Pathbreaker Awards since 2010

In 2000, the U.S. Department of State engaged Shared Hope International to hold Pathbreaking Strategies Conferences in six countries to energize the global conversation about the issue of trafficking and share innovative approaches to combat the problem. The conferences led to significant change in the global landscape of national responses to trafficking in countries that were behind the global community and enabling an environment that was fostering trafficking with no developed response. During this process, the Pathbreaker Award was established to recognize the pioneering efforts of individuals throughout the world who broke the trend of inaction and initiated proactive responses to prevent trafficking.

The Kaleidoscope is an apt representation of a Pathbreaker’s approach to the problem of sex trafficking. The problem, when viewed from the outside, like the kaleidoscope it appears solid and impenetrable; but a look inside stirs the viewer’s imagination with creative possibilities that are shaped and colored by the lens through which they are considered.

Hickey Family Foundation as the recipient of the prestigious 2024 Pathbreaker Award. Presented to the foundation’s Board of Trustees, this award recognizes their outstanding efforts in combatting sex trafficking and seeking justice for victims.

Teresa Fedor, Ohio State Senator

Alexis (Kee) Martin, Survivor Advocate

Summer Stephan, District Attorney, San Diego County

The Honorable Robert R. Lung, Colorado’s Eighteenth Judicial District

Vernon Smith, Co-Founder, Shared Hope International

Representative Chris Smith U.S. Representative from New Jersey, Lifetime Pathbreaker Award

Michelle Guymon, Director of Child Trafficking Unit, Los Angeles County Probation Department

Margie Quin, Assistant Special Agent in Charge, Tennessee Bureau of Investigation

Thomas Dart, Sheriff, Cook County Illinois

Alexandra (Sandi) Pierce, PhD, Founder and President of Othayonih Research

John Cotton Richmond, Special Litigation Counsel with the Civil Rights Division of the U.S. Department of Justice

Former Congressman Frank Wolf, Former U.S. Representative from Virginia,  Lifetime Pathbreaker Award

Rev. Dr. Marian Hatcher, Project Manager at the Sheriff’s Women’s Justice Programs for the Cook County Sheriff’s Office

Brendan Johnson, U.S. Attorney

Congressman Judge Ted Poe, U.S. Representative from Texas

Cynthia Cordes, Assistant U.S. Attorney

Vednita Carter, Founder and President, Breaking Free

Ernie Allen, Founding Chairman of the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children (NCMEC) and  President and CEO, International Center for Missing and Exploited Children (ICMEC)

Drew Oosterbaan, Chief of the Child Exploitation and Obscenity Section (CEOS) of the U.S. Department of Justice

Amy O’Neill Richard, Senior Advisor to the Director in the State Department’s Office to Monitor and Combat Trafficking in Persons.

Deborah J. Richardson, Executive Vice President of the National Center for Civil and Human Rights

Greg Abbott, Texas Attorney General

Martha Coakley, Massachusetts Attorney General

Rob McKenna, Washington Attorney General

Sergeant John Chapman, Vancouver, WA Police Department