Advocacy

My research operates on the premise that better trafficking laws will lead to less trafficking around the world. Through my research I have had the opportunity to speak with many organizations and universities around the world about human trafficking and sex tourism including but not limited to the Council of Europe, Alfred Nobel University (Ukraine), University of Wisconsin, London School of Economics (United Kingdom), University of Illinois, Indiana State University, University of Tennessee Chattanooga, Latvian Academy of Culture (Latvia), Vilnius University (Lithuania), University of Ottawa (Canada), and Idaho State University. 
In 2018 I was appointed by the U.S. States Attorney’s Office at the Department of Justice to the Central Illinois Human Trafficking Task Force in Springfield Illinois. On this task force I am working on different research evaluation strategies to ensure effective implementation of educational trainings on human trafficking in Central Illinois.

Me and my undergraduate research assistant Julisa Sierra attending a Central Illinois Human Task Force meetings.

One of my undergraduate research assistants read the Human Trafficking Awareness Month Declaration at the Decatur City Council meeting to raise awareness to human trafficking in our community in January 2022.
In 2015, I was appointed to sit on the Governor’s Office for Children and Families’ Commercial Sexual Exploitation of Children Task Force in Georgia. In the summer of 2015, as a member of working group six Examining Labor, International, and Adult Sex Trafficking, I conducted a survey of all victims' service providers in the state of Georgia. The results demonstrate the services available in Georgia, types of victims, and trafficking trends in Georgia.
At the University of Kansas, I worked as a human trafficking research assistant at the Institute for Policy and Social Research (IPSR). I also served as the Graduate Student Representative on the Emily Taylor Center for Women and Gender Equity Advisory Board and in this capacity invited Kansas Governor Sam Brownback to speak at KU as part of Human Trafficking Awareness Month in January 2012. As a result of this talk, IPSR worked together with the Chancellor’s office and the Governor’s office to host a conference on human trafficking at KU in 2013.
This is a photo of me receiving a plaque of appreciation from University of Kansas Chancellor Bernadette Gray-Little with Kansas Governor Sam Brownback in the foreground.​

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I am an Associate Professor of Political Science and the Director of the Human Trafficking Research Lab at Millikin University. I am the author of Diffusing Human Trafficking Policy in Eurasia published by Policy Press at the University of Bristol in 2020. I am also a Regional Faculty Associate at the Russian, East European, and Eurasian Center at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign. I was previously an Assistant Professor of Political Science in the Department of Social Sciences at Clayton State University, a University System of Georgia institution from 2014-2016. I graduated from the University of Kansas (KU) in 2014 with a Ph.D. in Political Science. I also have a Graduate Certificate in Women, Gender, and Sexuality Studies (2013) and a Master of Arts in Political Science (2011) from the University of Kansas, a Master of Arts in International Studies focusing on Russian, East European, and Central Asian Studies (2006) from the University of Washington, and a Bachelor of
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