By Elizabeth Lenart
New Friends New Life (NFNL) pronounces the 2025 ProtectHER Award recipients: Erin Nealy Cox, Chad Frymire, Eliza McCoy, and Laila Mickelwait. The honorees will probably be acknowledged on the annual NFNL Stand for Her Luncheon, on September 12 at the OMNI Dallas Lodge. The ProtectHER Awards are introduced by Thomson Reuters. The occasion will function actress, producer, and advocate Lucy Liu, who will have interaction in a dialog moderated by NBC 5 anchor Laura Harris.
The Honorable Betsy Worth will function honorary luncheon chair, becoming a member of occasion Co-Chairs Lynn Dowdle and Karla Smith in main the occasion, which helps NFNL’s mission to revive and empower survivors of intercourse trafficking and sexual exploitation.
Created in 2013, and introduced along side NFNL’s annual luncheon, the NFNL ProtectHER awards acknowledge people, firms, and businesses who assist the safety and worth of ladies and ladies within the Dallas group, throughout the nation, and world wide. Previous recipients embrace Texas First Girl Cecilia Abbott, American Airways, Lynn McBee, The Meadows Basis, Methodist Well being System, and Santander Shopper USA Basis, Inc.
Erin Nealy Cox is a associate at Kirkland & Ellis, serving within the agency’s Dallas and Washington, D.C., workplaces. A former United States Lawyer for the Northern District of Texas, she is widely known as a fierce advocate within the battle in opposition to intercourse trafficking. Throughout her tenure, she led groundbreaking efforts by way of the North Texas Trafficking Process Pressure, which she revitalized in partnership with Homeland Safety Investigations (HSI). Below her management, the duty pressure tackled intercourse trafficking from a number of fronts, together with demand discount. In 2020, The Dallas Morning Information nominated her for Texan of the Yr in recognition of her pioneering work. In the present day, she represents firms, boards of administrators, and executives in complicated, multi-jurisdictional disputes and high-stakes investigations. She is a key member of Kirkland & Ellis’s Authorities, Regulatory & Inside Investigations Follow Group, and presently serves on the New Mates New Life Board of Administrators.
“From her exemplary tenure within the courtroom to her devoted service within the boardroom, Erin has constantly displayed each tenacity and compassion within the seek for justice for survivors of trafficking, home violence, and different crimes that disproportionately have an effect on girls and ladies,” mentioned Bianca Davis, CEO, NFNL. “She is a real inspiration to us all.”
Chad Frymire, director of public coverage at Dallas CASA for 17 years, is a number one advocate for at-risk youth and a driving pressure within the battle in opposition to human trafficking. He has served as president of the North Texas Coalition Towards Human Trafficking (NTCAHT) for over a decade and has been concerned with the Workplace of the Governor’s Care Coordination Multidisciplinary Staff since its inception. He serves on a number of advisory our bodies, together with the Dallas Kids’s Advocacy Middle Care Coordination Advisory Board, the Texas Lawyer Basic’s Anti-Trafficking Process Pressure, and the Metropolis of Dallas Mayor’s Home Violence and Human Trafficking Advisory Council. Frymire additionally sits on the boards of the North Texas Foster Care Consortium and Your Nonprofit Controller, leads Dallas CASA’s legislative advocacy, and coordinates Nationwide Adoption Day in Dallas County.His work is deeply private—after shedding his sister as a result of circumstances associated to trafficking, he adopted her baby from foster care, additional fueling his dedication to defending exploited and susceptible youth.”
“Via his tireless skilled management and his private connection to the horrors of this brutal business, Chad is a brave and sort voice within the anti-trafficking area and a dwelling instance of what it seems to be like to show ache into function,” mentioned Davis.
Eliza McCoy is vp of packages and affect on the American Lodge and Lodging Affiliation (AHLA) Basis, the place she has labored to develop and assist the No Room For Trafficking Initiative—mobilizing the hospitality business to stop human trafficking by way of training, coaching, and survivor assist. She spearheaded the launch of the No Room For Trafficking Survivor Fund, which offers long-term financial empowerment for survivors by way of community-based organizations whereas advancing coaching to stop human trafficking within the lodging business. McCoy additionally oversees a portfolio of workforce improvement packages, together with youth empowerment, educational {and professional} improvement scholarships together with apprenticeships. With over 15 years of nonprofit management, she beforehand served as government director on the Nationwide Middle for Lacking & Exploited Kids, main nationwide outreach and prevention efforts. A former investigator with the Manhattan District Lawyer’s Workplace, she brings deep experience in regulation enforcement, sufferer advocacy, and program improvement.
“Eliza McCoy is a pressure within the battle in opposition to human trafficking—her management has not solely mobilized a whole business however has created actual, lasting pathways to therapeutic and stability for survivors. She has devoted her profession to making sure survivors are seen and heard, embodying every little thing the ProtectHER Award stands for,” mentioned Davis.
Laila Mickelwait is the co-founder and CEO of the Justice Protection Fund, a nonprofit group devoted to empowering survivors of intercourse trafficking, baby sexual abuse materials (CSAM), and felony image-based sexual abuse by way of strategic litigation and advocacy. She can be the founder and chief of the TraffickingHub motion – a decentralized, numerous international effort to carry Pornhub accountable for enabling and taking advantage of mass sexual exploitation and to push for insurance policies that forestall felony sexual abuse throughout the Web. Mickelwait is the nationwide bestselling creator of Takedown: Inside the Fight to Shut Down Pornhub for Child Abuse, Rape, and Sex Trafficking and has been researching and combating the injustice of intercourse trafficking since 2006. She is acknowledged as a number one professional within the international motion to fight sexual exploitation.
“Laila’s relentless efforts to carry corporations and customers accountable for unlawful and exploitative on-line content material is the wake-up name that this motion has lengthy wanted,” mentioned Davis. “Her work has not solely raised consciousness concerning the hurt and risks of on-line pornography however has additionally completely disrupted the business.”
“Thomson Reuters is proud to face alongside New Mates New Life in honoring these ProtectHER Award recipients,” mentioned Heather Panton, Senior Advisor of Social Affect and Human Rights, Thomson Reuters. “Their tireless efforts mirror the values we champion – fact, justice, and human dignity. We’re dedicated to leveraging our knowledge, expertise, and subject material experience to assist fight trafficking and promote human rights in communities throughout the U.S. and world wide.”
Underwriting sponsorship alternatives start at $2,500, and particular person tickets can be found August 22 at $250. Luncheon media sponsors are NBC 5/ Telemundo 39and PaperCity.
For sponsorship or ticket data, go to www.newfriendsnewlife.org/luncheon, electronic mail events@newfriendsnewlife.org or contact Chief Growth Officer Priya Murphy at 214-217-8652.
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About New Mates New Life (NFNL)
New Mates New Life is a nonprofit group devoted to serving to girls and kids who’ve been exploited by intercourse trafficking. NFNL presents restorative companies and works to lift consciousness about this vital subject in our group. For extra data, go to www.newfriendsnewlife.org.
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