out nationally and internationally to provide training and education regarding gang involved youth, sexual exploitation, and sex offenders. Her passion and competency in her outpatient therapeutic program with gangs and gang controlled sexual exploitation victims led her to become a recipient of the 2017 Virginia National Association of Social Worker “Social Worker Of the Year Award,” 2012 Frederick Milton Thrasher Award for Superior Service in Gang Prevention, and the 2016 Frederick Milton Thrasher Award and Spirt of Excellence Award from the National Gang Crime Research Center. In addition, she was selected in 2013 for the Central American Community Impact Exchange (CACIE) to share her success in treatment for gang involved youth, victims of sex trafficking and sex offenders. Ms. Patel is also the Victim Services Chair for the Just Ask Prevention Project, which is a state-wide prevention human trafficking project, a member of the Northern Virginia Human Trafficking Task Force, and a member of the Loudoun County Improving Children’s Outcomes for Positive Endings Project (ICOPE).

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Andrea Powell, is the Executive Director and Co- Founder of FAIR Girls, which was founded in 2003. Since that time, Ms. Powell has led FAIR Girls’ efforts to prevent the sex trafficking and exploitation of girls in the United States and in FAIR Girls’ global programs in Bosnia, Serbia, Montenegro, Russia, and Uganda. In her current position at FAIR Girls, Ms. Powell oversees all operational, programmatic, and developmental aspects of FAIR Girls. She currently serves as the FAIR Girls’ chief liaison to the D.C. Anti Trafficking Task Force and has trained hundreds of U.S. and international audiences, including federal and local law enforcement, service providers, state and federal policy makers, and teachers on how to identify and assist child victims of sex and forced labor trafficking. In 2009, Ms. Powell served as co-investigator to a Department of Justice funded study on commercial sexual exploitation of children in the United States. Ms. Powell currently acts as an adjunct professor at the Elliott School of International Affairs at George Washington University teaching courses in global sex trafficking and girl’s empowerment. Her efforts to stop the trafficking of youth have been featured in media outlets, including Marie Claire, CNN, the BBC, the Washington Post, the Boston Globe, the Wall Street Journal, and Voice of America. In 2012, Ms. Powell was one of four selected women for the Diane Von Furstenberg People's Voice Award. Her work has been published in the Huffington Post, FAIR Observer, and the Washington Post.

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Shelia Roberson-Adams is an Assistant Deputy Director with the Court Social Services Division (CSSD) at Superior Court of the District of Columbia. She is a graduate of Virginia Commonwealth University. She has been employed with CSSD for over 27 years, 23 of which have been in management. In Ms Roberson-Adams’ branch there are two Balanced and Restorative Jusice (BARJ) Drop In Centers currently operating with plans to open another in the coming months. The probation officers assigned to the Status Offender Juvenile Behavioral Diversion Program (SOJBDP) Drop-In Center provide supervision and services for youth in the two diversion solution courts.

Tanya Street is an international speaker and a talk show host. She has served in numerous community outreach organizations, such as a board member of New Jersey Women Aids Network, an outreach coordinator of South Jersey Aids Alliance (award recipient of both organizations), founder of Women Empowering Women (NJ) support group, Administrator of GIRL TALK life spoken ministries (NC), a talk show host for Joy In Our Town shown on WTPC, Virginia Beach, a survivor awareness presenter for various anti-sex trafficking organizations, a board member of Love and Justice International, and finally founder of her own non-profit organization named Identifiable Me. Ms. Street has her own story of being trafficked when she was ending her senior year in high school and is now telling her story in order to bring awareness and to ultimately eradicate trafficking in our nation and in our day. Passionately, Ms. Street consistently seeks opportunities to network with communities, inspire change, and share the message of love, hope, and forgiveness. Ms. Street and her husband Edwin live in Virginia and have 3 wonderful children.

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Debora Sutor is a 25-year Flight Attendant with Envoy Air, formerly American Eagle, and became Association of Flight Attendants’ (AFA) International Vice President on June 1, 2014. Her extensive experience within the AFA structure, holding numerous elected positions in local leadership, and serving on various International committees enable her to assist in furthering AFA’s mission for economic and social justice for all Flight Attendants.

Tasked with leading AFA’s training and leadership programs, Ms. Sutor brings valuable insight into the position and assists in cultivating and mentoring newly elected Flight Attendant union leaders. Ms. Sutor has worked on AFA’s ‘Hidden in Plane Sight’ campaign to prevent human trafficking in aviation. The goal is to ensure that Flight Attendants in the U.S. and around the world are trained to know what modern day slavery is, recognize a potential incident of trafficking, know and recognize the indicators of a potential human trafficking victim, and how to report a crime. Flight Attendants can be the eyes in the skies to save lives.

Prior to her election as International Vice President, Ms. Sutor served as Master Executive Council Vice President for Envoy and was instrumental in successfully navigating Flight Attendants through difficult bankruptcy negotiations. She also served as a long term Master Executive Council (MEC) Grievance Chair.

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Katara Watkins-Laws, Ph.D. is a Staff Psychologist at the Child Guidance Clinic (CGC), Superior Court of the District of Columbia. She received her doctorate in Counseling Psychology from Howard University and also holds a Graduate Certificate in Working with Survivors of Trauma and Torture from University of Maryland. Dr. Watkins-Laws was previously a Clinical Research Associate in the CGC, where she coordinated the data collection used in the ongoing research of interventions and outcomes of youth in the Juvenile Behavioral Health Program (JBDP), youth with status offenses, and youth at risk for sexual exploitation in the District of Columbia. She has presented at multiple professional conferences and has authored and coauthored several scientific articles including publications in the NSHA Dialog, The Journal of Negro Education, Psychology and Public Policy, and Law. Prior to her role at the Court, she completed her pre-doctoral internship at Lawrence Hall Youth Services, through the Chicago School for Professional Psychology in Chicago, Illinois. She has also held positions as a research intern in the Research Initiative for Student Enhancement program (RISE) at Kennedy Krieger Institute Family Center and John Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health in Baltimore, Maryland. She was also a federal intern at Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA) in the Office of Policy and Political Planning in Rockville, Maryland. Dr. Watkins-Laws’ is a native to the Washington, D.C.

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