The 5th annual Human Trafficking Conference has been rescheduled for October 20. The conference was originally set for April 1.

Lt. Gov. Dan Forest will be among the featured speakers.

The conference will be held from 9 a.m. to 1 p.m. at the University Center Annex. It is free and open to the public. Human trafficking experts will discuss the nation’s fastest growing crime epidemic. This year, conference presenters will include a child sex trafficking survivor.

Forest has been lieutenant governor since 2013. Throughout his tenure as the state’s second highest ranking official, he has championed legislation that seeks to protect the most vulnerable among us, especially when it comes to human trafficking. He spearheaded the effort at the General Assembly to pass into law Senate Bill 548, Strengthen Human Trafficking. This became the most comprehensive human trafficking legislation enacted in the state and has made North Carolina a leader in combating these heinous practices.

The keynote speaker will be Christine Long, executive director of the N.C. Human Trafficking Commission. Other presenters include Cary Ramsey, direct support services coordinator at A Safe Place; Karen Buckley, executive director of Just Ask Prevention and the National Human Trafficking Intelligence Center; Darlene Pawlik, child sex trafficking survivor; and New Hanover Sheriff’s detective Will Campbell who is an officer with the FBI Task Force on trafficking.

Bill Woolf, director of Human Trafficking Programs at the Department of Justice in Washington, D.C. will be plenary session speaker. Wolf is a retired detective from Fairfax County, VA and the 2018 recipient of the Presidential Medal for Extraordinary Efforts to Combat Trafficking in Persons from Secretary of State Mike Pompeo.

The event is hosted by UNCP’s Department of Sociology and Criminal Justice. For more information, contact adjunct professor and event coordinator Judith Paparozzi at judith.paparozzi@uncp.edu.