● Katherine Chon is the founding director of the Office on Trafficking in Persons and senior

advisor on human trafficking at the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services
● The Office on Trafficking in Persons is part of the U.S. Department of Health and Human
Services Administration for Children and Families, responsible for developing strategies
and implementing programs to prevent trafficking, increase victim identification and
access to services, and strengthen the health and well-being of survivors
● The Office on Trafficking in Persons also collaborates with government and
nongovernment partners to raise public awareness, identify research priorities, and
inform policy recommendations to strengthen the Nation’s public health response to
human trafficking
● Chon leads the office and determines certification and eligibility for survivors of human
trafficking who may be eligible for refugee benefits and services
● Chon is the federal executive officer of the National Advisory Committee on the Sex
Trafficking of Children and Youth in the U.S
● Chon also serves on multiple committees under the Senior Policy Operating Group of
the President’s Interagency Task Force to Monitor and Combat Trafficking in Persons
● As well as other related federal inter-agency working groups on violence against women,
child exploitation, and Native American affairs
● Katherine Chon co-founded the Polaris Project, the leading organization in the USA
combating human trafficking and serving citizens and foreign national victims,
combatting labor and sex trafficking
● Chon helped establish the global organization’s innovative programs to assist survivors
of human trafficking, expand anti-trafficking policies, and change the way local
communities respond to modern slavery
Katherine Chon’s Timeline

Bachelor of Science in Psychology from Brown University

2002

Co-Executive Director and Co-Founder of Polaris Project

Feb 2002 - Dec 2006

Do Something Brick Award for Social Entrepreneurship, Presented by President Bill Clinton
2005

Executive Director of Polaris Project

Jan 2007 - Dec 2007

Brown University's John Hope Award for Community Service

2007

"Running Start Women to Watch Award" from Lifetime Television

2007

President of Polaris Project

Jan 2008 - Dec 2011

Certificate in Executive Nonprofit Leadership from the Stanford Graduate School of Business
2008

Harlequin "More Than Words Award"

2009

Master of Public Administration from Harvard Kennedy School

2010

Diane von Furstenburg "People's Voice Award"

2010

Named one of the 50 most influential women in the world by Woman's Day magazine
2010

President of Meora Global LLC Graphic

Nov 2011 - Feb 2014

President and Interim Chief Executive Officer of INSPIRE USA FOUNDATION INC Graphic
Aug 2012 - Feb 2014
Named Power of One Award from the Illinois Holocaust Museum and Education Center
2013

Senior Advisor on Trafficking in Persons

Oct 2012 - Present

Office on Trafficking in Persons, U.S. Department of Health and Human Services

Director
Jun 2015 - Present
● Named after the North Star, a historical symbol of freedom, Polaris works to reshape the
systems that make sex and labor trafficking possible and profitable in North America
● For more than a decade, Polaris has assisted thousands of victims and survivors
through the U.S. National Human Trafficking Hotline and built the largest known U.S.
data set on the crime
● With the guidance of survivors, and working with public and private-sector partners,
Polaris uses data to understand and improve the way trafficking is identified, how victims
and survivors are assisted, and how to prevent abuse at the scale of the problem (25
million people worldwide robbed of the basic right to choose how they live and work)
● The victim outreach program to uncover trafficking locations, target trafficking networks,
and connect victims to services (The D.C. Government awards a federal grant to support
this program)
● The Trafficking Hotline provides survivors of human trafficking with support and a variety
of options to get help and stay safe
● Assistance through the Trafficking Hotline is available 24 hours a day, every day of the
year in more than 200 languages
● Victims, survivors and others can contact the Trafficking Hotline through phone text, web
form, and online chat, in both English and Spanish
● All contact with the Trafficking Hotline is confidential
● The Trafficking Hotline will not contact law enforcement about situations involving adults
without the express permission of the person in question
● The Trafficking Hotline also maintains a public referral directory organizations around the
country that work on and may be able to assist victims, survivors and others wishing to
get involved in the anti trafficking movement
Polaris Project’s Timeline

Founded by Derek Ellerman and Katherine Chon

2002

Victim Outreach Program

2003

Films footage of sex trafficking taking place in downtown Washington, D.C.

2004

One of the nation’s first community-wide Human Trafficking Task Forces is launched (triples the
success rates of prosecutions)
2004

Polaris Project Japan opens, supported through a grant from the U.S. Department of State.
2004

Win passage of the federal Trafficking Victims Protection Reauthorization Act (law increases
programs for trafficking victims inside the U.S)
2005

Polaris Project New Jersey opens, funded through congressional support

2005

Opens one of the only transitional housing programs for trafficking survivors in the U.S
2006

Operates the U.S. National Human Trafficking Hotline, funded by the U.S. Department of Health
and Human Services
2007

Joins as a founding member of the Alliance to End Slavery and Trafficking (ATEST) to
strengthen U.S. laws and federal resources to fight trafficking
2007

Launches state ratings map that assesses trafficking legislation nationwide

2007

President George W. Bush invites Polaris Project to the Oval Office as he signs the TVPRA
2008

Secure a 25% increase in Department of Justice funding for services for survivors
2009

Pressures Craigslist.org to get rid of its Adult Services section

2010

Encourages The Washington Post to refuse ads for illegitimate massage parlors
2010

Helps the U.S. Department of Defense develop an online training for all military and civilian
personnel on how to identify and respond to human trafficking
2010

Polaris Project helps pass 18 new state bills that strengthen protections for trafficking victims
and increase 7 prosecution of traffickers
2011

Law enforcement agencies open at least 172 new investigations based on tips forwarded from
the hotline
2011

The Skoll Award for Entrepreneurship

2017

Began work on the National Survivor Study

2020