Shared Hope International Honors Sgt. Alan Wilkett (Ret.) and Kim Figueroa with the 2026 Pathbreaker Award
Recognizing a partnership that is redefining how law enforcement and lived experience experts work together to combat human trafficking
Washington, DC — Oct. 20, 2026 —
Shared Hope International is proud to announce that Sergeant Alan Wilkett (Ret.) of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, a longtime member of the Pasco Sheriff’s Office, and Kim Figueroa are the recipients of the 2026 Shared Hope Pathbreaker Award. The award recognizes their pathbreaking strategies in bringing law enforcement and lived experience expertise together as true partners in pursuit of justice for survivors of trafficking.
Too often, survivors encounter systems that see them as witnesses to be managed or offenders to be charged rather than as people harmed by exploitation. Sgt. Wilkett and Ms. Figueroa have modeled a different way forward. Their collaboration shows that lived experience is not simply testimony but professional expertise, and that when it sits alongside investigative experience, investigations get stronger, survivors are better identified and supported, and trust grows between survivors and the officers sworn to protect them. At this year’s JuST Training Conference, they will put that partnership on display, co-teaching sessions on survivor-law enforcement operational partnerships and on the intersection of victimization and offending in trafficking cases.
Sgt. Alan Wilkett (Ret.) serves as Advisor on Human Trafficking in the Immediate Office of the Assistant Secretary at the Administration for Children and Families, U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. He brings more than 28 years of law enforcement experience, including nearly 15 years with the Pasco Sheriff’s Office, where he was named Law Enforcement Deputy of the Year in 2007. Widely known for his work combating human trafficking, he received the 2017 Florida Human Trafficking Law Enforcement Official of the Year award from Florida Attorney General Pam Bondi, along with the Law Enforcement Lifetime Achievement Award. Trained in human trafficking, homicide, and terrorism investigations and certified in cyber, cryptocurrency, and social media investigations, he has presented before the Florida Senate and House and at conferences nationwide and has shared his expertise in outlets including Blind Eyes Opened and Fox News.
In his current role at HHS, Sgt. Wilkett is part of Operation HOPE, a trauma-informed, law enforcement-led initiative to find foster youth missing from care and connect them with safety and services. The operation launched in Mississippi in May 2026 with the state Attorney General’s Office, the HHS Office of Inspector General, and the Mississippi Department of Child Protection Services, locating 13 children and recovering 87 percent of the state’s missing foster youth in under 48 hours. In August, the model expanded to Arkansas, where a four-day operation led by Arkansas State Police with state child welfare and federal partners located eight missing and endangered children, including two foster youth missing from Colorado. As Operation HOPE grows to more states, Sgt. Wilkett is leading the development of a law enforcement toolkit to help agencies locate and respond to children missing from care.
Kim Figueroa is a nationally recognized survivor leader, trainer, consultant, and advocate, and President and CEO of Beyond Global Enterprises LLC. She has assisted the FBI, U.S. Marshals, Florida Department of Law Enforcement, and local agencies on complex cases and multijurisdictional missing-child and trafficking operations. She trains law enforcement with law enforcement, presenting alongside officers to help professionals better understand and respond to trauma-impacted victims. Her reach extends into healthcare as well, including involvement in developing Florida’s statewide mandatory human trafficking curriculum for hospitals and medical professionals with the Florida Attorney General’s Office and Tampa General Hospital.
Kim has brought that expertise to two of the largest missing-child recovery efforts in Florida’s history. In June 2025, she was part of Operation Dragon Eye, a two-week U.S. Marshals Service operation across Hillsborough, Pinellas, and Pasco counties that recovered or located 60 critically missing children ages 9 to 17, each of whom was debriefed and connected to physical and psychological care. In August 2026, she helped build Operation Statewide Shield, Florida’s first statewide child-recovery initiative. Led by FDLE with partners including the Department of Children and Families, the Department of Juvenile Justice, and More to Life, the operation recovered 163 missing children in under five days.
That leadership is grounded in years of frontline experience as a Survivor Advocate and Law Enforcement Expert with More to Life. In her current role, Kim serves as a primary liaison between law-enforcement agencies and external anti-human trafficking partners, developing and delivering specialized training sessions, workshops, and professional presentations for law enforcement. She collaborates with local, state, and federal agencies to leverage investigative resources, strengthen cross-sector partnerships, and provide direct support during human trafficking investigations and coordinated sting operations. Her work bridges the gap between investigations and victim-centered care, ensuring that survivor needs remain central to collaborative law-enforcement efforts.
Kim has provided crisis intervention, court accompaniment, advocacy, and resource navigation, helping survivors navigate fragmented systems and access critical support. At Shared Hope International, she serves as a Just Like Me Campaign leader, delivers Victim-Offender Intersectionality training, co-hosts the Invading the Darkness podcast, and is a top-rated trainer at the annual JuST Training Conference. Across her work, Kim brings together lived experience, investigative collaboration, professional training, and survivor-centered advocacy to strengthen responses to human trafficking and improve outcomes for survivors.
Her work has been recognized by the Florida Attorney General’s Office as 2023 Survivor Advocate of the Year, by Florida Dept of Law Enforcement Evelyn Memorial Award, the University of South Florida Criminology Department with the Shining Light Award, the community hero award from the Tampa Bay Lightning Foundation and by the Pasco Sheriff’s Office with a special recognition for exceptional dedication.
“Kim and Sgt. Wilkett have shown what becomes possible when we stop treating survivors as the subjects of an investigation and start treating them as partners in it,” said Linda Smith, Founder and President of Shared Hope International.
The award reflects the heart of this year’s theme, Partners in Pursuit: the conviction that ending trafficking requires every sector working side by side, with survivors at the table as leaders and experts.
Sgt. Wilkett and Ms. Figueroa will be formally recognized at the annual 2026 JuST Training Conference on October 28 at the Omni Shoreham in Washington, DC, where they will present together in two sessions: a closing plenary panel Partners in Pursuit: Survivors and Law Enforcement as Operational Partners in Anti-Trafficking Investigations and Navigating the Gray: Understanding Victim-Offender Intersectionality in Human Trafficking, a law enforcement only workshop.
About Shared Hope International
Shared Hope International strives to prevent the conditions that foster sex trafficking, restore survivors, and bring justice to vulnerable women and children. Through policy advocacy, research, training, and survivor support, Shared Hope works to create a world where every child and young person is protected from exploitation. Learn more at sharedhope.org.
