From 8 a.m.-5 p.m. Friday Jan. 25, the Wichita State University Center for Combating Human Trafficking will host its 5th annual anti-trafficking conference, "An Invitation to Courageous Conversations: Exploring the Holistic Responses to Trafficking," at the WSU Hughes Metropolitan Complex.

Each year, CCHT hosts this conference during Human Trafficking Awareness Month to intentionally engage multidisciplinary professionals, civic and faith leaders, and interested community members in anti-trafficking efforts. As in years past, this conference will feature a diverse group of experts in the field of human trafficking who will cover a variety of topics during breakout, plenary, and keynote sessions.

Two nationally renowned speakers, Kate Mogulescu and Shamere McKenzie, will give the keynote.

As CCHT has advocated against the continued criminalization of trafficking survivors across the country, this year the keynotes offer unmatched expertise on the topic. Speaking from diverse perspectives, it is the hope that their presentations ignite critical conversations in Kansas and the community that continue past the conference.

Mogulescu is an experienced defense attorney and professor with the Brooklyn Law School who has worked to provide post-conviction relief to survivors of abuse, exploitation and trafficking.

Shamere is a talented speaker who shares her first-hand experiences in navigating the criminal legal system and overcoming the various systems encountered by survivors of abuse, exploitation and trafficking.

In honor of National Human Trafficking Awareness Month, along with the conference, CCHT will host and participate in multiple events in order to engage, educate and inspire the Wichita community to invest their own time, talent or treasure to combat abuse and exploitation.

The Center for Combating Human Trafficking (CCHT) is a team of survivor-leaders and long-term multidisciplinary professionals who represent more than 140 years of combined personal, direct practice, advocacy and research expertise in the Anti-Trafficking Movement. Together, CCHT is committed to empowering the nation’s capacity to provide effective prevention, assessment, identification, intervention, restoration and aftercare / prosperity promoting responses to survivors of abuse and exploitation. In 2018 alone, CCHT has reached over 17,000 people with training and technical assistance, 1,031 youth with prevention education, and provided 361 hours of survivor support services to 29 survivors.

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The mission of Wichita State University is to be an essential educational, cultural and economic driver for Kansas and the greater public good. Wichita State is a doctoral research university enrolling nearly 15,000 students and offering 59 undergraduate degree programs in more than 150 areas of study in seven undergraduate colleges. The Graduate School offers 45 master's and 12 doctoral degrees that offer study in more than 100 areas. Wichita State's Innovation Campus is an interconnected community of partnership buildings, laboratories and mixed-use areas where students, faculty, staff, entrepreneurs and businesses have access to the university's vast resources and technology. For more information, follow us on Twitter at www.twitter.com/wichitastate and Facebook at www.facebook.com/wichita.state.