OUR Rescue Appoints Five New Members to Board of Directors

News provided by

Sep 10, 2024, 10:00 ET

New board members bring specialized expertise to guide the organization's continued transformation and mission to end sex trafficking and child exploitation

SALT LAKE CITY, Sept. 10, 2024 /PRNewswire/ -- OUR Rescue, a Salt Lake City-based nonprofit, today announced the appointment of five new board members: Derek Benner, Lindy Borchardt, Dr. Abigail Casas Muñoz, James Sweeney, and John Trenary. These highly accomplished leaders join OUR Rescue's current board of directors and leadership team in transforming the organization and advancing its mission to end sex trafficking and child exploitation while empowering survivors to reclaim their lives and thrive on their healing journey through education and prevention, operations, and survivor care.

Since joining OUR Rescue in February 2024, CEO Tammy Lee, along with the newly hired executive leadership team, and the current board members, have been working to evolve the organization's operations and policies and advance its mission to support survivors. These stewards of OUR Rescue's team and resources also have been deepening relationships with law enforcement agencies around the world and helping to put an end to sex trafficking crimes through education and prevention measures.

"On behalf of the new leadership team at OUR Rescue, I am pleased to welcome and work with this highly accomplished board class as they join our other visionary board members on this journey to transform the organization and propel the growth of OUR Rescue," said Tammy Lee, CEO of OUR Rescue. "Each new member brings diverse expertise in areas that align with OUR Rescue's mission and strategies to expand our global impact. As a collective, this board brings a passion and unwavering commitment to put the needs of survivors at the forefront of everything we do, while offering our law enforcement partners the investigative tools they need to identify and arrest predators: from cutting-edge cyber capabilities to specially trained K9s."

OUR Rescue's New Board Members

Derek Benner brings expertise gained from a 30-year career in federal law enforcement that includes leading Homeland Security Investigations within the Department of Homeland Security (DHS), an organization of more than 10,000 law enforcement personnel (7,000 special agents who are assigned to 30 Special Agent in Charge (SAC) offices in major cities, over 182 other field offices throughout the United States, and 68 overseas locations). Derek led the creation of the DHS Center for Countering Human Trafficking (CCHT), the first unified, inter-component coordination center for countering human trafficking. He currently serves as the managing director, federal law enforcement and commercial at Thomas Reuters Special Service, LLC.

Assistant Criminal District Attorney, Lindy Borchardt, aggressively prosecutes all human trafficking cases including both labor and sex trafficking for the Tarrant County Criminal District Attorney's Office. This is located in the Dallas-Ft. Worth Metroplex where OUR Rescue is establishing a Center of Excellence for its operations. Lindy works closely with law enforcement and non-profit organizations to help protect victims and seek justice. She received the 2022 Community Impact Award from the Tarrant County 5 Stones Taskforce and the 2023 Three Key Award from Texas-based Unbound Now, an anti-trafficking and survivor services organization. Lindy travelled with Unbound Now to help train on best practices in the prosecution of human trafficking cases in Jakarta and Nepal. OUR Rescue provided funding for this international training.

Dr. Abigail Casas Muñoz founded the Center for Advanced Studies on Violence and Prevention at the National Institute of Pediatrics in Mexico City and brings a trauma-informed clinical approach to guide OUR Rescue's Survivor Care focus. Dr. Casas brings 20 years of experience as a pediatrician, researcher, and professor. She's a pioneer in research on Adverse Childhood Experiences with a focus on violence against children and adolescents and children's human rights.

James M. Sweeney is a successful serial entrepreneur who started 14 healthcare companies with original ideas, none of which have failed. He has raised $2 billion in capital that generated more than $30 billion in exit value. More importantly his companies have saved or extended the lives of millions of people. Success stories include Caremark, which included 75 centers around the U.S. before being sold to Baxter Laboratories and was later acquired by CVS. Jim's company, Coram Healthcare, was also eventually sold to CVS in 2013 for $2.1 billion. CardioNet (BioTelemetry) was purchased by Philips in 2021 for $2.8 billion. Recently, Jim put his capital and passion for saving lives to work in the humanitarian space by founding Kids Set Free, Inc, a 501(c)(3) foundation with a mission dedicated to supporting agencies and organizations that are combatting Child Sexual Exploitation.

John Trenary is currently the Director of SEARCH Group, Inc.'s Digital Forensic Services, where he manages a team specialized in digital forensic acquisition and analysis. John is a court-qualified subject matter expert with training in cybercrime investigations from the Department of Homeland Security at the Federal Law Enforcement Training Center, United States Secret Service, and The Internet Crimes Against Children Taskforce. John also owns and operates Carpe Veritas Digital Forensics, LLC, a consultancy focused on digital forensic analysis services and research. Prior to joining SEARCH, John served for 25 years in the Linn County, OR Sheriff's Office, where he was a Deputy Sheriff, Cybercrimes Detective, and Digital Forensics Laboratory Manager.

OUR Rescue's Inaugural Board Members

The newly elected members join the board that was elected in February 2023: Kelly Crouch, Strategic Advisor for Washington State Internet Crimes Against Children; Jeff Frazier, Chairman of STIMPAK, a Haiti-focused NGO; Matt Millhollin, a 25-year law enforcement senior executive; and Sean Vassilaros, who serves as Chairman of the Board and is the CEO of KANNY.

Vassilaros concluded, "These new members round out the talents of the current board by bringing additional expertise in federal law enforcement, cybercrime investigations, prosecuting traffickers, trauma-informed medical care and successfully growing companies from start-up stage to multi-billion dollar exits. This is the right mix of talent to accelerate OUR Rescue's growth and impact. These leaders also will be critical stewards in guiding the work we do to provide comprehensive and compassionate care for survivors, and bring critical resources to law enforcement partners needed to stay ahead of the criminals."

For more information about OUR Rescue current board of directors and leadership team, please visit: https://ourrescue.org/about/our-team.

Images can be found here: https://ourrescue.dropmark.com/1775229

Headquartered in Salt Lake City, with Centers of Excellence in Minneapolis-St. Paul and Dallas-Fort Worth, OUR Rescue is a nonprofit organization on a mission to end sex trafficking and child exploitation by empowering survivors to reclaim their lives and thrive on their healing journey. Founded in 2013, the organization's work spans the globe providing comprehensive survivor care services, assisting law enforcement, and funding equipment and training to help develop and prosecute cases.

SOURCE OUR Rescue