Who We Are
Celebrating 10 years of providing direct services to almost 1,000 survivors of human trafficking, the New York Anti-Trafficking Network (NYATN) was the first in New York to promote the rights of survivors of human trafficking. We bring together the voices of those with first-hand experience of the injustices of human trafficking, who work consistently to meet the needs of trafficked persons, and who advocate for a more rights-based and responsive policy towards trafficked persons.
NYATN consists of a diverse group of service providers and advocates in New York, dedicated to ending human trafficking and coordinating resources for trafficked persons. Our membership includes over 90 organizations and individuals advocating on behalf of survivors of trafficking and other forms of violence. Since 2002, we provided direct services to survivors of human trafficking, and have fostered policy, legislation, education, and advocacy on a wide range of issues relating to trafficking in persons.
We seek to establish dialogue and discuss service options in a range of cases and enable cross-communication regarding each agency’s work with trafficked persons. We provide direct services to trafficked persons; technical assistance to attorneys, case managers, and other service providers who work with trafficked persons; train law enforcement and non-governmental organizations on issues relating to trafficking in persons; outreach in communities to provide resources and information on trafficking in persons; and engage in policy advocacy on these issues.
NYATN played a key role in the passage of the New York Anti-Trafficking Law as well as all of the reauthorizations of the federal Trafficking Victims Protection Act. We continually advocate for legislation that promotes the rights of trafficked persons at the state and federal levels.
The New York Anti-Trafficking Network is guided by the following principles:
- Recognizing that sustainable change and improved response to trafficked persons requires increased capacity of network partners working in concert to support trafficked persons.
- Developing new ways of working together to deliver services, share information, identify resources, and advocate, is pivotal to an effective response to trafficked persons.
- Educating service providers, law enforcement, governmental entities and the general public is critical to reaching trafficked persons.
Our Steering Committee members:
Florrie Burke, M.Ed., MA, LMFT is a consultant on Modern Day Slavery to both governmental and non governmental agencies. She is a founding member and currently a Co-Chair of the Freedom Network and serves as the Coordinator of the Freedom Network Training Institute. She has done extensive training, speaking and consultation on Human Trafficking issues, trauma and torture both nationally and internationally. She has served as an Expert Witness on several high profile cases of Human Trafficking. She is a member of the Expert Initiative on Human Trafficking at the UNODC in Vienna and is part of three working groups developing materials for first responders and others who may encounter Human Trafficking. Ms. Burke has been working with trafficked persons since 1997 when she designed and implemented specialized social services to sixty deaf Mexicans who were held in slavery in a peddling ring in NYC. Ms. Burke also designed and implemented a model for Community Trauma Response following the attacks on September 11th. In 2007 Ms. Burke received the National Crime Victims Recognition Service Award from the Department of Justice, Office for Victims of Crime. She has been honored by the Civil Rights Division of the Department of Justice, by the Wage and Hour Division of the U.S. Department of Labor and was awarded the Annual Paul and Sheila Wellstone Award by the Freedom Network USA.
Crystal DeBoise is a licensed social worker with 11 years of experience assisting survivors of gender violence. She is currently the Director of Social Services at the Urban Justice Center’s Sex Workers Project (SWP). SWP provides comprehensive legal and social services to trafficked people and sex workers. Crystal founded one of the first anti-trafficking programs in the United States at the New York Association for New Americans in 2001.
Suzanne B. Seltzer is partner of Klasko, Rulon, Stock & Seltzer LLP. Ms. Seltzer chairs the American Immigration Lawyers Association’s (AILA) Vermont Service Center (VSC) Liaison Committee, is a member of AILA’s Service Center Operations Liaison Committee, and is a member of AILA’s Annual Conference Planning Committee. In addition to her role on AILA committees, Ms. Seltzer is a Regulatory Ombudsman for NAFSA: Association of International Educators, is on the Steering Committee of the New York Anti-Trafficking Network, and Co-Chairs its legal subcommittee. Ms. Seltzer regularly speaks and publishes on matters relating to immigration law. She obtained her JD from Georgetown University Law Center, and her B.A. from the University of Pennsylvania.
Keeli Sorensen has been a human rights advocate since 2004, focusing on protection issues of vulnerable populations in post-conflict and emergency settings around the world. In November 2009, she joined Safe Horizon’s Anti-Trafficking Program as the Director of Training and Advocacy, where she coordinates the program’s policy agenda, and manages outreach and educational activities for key stakeholders, including service providers, law enforcement and government agencies as well as the general public. Before joining Safe Horizon, Keeli lead efforts to assist victims of exploitation, violence and trafficking with Save the Children, UK and Amnesty International. She has focused on developing protective policies and programs for children abducted into the armed forces in the Democratic Republic of Congo, and she designed research that investigated sexual exploitation of children in Cote d’Ivoire, Sudan and Haiti. Keeli is an active member of several anti-trafficking networks including the Alliance against Slavery and Trafficking (ATEST), the New York Anti-Trafficking Network (NYATN), the Global Alliance against Trafficking in Women (GAATW) and the Freedom Network (USA). Keeli received her MA in International Policy from the Monterey Institute of International Studies and is proficient in French.
Ivy O. Suriyopas is a Staff Attorney with the Anti-Trafficking Initiative at the Asian American Legal Defense and Education Fund (AALDEF). The Anti-Trafficking Initiative addresses the intersection of immigration, race, class, age, and sex while adding to AALDEF’s comprehensive approach to serving the Asian American community. She provides legal representation, conducts community education and outreach, and engages in policy advocacy on sex and labor trafficking issues. This legal representation includes immigration assistance as well as civil litigation for claims involving the Trafficking Victims Protection Reauthorization Act, the Fair Labor Standards Act, and other federal and state laws. Ms. Suriyopas was formerly an Equal Justice Works Fellow and a summer clerk at AALDEF. Her previous legal experience includes externships with the Honorable Martin J. Jenkins of the Northern District of California and the ACLU of Northern California. She served as Co-Editor-in-Chief of the Hastings Race and Poverty Law Journal and studied international human rights law in South Africa through Howard University. She received her J.D. from the University of California, Hastings College of the Law and her B.S. in Policy Analysis and Management from Cornell University.
Juhu Thukral, J.D., is a leading expert on the rights of low-income and immigrant women in the areas of sexual health and rights, gender-based violence, economic security, and criminal justice. She is a founder of numerous ventures supporting women and LGBT people, and has been recognized as one of “21 Leaders for the 21st Century 2012.” Ms. Thukral is the Director of Law and Advocacy at The Opportunity Agenda, where she leads strategic communications and policy initiatives on economic, immigrant, and gender and sexuality concerns. Prior to this, Ms. Thukral was the founder and Director of the Sex Workers Project at the Urban Justice Center in New York City, where she continues to act as a Senior Advisor. She founded the Sex Workers Project in 2001, after recognizing the strong need for an organization that protects the legal and human rights of sex workers. She is also a founding Steering Committee member of the NY Anti-Trafficking Network. In 2010, she co-founded the Women’s 21st Century Salon. Ms. Thukral has extensive experience in developing policy and programmatic initiatives, fundraising and donor education, and managing successful partnerships with diverse arrays of collaborating organizations seeking to make a shared impact. Ms. Thukral has spoken widely on issues of gender and sexuality, and has authored articles that have appeared in Race-Talk, RH Reality Check, On the Issues, Feministing.com, Research for Sex Work, and SIECUS Report, in addition to in-depth research reports involving human rights documentation and communications research. She has served as an expert source for a wide range of media outlets, including the Washington Post, Boston Globe, New York Times, Women’s eNews, NPR, Democracy Now, Good Morning America, NY1, Village Voice, AlterNet and numerous other venues. She obtained her J.D. from the University of San Francisco School of Law, where she was awarded the Elaine Osborne Jacobson Award for Women in Health Care Law, and her B.A. from Rice University.
Suzanne Tomatore, Esq. is the Director of the Immigrant Women and Children Project at the New York City Bar Association’s City Bar Justice Center. Ms. Tomatore represents survivors of domestic violence, human trafficking and violent gender-based crimes in immigration matters and trains and mentors other attorneys to do so. She has trained community-based organizations, health-care providers, law enforcement and government officials, including international delegates from the U.S. Department of State International Visitors Program, on human trafficking. She has lectured on this topic across the United States and abroad, including Canada, Venezuela and the Philippines. In addition, Ms. Tomatore has taught immigration law at the City University of New York Graduate Center School of Professional Studies. Prior to joining the City Bar, she was a recipient of the Open Society Institute Community Fellowship for implementing and directing the Immigrant Community Domestic Violence Project, hosted by CUNY School of Law Immigrant Initiatives in New York City.
