Ambassador, Advisory Comittee Member

Ambassador Steven E. Steiner served from 2011 to 2018 as a gender advisor for the U.S. Institute of Peace. He previously served in the Department of State’s Office of Global Women‘s Issues and the Office to Monitor and Combat Trafficking in Persons. He was the director of the Department’s Iraqi Women’s Democracy Initiative. Steiner served for 36 years in the United States Foreign Service. He completed tours of duty at the U.S. embassy in Moscow and the State Department’s Offices of Soviet Union and West German Affairs and served as the deputy director of the Department’s Operations Center, its 24-hour crisis management facility.

Legal Counsel

Abbe Jolles is counsel to the American Council on Women, Peace and Security. She is a Washington, D.C.- based international human rights litigator representing clients worldwide, including those in conflict zones. She serves as a corporate human rights advisor to global corporations and is founding member and executive officer of Hear Their Cries, an organization dedicated to ending child sex abuse in the international aid industry.

Strategic Development Advisor

John Garesché is a fundraising professional, philanthropic advisor, science educator and high-altitude balloonist who has been working with Susan since 2022 to help build sustainable fundraising for ACWPS. He has spent over 25 years helping a variety of organizations around the country develop sustainable fundraising strategies, and for the last 10 years worked as a classroom science teacher.

Advisory Committee Member

Jennifer Arangio is a senior national security and humanitarian assistance professional with over two decades of policy, strategic leadership, advocacy and communications experience. She has advised members of Congress and senior federal officials throughout her career, most recently as the Chief Advisor to the Administrator of the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID). While there she led an Agency-wide strategic review on the secondary and tertiary effects of COVID-19 and managed a diverse set of humanitarian and development issues.

Advisory Committee Member

Helmut is a servant of the Sacred Heart of Jesus, a creative director, producer and entrepreneur with a passion for digital media and its power to make a positive impact in society. He is the founder of Stellar Cinematics, a multimedia creative boutique. Fighting sex trafficking is at the top of his social work. Furthermore, he believes awareness through audio visual media is paramount to promote community engagement in helping and protecting children and vulnerable minorities at risk of sex trade.