HTTF Symposium
October 17,2020
Breakaway
Peter Qualliotine been working to promote men’s accountability and end commercial sexual exploitation and other forms of gender-based violence for over thirty years. In the early 1990s, he co-founded the Sexual Exploitation Education Project in Portland, Oregon, where he created one of the first sex buyers intervention programs in the country. During that time, he also worked
with the Portland Women's Crisis Line to integrate the issue of commercial sexual exploitation into a comprehensive middle and high school program to prevent gender-based violence. In 2012, he co-founded Organization for Prostitution Survivors (OPS) with Noel Gomez in Seattle. As OPS’ Director of Men’s Accountability, he launched the 10-week sex buyers intervention program Stopping Sexual Exploitation and co-coordinated the King County Ending Exploitation Collaborative. Presently, Peter lives in Western Massachusetts and coordinates Modeling Equality, a project to catalyze the creation and implementation of policies and practices across multiple sectors that address commercial sexual exploitation through an Equality Model framework.
Jessa Crisp uses her childhood experience of severe abuse and trafficking to illustrate both the stark realities of trafficking, and the truth that healing transformation is possible. After her escape and recovery process, Jessa went to school and is presently working on her M.A. in Clinical Mental Health Counseling as a step towards her dream of obtaining a Ph.D. in Clinical Psychology. Jessa is the co-founder and Executive Director of BridgeHope, an anti-trafficking non-profit within the Denver-metro area and was recently appointed by the Governor to the Colorado Human Trafficking Council. Jessa inspires others through speaking engagements around the world, gives hope through mentoring other survivors of human trafficking, and provides high quality training and consultation services to both NGO’s and government agencies. When she is not working, Jessa enjoys hiking Colorado's mountains with her husband John, finds delight in artistically expressing herself through photography, and is passionate about deeply connecting with people over freshly brewed coffee.
Megan Lundstrom is the co-founder and executive director of The Avery Center for Research & Services (formerly known as “Free Our Girls”). Megan is an internationally published researcher and national public speaker on the issue of commercial sexual exploitation. She holds a BS in Finance and a MA in Sociology from the University of Northern Colorado. The Avery Center is using research to reduce demand, convict traffickers, and decrease barriers for marginalized populations through evidence-based services. In this year of great upheaval, Megan has researched how the COVID-19 pandemic has affected sex trafficking. Her research appears in an article by Dr. Melissa Farley called Prostitution, The Sex Trade, and the COVID-19 Pandemic.
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