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US BOARD OF DIRECTORS

Chair

Sarah Jakiel

Sarah Jakiel, is a technical expert, strategist, and human rights leader with nearly twenty years of experience countering human trafficking and forced labor, early and child marriage, and gender-based violence. She is currently leading philanthropy for the Girls First Fund, a global collective impact, donor collaborative focused on ending child marriage and increasing gender equality. She is experienced in organizational development and leadership with a demonstrated commitment to racial, gender, and economic justice, and scalable social impact. Sarah specializes in strategic partnership advancement, fundraising, program design and implementation, cultivating senior talent, and managing to outcomes to advance human rights and access to justice.

Sarah most recently led Winrock International’s Human Rights, Education and Empowerment team which focused on delivering inclusive social and economic empowerment, education, and development programming in communities across Asia, Africa, and Latin America. Sarah previously served as Chief Program Officer at Polaris, where she led program design and organization-wide impact strategy focused on reducing human trafficking in the United States. While at Polaris, Sarah launched and led the National Human Trafficking Hotline, a critical national resource focused on victim identification, increasing survivors’ access to quality services, and directing key data and intelligence to local and institutional stakeholders positioned to help. She led targeted capacity building efforts of national hotline hubs in the U.K., Mexico, and Canada, and launched Polaris’ Data Analysis wing to learn more about the scope, size, and systems of modern slavery, helping to design strategic interventions to disrupt specific human trafficking networks.

Sarah has collaborated closely with local community partners, international and nongovernmental organizations, funders, technologists, and the private sector to forge effective cross-disciplinary partnerships to drive long-term social change. She thrives on relationship building, problem solving, and collaboration and strongly believes in locally led development where resources are directed towards frontline communities and the nexus of power and voice sits with local leadership that prioritizes women and girls’ engagement.

Sarah has an MA in Ethics, Peace, and Global Affairs from American University, and a BA in Political Science from the University of Virginia and spent many years living and working abroad in Eastern Europe and SE Asia.

Treasurer

Virginia Beirne

Virginia Beirne (she/her) has over 20 years of nonprofit finance experience across multiple agencies as a consultant, controller and director.

She has worked extensively with management and staff providing reporting, analytic tools, budget guidance, and training. She started her career at Coopers & Lybrand (PricewaterhouseCoopers) consulting, and earned her B.S. in Economics from Northern Arizona University and an M.B.A. in Finance from New York University.

She is a passionate volunteer, and has served on several boards, with a focus on youth, food insecurity and community development. With her husband Tom, and their 3 children, family time is often spent lakeside, and as time allows she’s an avid reader and long time vinyl collector.

DEI Officer

Nikki Kerman

Nikki J. Kerman is Counsel in Venable’s Nonprofit Organizations and Transactional Tax groups in Los Angeles. Nikki focuses her practice on advising tax-exempt organizations, such as public charities and private foundations, on a variety of complex tax, regulatory, and governance matters, including the formation of new organizations, the termination of private foundation status, charitable solicitation registration, and the avoidance of excise taxes. She frequently advises for-profit clients and individual donors on matters such as commercial co-venture campaigns and domestic and international grantmaking, and assists high-net-worth individuals with charitable giving and estate and business succession planning. A respected advocate, Nikki is adept at managing the myriad matters critical to maintaining successful tax-exempt operations and navigating her clients through the most challenging and nuanced issues to position them to tackle large projects with far-reaching impact.

In addition to her day-to-day work, Nikki serves as the West Coast Deputy Chair of the Venable Success Network, the firm’s affinity group designed to empower Black attorneys through fostering and promoting strong professional networks and educational initiatives. She is also a member of the Hiring Committee for Venable’s Los Angeles office, as well as a workflow coordinator for the Venable’s summer associate program. In these capacities, Nikki takes an active role in recruiting new associates and in the creation and cultivation of inclusive and progressive workplaces for her colleagues. Nikki is involved in the legal professional community as a member of the American Bar Association Section on Taxation and as the former president of the Los Angeles County Bar Association’s Exempt Organizations Committee. In addition to her professional obligations, Nikki serves on the Board of Trustees of Baltimore Educational Scholarship Trust (B.E.S.T.), a nonprofit organization that provides financial and academic support to low-income, academically ambitious Black students attending independent schools in the Baltimore area, and is an alumni of Teach For America.

Secretary

Maggie Lee

Maggie Lee is the senior staff attorney at the Human Trafficking Legal Center. She leads the Center’s strategic litigation program. Maggie previously spent nine years as a federal prosecutor. Most recently, she was the Deputy Chief of Civil Rights for the Criminal Division at the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Eastern District of New York, where she was responsible for investigations and prosecutions involving human trafficking, hate crimes and color of law violations.

During her time as a federal prosecutor, Maggie led investigations into numerous transnational organizations engaged in trafficking vulnerable individuals both in the United States and abroad. Through her work, Maggie worked extensively with survivors of human trafficking. She has received the Federal Bureau of Investigation Director’s Award for Excellence in International Operations, the Homeland Security Investigations New York Prosecutor of the Year Award and the Attorney General’s Award for Distinguished Service.

Maggie clerked for the Honorable Leonard B. Sand, United States District Court for the Southern District of New York, and the Honorable Margo K. Brodie, United States District Court for the Eastern District of New York. She graduated with honors from Williams College and cum laude from Harvard Law School. She previously served as a Faculty Member for Harvard Law School’s Trial Advocacy Workshop and as an Adjunct Professor of Clinical Law at New York University School of Law, where she taught a seminar and clinic on federal prosecution.

DESIREA STOTT-RODGERS

Desirea Stott-Rodgers co-founded Love146, an international human rights organization working to end child trafficking and exploitation. She worked as the Creative Director and in the communications department for 10 years. Desirea has worked in over 20 countries. She is an award winning, published documentary photographer who specializes in day sessions for families and humanitarian organizations.

Photographing since 2002 with clients in the U.S., Asia, and Europe, Desirea is most known for her images that capture the authentic, beautiful and slightly weird moments of the everyday. She has spent half her life in the Northeast U.S. and the other half in the Northwest. When she is not traveling for photography she is located on a small art farm with her husband and two daughters in rural OR.

Babz Rawls Ivy

Babz Rawls Ivy is the Editor-in-Chief of the Inner-City News, a 30+ year old award winning weekly print publication published by Penfield Communication, Inc. in New Haven, CT. The Inner-City News, is a Black-owned legacy publication, one of two Black print publications in New England.

Babz is also the Producer and morning radio personality of LoveBabz LoveTALK show.

She holds a B.S. in Marketing from Barber-Scotia College, a Historically Black College in Concord, NC, and is a Fellow at The Access to Law School Program at Yale Law School, which is an innovative law school pipeline program designed for people from the New Haven area who are first generation, low-income, formerly incarcerated, racial minorities in the U.S., or members of another group that is underrepresented in the law.

In addition to serving as Chair, President and member of multiple Boards, she is a certified Spiritual Director at The Mercy Center, School Of Spirituality & Practicum. Madison, CT, and a National Urban Fellow with a Masters in Public Administration, Baruch, City University New York.

She is the Founder/creator of The Freed Woman Fund. A fund to aid Black Women exiting prison returning back to community.

She is a proud mother of 4 adopted children, who are making their way in the world.

Dr. Glynis King Harrell

Glynis is a dedicated public-school educator with a passion for urban schools and disabled children. A certified Speech Language Pathologist with credentials from University of Illinois, University of Memphis, Roosevelt University and Nova Southeastern University.

Currently, the Supervisor of Speech, Language, Hearing and Special Education for New Haven Public Schools. Her role is to provide support to principals, teachers, specialists, and parents making sure that all students are given an opportunity to reach their full potential. Formerly an adjunct professor at Sacred Heart University. An invited presenter for the American Speech & Hearing Association (ASHA) and a guest speaker at the University of Illinois.

She is currently a member of the Links Inc., Waterbury Chapter, served as Lead Teen Advisor for the New Haven CT. Chapter of Jack and Jill. Previously a member of the CT State Advisory Council for Special Education, and Board member of the National Black Association of Speech Language & Hearing Her most notable accomplishment is being the proud mother of McKenlley a senior at Hampton University.

Glynis is humbled and honored to have the opportunity to share her knowledge and talents across a myriad of genres. Consistently looking for ways to serve her community, support urban public education and encourage children striving to reach their full potential and RISE.”

Kyle webb

Kyle Webb leads Culture & Engagement for S&P Global, a Financial Services and Data company.  He is a strategist, organizational development practictioner, facilitator, and change leader. In his role, Kyle partners with stakeholders across the organization to craft innovative and practical ways to support individual and team change and activate on the purpose and core values of the organization. Most recently, he was a core part of the integration team for the $44B merger between S&P Global and IHS Markit, with a focus on integrating the two cultures and supporting engagement.

Prior to joining the S&P Global, Kyle was a Manager in Accenture Strategy’s Talent & Organization practice, with a focus on operating model design. He worked with clients across industries and functions to shape transformational organization change.

Kyle cares deeply about eliminating trafficking in persons. He formerly served as a volunteer analyst with La Strada International, where he wrote on how to engage the private sector as well as performed various other research.

Kyle holds an International MBA from the Moore School of Business at the University of South Carolina with a focus in Global Supply Chain and Operations Management and a Bachelor of Science in Accounting from Ohio Northern University. He loves music, travel, coffee, and connecting with nature. 

Reina Tschoe

Reina Tschoe has worked in the financial services industry for over 9 years. She is a strategist and manager of risk, with compliance experience and a legal background. She is currently a Vice President of Reputational Risk Management for an international investment bank based in Switzerland where she advises on risk, compliance, and reputational impact strategy for global clients across a wide range of sectors, including but not limited to ESG topics, consumer goods, and tech.

Prior to being a reputational risk manager, Reina worked at Goldman Sachs where she oversaw the government interactions compliance program and also was a senior analyst performing qualitative risk assessment and due diligence on a wide range of business activities at the bank.

Reina is deeply passionate about empowering and providing support to vulnerable communities, like fighting against human trafficking. She received her BA in International Affairs at George Washington University and her JD from Suffolk University Law School. She has spent some time working as a pro-bono attorney for the New York Legal Assistance Group, where she provided services and support to low-income clients in consumer defense cases.

In her free time, she loves to travel to new places to help gain new perspectives and is currently learning Spanish.