In 2004, child sex trafficking victim, Lisa Montgomery, was arrested and later sentenced to the death penalty. Tonight, her fate rests in the hands of the
I used to think of justice, or rather, injustice in terms of the law only. I was often trapped in my own story. So, how
You didn’t mess up. You didn’t do it all wrong. This is what I wanted to say to you. I used to beat myself up
I was a teenager when my life became not my own. I have learned a lot about surviving the almost impossible to survive. I’m not
For the past week, I have been checking in with my self constantly. I keep asking myself why I’m not completely hysterical right now given that
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Susan Coppedge joins Krevolin & Horst as of-counsel, continuing a career of strong advocacy for those in need of a champion in the courtroom. Susan is a former Ambassador and federal prosecutor, with 19 years of experience in white collar criminal matters, human trafficking prosecutions, grand jury investigations, government enforcement actions, internal investigations, and environmental litigation. With 21 federal trials, Susan excels in presenting complex facts to a jury.
Susan served as an assistant U.S. attorney in both the Government Fraud and Economic Crimes and the Major Crimes Sections of the U.S. Attorney’s Office in Atlanta. In this position, Susan led all phases of the investigation and prosecution of economic and fraud-related crimes, environmental crimes, tax crimes, white collar crimes, human trafficking, public corruption, document fraud/identity theft, and intellectual property crimes. With her expertise, Susan conducted trainings for state, federal, and international law enforcement, and engaged in community outreach events. Susan was one of the first federal prosecutors to bring a sex trafficking case in Georgia and, over her career, indicted 49 human traffickers in cases involving domestic sex trafficking of adults and minors, international sex trafficking of adults and minors, and labor trafficking. Susan has successfully argued cases before the Eleventh Circuit Court of Appeals. For her work on a civil case filed under the Clean Water Act, Susan received the John Marshall Award, the Justice Department’s highest honor.
Susan was appointed by President Obama and confirmed by the United States Senate to lead the U.S. Department of State’s global diplomatic engagement to combat Human Trafficking as an Ambassador-at-Large. She continues to stay active in the anti-trafficking community by serving on the Board of Street Grace and on the Advisory Board of the Georgia Asylum and Immigration Network.
Prior to joining the firm, Susan ran the Atlanta office of Nardello & Co. a global investigations firm with experience across a broad range of issues including corruption-related investigations, civil and white-collar criminal litigation support, corporate social responsibility compliance audits, and supply chain/labor trafficking investigations.
Fecha Talaso is the co-founder and director of partnerships at Karana Rising. Fecha is a certified victim advocate using her eight years of advocacy and direct service work to cultivate staff growth and development to advance the mission of Karana Rising and the individual goals of the survivors on our team.
Fecha works alongside the executive director to develop and advance policies and programs supporting survivor justice and and healing, including external earned media and owned media consumption. Fecha is responsible for creating and managing Karana Rising’s communications, website, virtual survivor mentoring and workshop portal and social media channels. She is responsible for the development and management of programmatic and development partnerships.
Andrea Powell is the co-founder and executive director at Karana Rising. Ms. Powell is Karana Rising’s chief liaison to the D.C. Human Trafficking Task Force where she co-chairs the training and outreach committee.
Prior to founding Karana Rising, Andrea was the founding executive director of FAIR Girls, a nonprofit that serves young women survivors of human trafficking. Ms. Powell is also the Director of Survivor and Youth Engagement at Unitas. In 2014, Andrea led the FAIR Girls’ team to create and open the only safe home for young survivors of human trafficking in the nation’s capital area. Andrea has led crisis response teams where she assisted law enforcement and other front-line responders in finding and recovering survivors of human trafficking who were later offered safety and supportive services. She received her Masters of European Union Law at the Center for European Integration Studies from the Rheinische Friedrich-Wilhelms-Universität Bonn, Germany and Bachelor of Arts and Science in International Relations from Texas State University. Andrea’s writing has been published in the New York Times, CNN, PBS, Huffington Post, Marie Claire, MSNBC, NBC THINX, Thompson Reuters, FAIR Observer, and the Washington Post. She also sits a private consultant for Freedom Fwd and Project Explorer. She can be reached at andrea@karanarising.com
