Previous Agendas

Previous Keynote Speakers

2012

E. Benjamin Skinner
E. Benjamin Skinner is a Senior Fellow at the Schuster Institute for Investigative Journalism of Brandeis University. He is the first person in recorded history to observe the negotiations for sale of human beings on four continents, and was named one of National Geographic’s “Adventurers of the Year 2008.” His first book, A Crime So Monstrous: Face-to-Face with Modern-Day Slavery (Free Press; 2008), was awarded the 2009 Dayton Literary Peace Prize for nonfiction, a citation from the Overseas Press Club in its book category for 2008, and a finalist for The Ryszard Kapuscinski International Award for literary reportage in 2011. Also in 2011, he was recognized as a Young Global Leader by the World Economic Forum. Previously he held a fellowship at the Carr Center for Human Rights Policy of Harvard Kennedy School of Government, served as Special Assistant to Ambassador Richard Holbrooke and worked as Research Associate for U.S. Foreign Policy at the Council on Foreign Relations. His articles have appeared in Time, Bloomberg Businessweek, Newsweek International, Travel + Leisure, Los Angeles Times, The Miami Herald, Foreign Affairs, Foreign Policy and others. He is a graduate of Wesleyan University in Middletown, CT.

2011

Bandana Pattanaik, International Coordinator, Global Alliance Against Traffic in Women
Bandana Pattanaik is currently the International Coordinator of the Global Alliance Against Traffic in Women (GAATW). GAATW is a network of more than 100 non-government organizations based in various parts of the world. Bandana works from GAATW’s Secretariat based in Bangkok, Thailand with a team of 10 women from different parts of the world. GAATW’s primary work is in the area of research and advocacy. Prior to starting work with GAATW in 1999, Bandana has worked in academia, teaching English language and literature and women’s studies at the tertiary level in India and Australia.

Luis CdeBaca, Ambassador-at-Large to Monitor and Combat Trafficking in Persons, Department of State
Ambassador Luis CdeBaca was appointed by President Obama to coordinate U.S. government activities in the global fight against contemporary forms of slavery. He serves as Senior Advisor to the Secretary of State and directs the State Department’s Office to Monitor and Combat Trafficking in Persons, which assesses global trends, provides training and technical assistance, and advocates for an end to modern slavery. Mr. CdeBaca formerly served as Counsel to the House Committee on the Judiciary, where his portfolio for Chairman Conyers included national security, intelligence, immigration, civil rights and modern slavery issues. Mr. CdeBaca was a prosecutor in the Civil Rights Division of the U.S. Department of Justice for many years and prosecuted many of the major trafficking cases in the country. He has worked closely with Freedom Network members on cases and received the Freedom Network’s Paul and Sheila Wellstone Award in recognition of his work and his use of a victim-centered approach.

2010

Luis CdeBaca, Ambassador-at-Large to Monitor and Combat Trafficking in Persons, Department of State
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Noy Thrupkaew, Fellow, Open Society Institute
Noy Thrupkaew is a freelance writer based in New York City who writes on international affairs and culture.  Her work has been featured in The Guardian, The Nation, and The American Prospect, where she is a Senior Correspondent.  She previously worked as an Associate Editor of Sojouner: The Women’s Forum and has received Fulbright and International Reporting Project grants to conduct research in Thailand and Cambodia.  She is currently a fellow at the Open Society Institute, researching trafficking for the purposes of labor and forced prostitution.

2009

Rev. Noelle Damico, Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) Campaign for Fair Food
Click here for Remarks