Victim Researcher Profile

BIO

Katherine Kaufka Walts is the Director of the Center for the Human Rights of Children at Loyola University Chicago. The Center advances efforts of the Loyola University community to understand and protect the human rights of children utilizing an interdisciplinary approach. Prior to joining Loyola, Ms. Kaufka Walts was the Executive Director of the International Organization for Adolescents (IOFA), where she developed one of the first programs in the country to improve the capacity of child welfare system to better respond to child trafficking and exploitation cases. This work was informed by Ms. Kaufka Walts experience managing the Counter-Human Trafficking project at the National Immigrant Justice Center, where she worked with local, state, and federal law enforcement agencies on single and multiple-victim sex and labor trafficking cases, and successfully represented victims of sex and labor trafficking (both children and adults) in the United States within immigration and criminal justice proceedings under the Trafficking Victims Protection Act. Ms. Kaufka Walts conducts research, develops projects, and provides technical assistance, training and consultation to various stakeholders in the US and internationally on the subject of human trafficking and children's rights issues. Ms. Kaufka Walts has provided expert testimony to local, national, and international governmental bodies, including the United States Senate Committee on the Judiciary Subcommittee on Human Rights and the Law and United Nations Committee on the Rights of the Child. She was an appointed member of the American Bar Association's Human Trafficking Task Force (2013-14) and the American Bar Association's the Commission on Youth at Risk (2012-15). Ms. Kaufka Walts received her J.D. from the University of Wisconsin-Madison, and her B.A and B.S. from the University of Michigan-Ann Arbor. She has published widely on the topic of human trafficking.

VICTIMIZATION FOCUS

Child Trafficking and Exploitation, Trafficking in Persons

SPECIAL POPULATIONS

American Indian and Alaska Native (tribal) victims, Child victims, Immigrants and refugees

RESEARCH EXPERTISE

Training and/or technical assistance

VICTIM RESEARCH EXPERIENCE

Community-based participatory research, Data collection, Needs assessment, Training and/or technical assistance