CLE - Helen Hamilton Day - 2018

Speaker Information

Emily Schwartz serves as the Director of the North Dakota Human Trafficking Task Force (NDHTTF). The NDHTTF is a statewide taskforce serving the needs of labor and sex trafficked women, men, and children. For the past ten years, Emily has been working to combat interpersonal violence, the past four years focused specifically on the issue of human trafficking in a variety of capacities. This has included protocol development, grant writing and management of a regional victim service response team. In her current role as Director, Emily aims to build bridges between three key disciplines to include law enforcement, service providers, and prosecution. Emily holds a Master’s degree in Public Management from SDA Bocconi University in Milan, Italy.

Sabrina Balgamwalla is an assistant clinical professor and the director of the Asylum and Immigration Law Clinic at Wayne State Law School in Detroit, Michigan. She previously directed the Immigrant Rights section of the Clinical Education Program at the University of North Dakota School of Law, and also taught as a fellow with the University of Baltimore School of Law Immigrant Rights Clinic. Prior to entering academia, she was a nonprofit immigration and domestic violence attorney in Washington, DC. Balgamwalla’s international experience includes a Fulbright grant to Jordan, where she studied gender mainstreaming practices in labor programs, and service as a volunteer expert with the International Senior Lawyers Project in advising law school legal aid programs in Mindanao, the Philippines. Her scholarly research examines intersections of gender, race, and citizenship in immigration policy and enforcement, and her scholarship on trafficking and labor exploitation has appeared in the University of North Dakota Law Review, Denver University Law Review, and Penn State Law Review.

Joy Smith B.Ed, M.Ed, was a teacher for 23 years, a Member of the Manitoba Legislature from 1999-2003, and a Member of Parliament from 2004-2015. She first became aware of human trafficking from her police officer son, Edward Riglin, who was working in the Integrated Child Exploitation Unit (ICE). Over the years she has helped many young victims who have been exploited or trafficked by their abusers. In Parliament, Joy Smith made Canadian history as the first sitting MP to amend the Criminal Code twice, passing Bill C-268, mandatory minimum sentencing for trafficking of children 18 years and younger, and Bill C-310, which reaches Canadian law into other countries where Canadian citizens or permanent residents traffic or exploit others abroad. Now these perpetrators can be brought to justice in Canada. In addition, she wrote the prototype for the Canadian National Action Plan to Combat Human Trafficking here in Canada. Joy Smith also took a leadership role in Bill C-36, making the purchase of sex illegal in Canada today. Joy Smith is known as a leading advocate against human trafficking worldwide, and a champion of women’s rights. She has received many awards, including The Woman of Distinction Award, the Wilberforce Award, The United Nations Recognition of Achievement Award, the My Canada Hero Award, the Winnipeg Police Commendation Award, and the Citizen of the Year Award. In 2011, she founded the “Joy Smith Foundation”, where she tirelessly volunteers her time combating human trafficking, and fighting for the rights of women in Canada and around the globe. The Joy Smith Foundation is a registered charity which seeks to end human trafficking in Canada, by raising awareness through education, and by providing funds to frontline organizations that rescue and rehabilitate victims of this heinous crime.

Monique St. Germain is General Counsel for the Canadian Centre for Child Protection Inc. (the “Canadian Centre”), a registered Canadian charity focused on the protection of all children from sexual exploitation and abuse. Monique manages the Canadian Centre’s legal department, which provides legal services tailored to supporting the needs of the diverse programs and services offered by the Canadian Centre. Such programs and services are aimed at protecting children from sexual exploitation and abuse and include initiatives such as Cybertip. ca, Canada’s National Tipline to Report the Online Sexual Exploitation of Children; MissingKids.ca, Canada’s missing child resource and response centre; the educational safety program for children from pre-school to high school Kids in the Know, and the program for child serving organizations, Commit to Kids. In addition, Monique and her team routinely monitor reported Canadian cases of internet child sexual exploitation along with other notable legislative developments from across Canada to help inform the ongoing efforts of the Canadian Centre. Monique has presented numerous times at educational sessions organized for Crown prosecutors, and at other conferences concerned with the protection of children. She has also appeared as a witness for the Canadian Centre before the House of Commons Standing Committee on Justice and Human Rights and the Senate Standing Committee of Legal and Constitutional Affairs, and appeared as counsel for the Canadian Centre when it intervened in the Supreme Court of Canada case, R. v. Barabash.

Dr. Nikki Berg Burin is an Assistant Professor of History and Women and Gender Studies at the University of North Dakota. She specializes in American women’s history and is researching sex trafficking, commercial sexual exploitation, and prostitution in North Dakota both past and present. She is currently collaborating with a variety of survivor leaders, anti- trafficking specialists, and scholars on a zine project, which will inform readers about the nature and prevalence of sex trafficking in North Dakota, the controversies surrounding it, and the steps that regular people can take to help eradicate it. In addition to her scholarly and pedagogical pursuits, Dr. Berg Burin is also serving as a consultant for the North Dakota Human Trafficking Task Force.

Jennifer Puhl has been an Assistant United States Attorney in Fargo, North Dakota for nearly 16 years. As an AUSU or federal prosecutor, she represents the federal government on behalf of the United States in criminal prosecutions. For the past eleven years, Jennifer has served as the North Dakota coordinator for Project Safe Childhood (PSC), a Department of Justice initiative aimed at combating the sexual exploitation of children. As the PSC coordinator, she prosecutes the technology-facilitated sexual exploitation crimes against children to include child prostitution, child pornography, sexual extortion, and other child exploitation crimes. In addition to prosecuting the child exploitation cases, Ms. Puhl serves as the human trafficking coordinator for the United States Attorney’s Office. Recently, she partnered with a nongovernmental organization in creating a coalition of law enforcement and service providers to address the human trafficking epidemic in North Dakota. The goal of the coalition is to rescue human trafficking victims and better investigate and prosecute their traffickers. Ms. Puhl also serves as the District of North Dakota’s National Security Cyber Specialist and as the Computer Hacking and Intellectual Property (CHIP) Coordinator for the District of North Dakota. As the CHIP Coordinator, she assists federal agents in obtaining digital evidence from electronic and internet service providers. Prior to joining the United States Attorney’s Office in 2002, she worked in private practice in Minneapolis, Minnesota and in 2000, she clerked for the Honorable Mary Muehlen Maring at the North Dakota Supreme Court.

Diane Redsky is a First Nation’s woman who has long worked to address the myriad of issues facing Winnipeg’s Indigenous community in all areas all areas of health, justice, education and social services. She has served in both a professional and volunteer capacity with local, national and international agencies and has become a strong advocate for Indigenous children’s and women’s issues. Through her leadership in several Aboriginal led community-based organizations, she has helped to create numerous innovative programs that have helped build healthy communities through promoting the growth and development of the urban Indigenous community particularly the safety, protection and well-being of women and girls and ending sex trafficking. Diane is currently the Executive Director of the Ma Mawi Wi Chi Itata (Ma Mawi) Centre in Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada. Ma Mawi translated from Ojibway means, ‘we all work together to help one another’ is a community-based, community-led, Indigenous-driven family resource centre that is a leader in community based care for Indigenous children, youth and families in Winnipeg. She has been acknowledged: Order of Manitoba, YMCA-YWCA Women of Distinction Award, Queen’s Diamond Jubilee Medal, Leadership Award by Joy Smith Foundation and Governor General’s Awards in Commemoration of the Persons Case.

Christina Sambor is the Assistant Director at Youthworks
and manages the agency’s Fargo office. She is a licensed attorney, 2014 Bush Foundation Fellow, and expert on human trafficking in North Dakota. She has served as one of the founding leaders of North Dakota’s coordinated response to human trafficking. Her previous positions include: Coordinator of FUSE - the statewide anti-trafficking coalition in North Dakota, Director of the North Dakota Human Trafficking Task Force, and co-chair of the Attorney General’s Human Trafficking Commission. In her various roles, Christina has worked with non-profit partners, state agencies, law enforcement, and elected officials to fund and coordinate direct services to survivors, proactive law enforcement investigations, and to facilitate cross-disciplinary cooperation, education and coordination in the fight against labor and commercial sexual exploitation. Prior to these positions, Christina worked in the private practice of law in Bismarck, North Dakota and clerked at the United States District Court in North Dakota. Christina was also a Senior Legal and Policy Fellow with the Polaris Project, a national leader in the fight against human trafficking in the United States. During law school, she clerked for the Major Crimes Division of the Los Angeles County District Attorney’s Office and also spent a summer in Chiang Mai, Thailand, assisting in program development for sexually exploited women.