Monday, January 11, 2021 1:00 – 2:00 PM EST

In honor of National Human Trafficking Awareness Day, please join the RTI Global Gender Center and human trafficking experts on a discussion highlighting RTI’s human trafficking research, program evaluation, and training and technical assistance projects and efforts. Read more about each of the presenters below!

The presentation will include:

A brief description of the intersection of human trafficking and gender,

An overview of RTI’s human trafficking project portfolio,

A discussion about key issues regarding human trafficking in the United States, and

Highlights of future areas of interest and growth.

Please contact bhoward@rti.org if you are interested in attending this event

Stacey Cutbush

Stacey Cutbush is as a social scientist in RTI’s Center for Community Safety and Crime Prevention, where she serves as the co-director of the Violence and Victimization program. She is currently the principal investigator for the Measuring Outcomes in Services to Domestic Victims of Human Trafficking: Instrument Development and Testing project. She also serves as the Co-Principal Investigator for the Measuring the Impact of Victim Services: Developing the Victim Outcome and Satisfaction Survey Instrument and Platform project.  Dr. Cutbush also lends her expertise to the Improving Outcomes for Child and Youth Victims of Human Trafficking project as the Associate Project Director, and the Assessment of National and State Tip Line Technology as a Strategy for Identifying Threats to School Safety study as the Task Lead of the Oregon Implementation Evaluation. She is an expert in process and outcome evaluation design, quantitative and qualitative instrument development, and cognitive interviewing.

Natasha Latzman

Natasha Latzman has a transdisciplinary background in clinical psychology, law and public health. She has more than 17 years of applied research and evaluation experience focused on improving the health and well-being of vulnerable children, families, and communities. Dr. Latzman provides scientific expertise in the design and implementation of projects related to violence and victimization (e.g., child maltreatment, human trafficking and sexual exploitation, child exposure to violence) and child and adolescent behavioral and mental health. Dr. Latzman is the director of a Department of Homeland Security effort designed to identify challenges and opportunities to support law enforcement operations to combat Internet crimes against children. She also serves as associate project director for the Administration for Children and Families’ Human Trafficking Policy and Research Analyses Project, including leading a formative evaluation of the Human Trafficking Youth Prevention Education Demonstration program.

Rebecca Pfeffer

Rebecca Pfeffer is a research criminologist in RTI’s Victimization and Resilience Program, where she currently works on a variety of projects related to human trafficking identification and victim service provision. She currently serves as an evaluator for the Bureau of Justice Statistics-funded Houston Human Trafficking Rescue Alliance, OVC-funded Trafficked Persons Assistance Program, and the Harris County District Attorney's Office's Project 180 and Gulf Coast Coalition Against Sexual Exploitation. She is an expert in qualitative data collection and analysis, survey development and implementation, and program evaluation. She is a member of the American Society of Criminology and the Academy of Criminal Justice Sciences and has been published in several peer-reviewed journals on topics ranging from the law enforcement response to human trafficking, labor trafficking victimization, the victimization of children with disabilities, and inclusive criminal justice pedagogies.

Jaclyn Houston-Kolnik

Jaclyn Houston-Kolnik is a community research psychologist within RTI’s Center for Community Safety and Crime Prevention, where she currently works on a variety of projects focused on exploring the impact of practices and programming on victims’ help-seeking and healing. Dr. Houston-Kolnik was formerly the manager of the Center for Victim Studies at the Illinois Criminal Justice Information Authority, where she led a team of researchers to conduct a statewide victim needs assessment to identify gaps in victim service programming and inform state funding opportunities to administer both Victim of Crime Act and Violence Against Women Act funding. Dr. Houston-Kolnik has led multiple projects and tasks, including evaluation design, cognitive interviewing, training and technical assistance, and quantitative and qualitative design, data collection, and analyses. Informed by her professional training and experience as a former victim advocate, she has extensive experience translating and disseminating findings to multiple audiences, including practitioners, researchers, and state officials.

Kelle Barrick

Kelle Barrick, a senior research criminologist in the Division for Applied Justice Research, has 20 years of experience conducting criminal justice and criminological research. Dr. Barrick’s current efforts include estimating the prevalence of sex and labor trafficking; identifying successful strategies for the identification, investigation, and prosecution of labor trafficking cases; increasing our understanding of opportunities to disrupt sex trafficking recruitment and network operations; and conducting a formative evaluation of a law enforcement-based victim services program. She is an expert on human trafficking and has participated in working groups on trafficking research convened by the National Science Foundation and the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime, among others. Dr. Barrick also has extensive experience with program evaluation in a broad variety of areas, including prisoner reentry, criminal justice reform, community corrections, crime laboratory efficiency, and responses to domestic violence.

Kathleen Krieger

Kathleen Krieger is a research public health analyst in RTI’s Center for Community and Crime Prevention, and is an expert in designing and conducting qualitative, quantitative, and mixed methods studies. Currently she oversees an OVC-funded training and technical assistance project that supports state efforts to improve outcomes for child and youth victims of human trafficking, and the evaluation of the Cook County Human Trafficking Task Force. She serves in leadership roles for multiple projects that focus on victim services, human trafficking, intimate partner violence, and services for vulnerable populations. Prior to joining RTI, Ms. Krieger was a community clinic manager and a community public health educator and trainer. She is currently a board member for the Sexual Assault Center of Pierce County.