Victim Researcher Profile

BIO

Vera joined the Department of Health and Human Services, Office on Trafficking in Persons (OTIP) after supporting Deloitte’s Government and Public Services Practice. While at Deloitte, Vera supported OTIP with their Human Trafficking Data Collection Project, where she was responsible for assessing the current state of human trafficking data collection practices, data standards, and technologies to gather requirements for an interoperable data collection platform and developing a data dictionary and methodology to guide the data extraction and qualitative case coding of OTIP's child eligibility data. The project culminated in one of the largest data sets on the experiences of foreign national minors in the United States who have experienced trafficking. Most recently, Vera supported the Department of Justice, Office of Justice Programs with grant monitoring, grants analytics, enterprise risk management, research, and program assessment. While at Deloitte, Vera also supported the firm’s Anti-Human Trafficking Team as the Research and Eminence workstream lead. In this role, Vera planned, organized, and hosted Building an Inclusive Workforce of the Future, a symposium on the future of work and the potential impacts on those who may be particularly susceptible to unemployment and underemployment – specifically, survivors of human trafficking, refugees, and formerly incarcerated persons. The symposium featured 18 subject matter expert panelists and over 120 attendees from across the public, private, and nonprofit sectors. Following this event, Vera drafted a white paper exploring opportunities to integrate and scale pathways to meaningful, dignified employment for persons experiencing vulnerability. Inclusive Work: Marginalized populations in the workforce of the future will be published in the August 2020 edition of Deloitte Insights. Vera received her MPA with a Public-Private Partnerships focus and her BA in Criminal Justice and Anthropology from the George Washington University, where she graduated summa cum laude with departmental honors.

VICTIMIZATION FOCUS

Child Abuse and Sexual Abuse, Child Trafficking and Exploitation, Drug-Related Victimization, Sexual Abuse or Violence (other than campus sexual assault), Trafficking in Persons

SPECIAL POPULATIONS

American Indian and Alaska Native (tribal) victims, Child victims, Limited English proficiency victims, Male victims generally, Older victims, Immigrants and refugees, Foreign national victims

RESEARCH EXPERTISE

Data collection, Descriptive studies, Needs assessment, Program evaluation, Qualitative studies, Quantitative studies, Training and/or technical assistance

VICTIM RESEARCH EXPERIENCE

Data collection, Descriptive studies, Needs assessment, Program evaluation, Qualitative studies, Quantitative studies, Training and/or technical assistance