The Rising Safe and Sound Team

Catie Hart (she/her)
Rising Safe and Sound Co-Founder, Consultant, Trainer

Catie Hart is a nationally recognized lived experience expert on human trafficking with nearly two decades of experience in prevention, intervention, and survivor empowerment. She is the co-founder of Rising Safe and Sound (est. 2015), a youth-focused prevention program through which she has educated thousands of young people about safety, exploitation, and resilience. In addition to her work serving youth, Catie has trained thousands of professionals across child welfare, juvenile probation, and law enforcement in trauma-informed, survivor-centered approaches. She completed her sociology degree at UC Berkeley by studying active trafficking cases with the San Francisco Police Department’s Special Victims Unit. Today, she teaches survivors from across the country how to code, helping them build confidence, community, and new futures in tech.

Jess Torres (they/them)
Rising Safe and Sound Manager and Trainer

Jess Torres is a disabled, Trans, Indigenous educator, activist, community development specialist, published writer, and small business owner. They have been a survivor justice movement organizer for 19 years and an anti-trafficking and sex workers’ rights policy advocate for 10 years, successfully passing 11 bills in the state of California. As a human trafficking subject matter expert, Jess has provided training and technical assistance for federal, state, and county agencies and officials; multidisciplinary service providers; law enforcement; judges; community and nonprofit organizations; as well as university, high school, and middle school students for over 12 years.

They are one of five survivor leaders training all 58 counties in CA on CSEC101 & CSEC102, in addition to developing curricula for specialized populations impacted by various forms of human trafficking. They have sat on panels for the Office on Trafficking in Persons, U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, the United Nations, etc. They previously served as a community liaison with the NYC Mayor’s Office to End Gender-Based Violence, Survivor Leadership Coordinator at CAST, and Regional Coordinator for a state-based initiative overseeing coordination across California’s local child trafficking response programs. Jess is currently the Director of Programs at Rising Worldwide and also serves on the leadership teams of DECRIMCA and the National Survivor Network, as well as on the ACLU’s CalAction Policy Coalition.

Maricruz Baldwin (she/her/ella)
Rising Safe and Sound Coordinator and Peer Counselor, and Rising Resource Manager

Maricruz Velasco Baldwin is a dedicated and passionate advocate for women from marginalized communities. She is a first-generation Mexican American. Her parents immigrated to the United States from Oaxaca, Mexico. She grew up in a big family of seven children in a neighborhood filled with love, a sense of community, but also burdened with violence and human trafficking. By the age of 16, she was a mother to two little girls who became her fuel and motivation for avoiding becoming a statistic – another one that fell through the cracks.

Her background shaped her commitment to supporting and uplifting others who face similar challenges. She’s a former volunteer at the Women’s Crisis Support-Defensa de Mujeres. After completing state training, she became a peer counselor, primarily working on the crisis line. With the support of a mentor who believed in her potential, she completed high school and went on to earn an Associate of Arts in Health Science, specializing in Community Health, from Cabrillo College. 

In 2017 Maricruz joined Rising Worldwide as a program participant. She soon expressed her interest in joining the staff, and today holds the position of Rising Safe and Sound Coordinator and Resource Manager and Bilingual Peer Counselor at Rising Worldwide. As Rising’s Resource Manager, she is responsible for securing crucial resources for Rising entrepreneurs who have been challenged in finding them elsewhere, i.e., housing, legal, financial, and healthcare assistance. As the Bilingual Peer Counselor, she manages all of the disclosures from youth participants in the Rising Safe and Sound human trafficking prevention training program, providing them with invaluable support and guidance.

Maricruz personifies resilience and determination. Her unwavering dedication to building a supportive community for women has made a lasting impact on countless lives.

Dawn Allen (she/her)
Rising Safe and Sound Consultant and Trainer

Dawn Allen is a human-centered leader, coach, and survivor advocate dedicated to fostering healing, resilience, and collective transformation. She approaches her work through the lens of liberation—believing that true freedom comes not only from breaking cycles of harm, but from creating conditions where individuals, families, and communities can thrive.

Since joining Rising Worldwide in 2019 as a Rising Expert, Dawn has led human trafficking awareness training nationwide and delivers the Safe and Sound Prevention Workshop for youth in Santa Cruz County. Her honest, healing-centered approach helps youth, families, and providers reclaim agency, strengthen support systems, and embrace trauma-informed practices.

Dawn embraces post-traumatic growth, viewing healing as both an inward and outward journey. She helps others break cycles of over-responsibility, cultivate self-awareness, and set dynamic, healthy boundaries—believing true progress is about creating systems where people and communities are able to flourish in harmony.

She is passionate about equipping providers to better support survivors and empowering families to heal and thrive together—recognizing how trafficking impacts entire family systems and how collective care drives sustainable change. As a trainer and speaker, Dawn combines honest storytelling with inclusive dialogue to engage audiences on power, vulnerability, justice, and healing. She develops curricula, provides technical assistance, and partners with organizations to strengthen housing and supportive services for survivors.

Grounded by family, nature, and music, Dawn is committed to weaving connection, liberation, and possibility wherever she goes, creating spaces where healing becomes a shared, transformative journey not just about overcoming the past but about making space for joy, creativity, and new possibilities..

Kathy Givens (she/her)
Rising Safe and Sound Consultant and Trainer

Kathy Givens is a wife, mother, author, writer, speaker, and consultant. With a background rooted in advocacy, mentorship, and service provision, Kathy brings a unique perspective drawing from her own journey of triumph over adversity. As an overcomer of human trafficking and gender-based violence, she intimately understands the transformative power of community and leadership. Kathy has trained faith-based organizations, educators, students, medical professionals, law enforcement, politicians, and leaders from all sectors of society. She is known for her ability to navigate complex social justice issues with empathy and a call to action, encouraging listeners to become active participants in the fight for a more just and equitable world while avoiding over-sensationalism.

In 2018, Kathy was invited into The Oval Office to witness a bill she advocated for signed into law. In 2021, Kathy joined the United States Advisory Council on Human Trafficking by presidential appointment. During her time as a Program Director, Kathy developed a trauma-informed restorative care program for adult survivors of trafficking.

As a leader in the field, Kathy continues to provide training and consulting to various groups committed to advancing justice and equity for people who have experienced human trafficking and gender-based violence, with a focus on underserved communities and people of color.

Ummra Hang (she/her)
Rising Safe and Sound Consultant and Trainer

Ummra Hang is a Cambodian American educator, consultant, and subject matter expert dedicated to supporting individuals impacted by sexual and labor exploitation as well as systemic harm. Rooted in Oakland, CA, her lived experience informs her work across trauma-informed care, anti-exploitation education, and inclusive healing. 

She serves on the United States Advisory Council on Human Trafficking and works nationally at the intersections of healthcare and exploitation through collaborations with HEAL Trafficking and Texas A&M International University. Locally, she partners with the Oakland-based SHADE (Survivor’s Healing Advising and Dedicated to Empowerment) Movement to support individuals through community clinics, school-based health centers, and hospitals. Ummra also serves on the Oakland Mayor’s Advisory Council on Human Trafficking and the California CSEC Action Team, and contributes to initiatives with Alameda, San Jose, and San Mateo’s County Department of Child Welfare, Oakland Unified School District, and the Prevention and Addressing Child Trafficking (PACT) Project. 

In addition, she is the founder of a beauty business with a program specifically for impacted individuals, offering sliding-scale services in cosmetic tattoos, tattoo removal, and scar remodeling, using self-expression, agency, and luxury care as tools for personal transformation, empowerment, and healing.

Morys Ward (he/him)
Rising Safe and Sound Consultant and Trainer

Morys Ward is subject matter expert, bringing lived expertise as a queer, formerly unhoused, disabled sex trafficking survivor. He began his journey with Rising seven years ago while working as a software engineer, building technology to combat gender based violence. With his expertise in the unique needs of boys and men who have experienced abuse and exploitation, Morys has over a decade of contributions to domestic and international research and policy development with partners such as United Way Worldwide, Polaris, DCSF and DHS.