Sixth Annual Human Trafficking Awareness Month Panel Discussion

We held our Sixth Annual Panel Discussion for Human Trafficking Awareness Month again this January 2023 at Millikin University! We were lucky again to partner with Set Free-Macon County and had a great mix of local advocates and students at the panel discussion. This year we focused on legal approaches to human trafficking focusing on federal and state level prosecutions and the manifestations of this crime in Central Illinois.

We has some great lawyers on the panel including: Gregory K. Harris, United States Attorney for the Central District of Illinois, Dan Wright, Sangamon County States Attorney, and Katrina Quillen, Supervising Attorney, Legal Aid Society of Metropolitan Family Services. We focused on the different challenges with human trafficking law that can help or hinder holding traffickers accountable for this crime in the United States legal system and improvements for representing human trafficking victims in immigration law.

We also had a giant cake celebrating five years of my Human Trafficking Research Lab which was a fun way to celebrate this milestone in our work! There were leftovers and I was even able to bring them to class for my students and the cake was gone.

Before the panel discussion we had a resource fair with six different organizations in Central Illinois and played a networking bingo game. We have all been communicating for years on the Central Illinois Human Trafficking Task Force but it was the first time many of met in person so I thought it would be a fun way to get to know people in real life. And of course we had prizes with Millikin and Center for Prevention of Abuse swag!

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