Speakers

Charlene Aqpik Apok, Ph.D., M.A., Exec. Director, Data for Indigenous Justice; Gender Justice & Healing Director, Native Movement Indigenous Studies, University of Alaska Fairbanks.

Charlene is Iñupiaq, her family is from White Mountain and Golovin, AK. She is mother to Evan Lukluan. Charlene has served in many spaces as an advocate for Indigenous womxn, Indigenous sovereignty, climate justice, and Indigenous rights to health and wellbeing. Charlene is a lifelong learner in both her cultural traditions and decolonizing academia. She earned her B.A. in American Ethnic Studies with a minor in Gender, Women & Sexuality Studies, an M.A. in Alaska Native Studies and Rural Development, and Ph.D. in Indigenous Studies. Previous to her current positions she worked in tribal health as a researcher serving Alaska Native and American Indian peoples.

Charlene gratefully resides in Anchorage on the territories of the Dena’ina peoples. Here she has taught the Iñupiaq language and is part of the Kingikmuit dance group with her son.

Jessica Saniguq Ullrich, Ph.D., (Inupiaq) is an Assistant Professor at the University of Alaska Anchorage in the School of Social Work.

Jessica has been a scholar with the Native Child Research Exchange program, the Indigenous Wellness Research Institute ISMART program, and Council of Social Work Education Minority Fellowship Program.

Jessica’s research interests pertain to the promotion of Alaska Native child wellbeing using an Indigenous Connectedness Framework. This framework highlights the importance of being in the right relationship with family, community, the earth, ancestors/future generations, and with spirit.

Jessica is currently co-authoring a paper that focuses on the application of Indigenous Connectedness to child welfare and she will work with Alaska Native youth from 3 rural communities using digital storytelling to highlight community protective factors.

When vulnerable people are maltreated or exploited a sense of profound isolation from their community occurs. Ms. Smith’s passion is inspiring through Survivor Led leadership; current victims, survivors, and disenfranchised community members a safe, judgement-free space to tap into their power individually and as like-minded groups to courageously develop their lived narrative to foster felt change in their lives and communities.

Ms. Smith founder of amy_consulting a watchdog barrier buster advocacy firm in Anchorage and Alaska Relative and Kinship Providers a statewide support group for families seeking placement of their relative children under the Indian Child Welfare Act (ICWA), actively bridges gaps in services and community narrative for Alaska’s most at-risk populations through strategic community outreach events, public speaking, and educational opportunities to support community members in acquiring skills in resiliency, self-advocacy, and their basic legal rights.

Ms. Smith elicits a holistic approach and practice of viewing a barrier and its effects on the individual, their family, and the community; seeking a resolution that instills a wholeness and healing back to all.

Ms. Smith believes within and outside of her professional capacity; that permeating a guided path for others to follow is a commitment to her own personal narrative of preventing others’ from enduring what she experienced. As such, Ms. Smith has remained focused and conscientious in choosing professional capacities that support a holistic approach to victims and survivors through their own inherent strengths and self-determination toward thriving.

André Rosay, Ph.D., Associate Dean for Academic and Student Affairs in the College of Health at the University of Alaska Anchorage.

He was an executive visiting research fellow with the National Institute of Justice, Office of Justice Programs, U.S. Department of Justice when he authored the National Institute of Justice Research Report on violence against American Indian and Alaska Native women and men.

David Okech, MSW, Ph.D., Professor, School of Social Work, University of Georgia.

Dr. David Okech conducts research on human trafficking – the exploitation of men, women, and children for the purposes of labor or sex. He focuses on designing evidence-based interventions to inform programs and policies that improve the well-being and increase economic empowerment for survivors of trafficking.

Dr. Okech is the founding director of the African Programming and Research Initiative to End Slavery (APRIES) and the Center on Human Trafficking Research and Outreach (CenHTRO).

He serves on the International Steering Group of the Antislavery Knowledge Network at the University of Liverpool in the United Kingdom, among other global anti-trafficking organizations. He was director of the Master of Social Work Program (2013-19) and director of Global Engagement (2014-17) at the University of Georgia School of Social Work. Dr. Okech was inducted as a Fellow of the Society for Social Work and Research in 2017.

Sara Buckingham, Ph.D., is an Assistant Professor of Clinical-Community Psychology at the University of Alaska Anchorage.

Her research examines how communities shape acculturation and wellbeing among migrant populations. She is a licensed psychologist who specializes in multilingual culturally-congruent psychological services (assessment, psychotherapy) for forced migrants for torture, trauma, and adjustment-related issues.

Related to this work, Dr. Buckingham directs Working Alongside Refugees in Mental Health (WARM), an innovative clinician training network aimed at increasing forced migrants' access to quality mental health services.

Dr. Buckingham teaches courses in clinical and community interventions, community and social psychology, and qualitative research methods.

Anna Taylor, JD, Supervising Attorney at the Alaska Institute for Justice (AIJ).

Anna started working with AIJ as a staff attorney in March 2014 at the Juneau office. In February of 2018, she moved to the Anchorage office. Since joining AIJ Anna has helped clients get U visas, as victims of crime; T visas, as victims of human trafficking; green cards, as victims of domestic violence; and asylum, as survivors of persecutions. She regularly does presentations on working with immigrant survivors of domestic violence and human trafficking, including SART trainings in Anchorage, Ketchikan, and Fairbanks.

Anna graduated from the Washington College of Law at American University in 2013. She spent five months representing detained immigrants in Harlingen, Texas at the South Texas Pro Bono Asylum Representation Project (ProBAR), then moved to Juneau to work for AIJ. She received her bachelor’s degree at the University of Vermont in 2008, majoring in anthropology and history.

Anna enjoys getting to know the trails around Anchorage with her retired sled dog.

E. Ingrid Cumberlidge is the Missing and Murdered Indigenous Persons (MMIP) Coordinator at the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the District of Alaska. Ms. Cumberlidge was appointed in July 2020 and is one of 11 MMIP Coordinators designated to serve in U.S. Attorney’s Offices nationwide, as part of the Department of Justice’s MMIP Initiative to address missing and murdered Native Americans.

Of both Aleut and Tlingit descent, Ms. Cumberlidge is a warrior for Alaska Natives and an advocate for Alaska’s law enforcement community. As the MMIP Coordinator, Ms. Cumberlidge will support coordinated responses to MMIP connected to Alaska; conduct outreach with tribal communities to assist in the creation and implementation of Tribal Community Response Plans/community action plans; coordinate with tribal, local, state, and federal law enforcement in the development of guidelines and procedures for responding to and addressing MMIP cases; and promote improved data collection and analyses throughout Alaska.

Ms. Cumberlidge is an educator and Tribal Leader with over 30 years supporting her native community of Sand Point, Alaska. Prior to joining the U.S. Attorney’s Office, Ms. Cumberlidge served the Qagan Tayagungin Tribe as a Tribal Judge and Chief Judge for 22 years, engaged in various cases including primarily child protection and protective order cases. Ms. Cumberlidge also served as a member of the Tribal Advisory Council for the National Judicial College at the University of Nevada, Reno.

Ms. Cumberlidge has provided tribal court development training and worked to develop Alaska tribal court capacity across the state. She also served as a teacher and then principal in Sand Point for 23 years. Additionally, Ms. Cumberlidge was a tribal appointed delegate for the negotiation and ratification of the Millennium Agreement between the federally recognized Tribes of Alaska and the State of Alaska.

John Christopher "Chris" Darnall, Assistant Attorney General working at the Alaska Department of Law's Office of Special Prosecutions (OSP).

For the past several years, Chris has handled a caseload primarily focused on “cybercrime” which includes internet-based crimes against children and trafficking of both adults and children. Chris prosecutes both Human and Sex Trafficking cases given the reality that these crimes often present with a “cyber nexus.”

In addition to working as a prosecutor, Chris has recently taken on the task of spearheading the Department’s general efforts towards addressing trafficking as it might exist in Alaska.

Prior to coming to OSP, Chris worked as a line prosecutor in Anchorage, a lark clerk for the court system in Kenai, and was a member of the Alaska Air National Guard.

Karen Sallee, RN, MSN-FNP, is a Family Nurse Practitioner (FNP) and has lived in Alaska since 2014 after moving here with her husband and her three children.

She has worked with Providence Health Services for the past 13 years as both an RN and NP. Karen has been involved with anti-human trafficking efforts at the grassroots level since 2009, initially spreading awareness, education, and fundraising for the movement in Washington state.

Upon moving to AK, she took a FNP position with a multidisciplinary team at Alaska CARES evaluating and treating children that have been victims of physical and sexual abuse, neglect, and other maltreatments. She has an interest in identifying and caring for minors that have been sexually exploited.

Karen believes that through community collaboration among government, private, and faith-based services, resources can be expanded to provide justice, hope and, healing so that victims can become thriving survivors.

Erin Terry, MA, is a Victim Specialist for the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), Anchorage Division.

She holds a master’s degree in Psychology, specializing in Gender Diversity with a focus on trauma response.

Erin Terry has worked nearly two decades as a victim service provider including child forensic interviewing, shelter and crisis response administration, system advocacy, and training and outreach.

As a Victim Specialist, she works with domestic and international victims of all federal crimes, with a strong focus on crimes against children, human trafficking, hate crimes, and color of law cases.

Victim Specialist Terry facilitates the Alaska Victim Assistance Partnership (AVAP), a working group focused on mass violence victim response.

Adam Alexander, Assistant United States Attorney.

Adam Alexander is the Project Safe Childhood and Human Trafficking Coordinator for the District of Alaska. In that role he partners in the prosecution of child exploitation and trafficking offenses in partnership with local, state, and federal law enforcement partners.

Prior to joining the Department of Justice in 2017, Adam served from 2013 to 2017 as the Assistant Attorney General with the State of Alaska’s Office of Special Prosecutions assigned to prosecute statewide child exploitation and trafficking offenses. From 2010 to 2013 Adam served as an Assistant District Attorney in Anchorage, prosecuting domestic violence offenses, sexual assaults, and homicides.

Adam is a graduate of the University of Chicago and Northeastern University School of Law.