Featured Speakers

Wendy Macías-Konstantopoulos, MD, MPH
Dr. Wendy Macías-Konstantopoulos is a board-certified practicing emergency physician at Massachusetts General Hospital (MGH) and faculty at Harvard Medical School. A graduate from the Harvard School of Public Health, she is Medical Director of the Human Trafficking Initiative at the Division of Global Health and Human Rights in the MGH Department of Emergency Medicine. Dr. Macías-Konstantopoulos has been engaged in the field of health and human trafficking since 2006 lecturing nationwide, performing public health research, and conducting health professional trainings. She is also a member of state and federal government task forces developing and shaping policy on health and human trafficking.

Natalie McClain, PhD, RN, CPNP
Dr. Natalie McClain began working with victims of violence as an advanced practice nurse providing medical forensic evaluations of sexual abuse. Dr. McClain performed hundreds of medical forensic exams, testified in both civil and criminal trials, and served as an expert witness for the FBI. In 2004, she received her Ph.D. and continued her research focused on forensic nursing and child maltreatment. She served as a member of the IOM Committee on Commercial Sexual Exploitation and Sex Trafficking of Minors in the U.S. Currently she is a Clinical Associate Professor at Boston College William F. Connell School of Nursing in Boston, MA.

Holly Smith
Holly Smith is a survivor of child sex trafficking and an advocate against all forms of commercial sexual exploitation and human trafficking. She works with survivors of abuse, anti-trafficking organizations, and pro-empowerment programs across the globe; and she is requested on a regular basis to provide testimony and input to law enforcement officials, health and social service providers, community organizations, and journalists. In her nonfiction book, Walking Prey, Holly shares her personal story of being trafficked for sex at age fourteen; and she also discusses many dynamics related to the commercial sexual exploitation of children in the United States.

Frances Ashe-Goins, MPH, RN, ADN, BSN
Frances Ashe-Goins is a health administrator, policy maker, innovator, educator, and registered nurse. She received her MPH in Health Education from the University of South Carolina in 1980. She is currently the Associate Director for Partnerships and Programs at the HHS, Office on Women’s Health. She is working with several White House committees to enhance efforts on the health of women and girls. She was appointed as a HHS representative for the first ever White House working group on the Intersection of HIV/AIDS, Violence against Women and Girls and Gender-Related Health Disparities.