Laura Lederer

Laura J. Lederer founded and directed The Protection Project at Harvard University’s John F. Kennedy School of Government in 1997. From 2001 to 2009, she served as Senior Advisor on Trafficking in Persons to Under Secretary of State for Democracy and Global Affairs, Paula J. Dobriansky, and then Senior Director of Global Projects in the Office to Monitor and Combat Trafficking in Persons at the U.S. Department of State. From 2001 – 2009, she was the Executive Director of the Senior Policy Operating Group on Trafficking in Persons, a high level interagency policy group that staffed the President’s cabinet-level Inter-agency Task Force on Trafficking in Persons. She received her B.A. magna cum laude in comparative religions from the University of Michigan. After 10 years in philanthropy as director of community and social concerns at a private foundation, she continued her education at the University of San Francisco Law School and DePaul College of Law and received her juris doctorate in June 1994.

In 1998, she was awarded the Gustavus Meyers Center for Study of Human Rights Annual Award for Outstanding Work on Human Rights.  In 2008, she was the recipient of the Adele Herwitz Award of CCFNS International. She received the University of Michigan Alumni Humanitarian Service Award, the greatest award to living U of M alumni, for her work on human trafficking.  In 2009, she received The Protection Project 2009 Human Rights Award of Johns Hopkins University’s School of Advanced International Studies for her invaluable contribution to the global movement to stop human trafficking.

J. Robert Flores

A longtime advocate for children, J. Robert Flores has led a distinguished career in juvenile and criminal justice. He earned his Juris Doctor degree from the Boston University School of Law and a Bachelor of Science degree in business administration from Boston University. He went on to the Manhattan District Attorney’s office, where, as Assistant District Attorney in New York City he worked in the children’s rights and safety division and prosecuted numerous child sexual abuse cases, including several highly publicized crimes, one of which involved a child prostitution network. After his service as a prosecutor in New York, he became Vice President and Senior Counsel for the National Law Center for Children and Families. Firmly believing that positive adult involvement in children’s lives is among the best prevention for juvenile delinquency, and in appropriate situations can be used to give a child a second chance, Flores is a strong advocate for Youth Court, because it accomplishes both outcomes.

In remarks at the United Nations Special Session on Children in May 2002, he spoke enthusiastically of the outstanding benefits of youth courts to the young people involved–both the well-trained peer volunteers who handle the cases and the young offenders.  Mr. Flores served in the Criminal Division of the U.S. Department of Justice, where he worked as Assistant Director of the Child Exploitation and Obscenity Division. During his tenure as Senior Trial Attorney and Acting Deputy Chief in the Department of Justice Child Exploitation & Obscenity Section, Flores supervised several national investigations concerning internet-based child exploitation, including the U.S. Custom Service’s “Operation Long Arm” and the FBI’s “Innocent Images.”   In 2202 he was nominated by the President to the U.S. Department of Justice’s Office of Justice Programs, where he served for six years as Administrator of the Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention. Currently he is President of Hampton Road Consulting.   In 2002, the American Bar Association honored him as part of National Hispanic Heritage Month.

Patrick Trueman

Pat Trueman is the former Chief of the Child Exploitation and Obscenity Section, Criminal Division, U. S. Department of Justice, Washington, D.C. from 1988 to 1993. While there, he supervised the prosecution of child sex crimes, commercial sexual exploitation of children, child pornography, and obscenity. He managed an office of twenty prosecutors and support staff, and worked with the nation’s ninety-three United States Attorneys to initiate and coordinate federal prosecutions.

During his 32 years as a lawyer, he has litigated cases at all levels of the federal system, including in the United States Supreme Court. He is an advisor to many municipalities and has helped draft sexually-oriented business ordinances to end or curb the impact of pornography shops, strip clubs, and related businesses. He is a legal consultant to non-profit organizations on child sexual exploitation, sexual trafficking, and commercial sexual exploitation of women and children. He serves as counsel to the Paul & Lisa Program of Connecticut, whose mission is to provide prevention, early intervention, and advocacy for children, teens, and adults who have been sexually victimized through commercial exploitation.
He is special counsel to the Alliance Defense Fund of Arizona, a national public interest law firm, where he works as a legal expert on obscenity, indecency, pornography and the protection of communities from sexually-oriented businesses. He served as counsel to the Guardian of Angels Foundation in Colorado, which targets child sex abuse and as law enforcement director for Capitol Cities Partners, Washington, D.C., on the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services’ Rescue and Restore Campaign advising federal and state law enforcement officials on human trafficking. He has trained police, prosecutors, and judges on sexual trafficking. Mr. Trueman has served as chief of staff to a Member of the United States Congress and, in his legal practice, has represented clients needing appropriations and other help from Congress.