Dr. Al Fuertes, professor at SIS was one of the invited speakers at the 2025 Anti-Trafficking Symposium: Collaborating to Combat, hosted by the U.S. Department of Homeland Security’s (DHS) Center for Countering Human Trafficking (CCHT) on January 15-16 in Pentagon City, Arlington, VA.
Representatives of Freedom Connection (FC), a student-led, student-initiated anti-human trafficking organization at Mason where Dr. Fuertes serves as faculty adviser, also did a wonderful presentation about the organization's anti-human trafficking initiatives on campus and beyond. They are Chloe Brackens (Conflict Analysis), Austyn Walker (Criminology), and Talis Hess (Integrative Studies). FC was founded in 2014 by former students in Dr. Fuertes' Human Trafficking and Smuggling class who wanted to do something tangible and constructive and make a societal impact in response to what they had learned from class. Today the organization is a program partner of the DHS-Blue Campaign. FC is the only student-based organization in the country invited to do a presentation at the Symposium which brings together federal, state, local, tribal, and community organizations; law enforcement experts; business professionals; and lived experience consultants all over the US.
January 31, 2025