Women Leading Efforts to End Human Trafficking
JWI and the Embassy of Israel invite you to an important conversation on human trafficking. Join us to explore this challenging topic and learn how the U.S. and Israel are creating change so that all women can thrive.
This event is free but RSVP is required.
Ambassador Susan Esserman, founder and director of the University of Maryland Support, Advocacy, Freedom, and Empowerment Center (SAFE Center) for Human Trafficking Survivors, Dina Dominitz, director of Israel's National Anti-Trafficking Coordination Unit, and Tammy Ben-Haim, minister for public diplomacy at the Embassy of Israel, will speak. Lori Weinstein, JWI's CEO emerita, will moderate.
Ambassador Susan G. Esserman founded and leads the University of Maryland’s SAFE Center. In addition to leading the Center, she is a partner at Steptoe & Johnson LLP, a Washington, D.C.- based international law firm, where she heads the firm’s international trade policy practice and has been active in firm management. She leads the firm’s pro bono program on behalf of survivors of human trafficking and has represented numerous human trafficking survivors. She has received numerous awards and recognition, including the Southern Christian Leadership Conference’s Justice for Girls Empowerment Award and the National Journal’s Outstanding Women’s Lawyers List, recognizing the 75 most outstanding women lawyers in the nation. Ambassador Esserman held four senior positions in the Clinton administration: She was nominated by President Clinton and confirmed by the Senate as Deputy U.S. Trade Representative and Assistant Secretary of Commerce. She also served in the role of General Counsel at two agencies – the Office of the U.S. Trade Representative and the Department of Commerce. She has served on a number of nonprofit boards with a women’s rights and international focus. Ambassador Esserman is a graduate of Wellesley College and the University of Michigan Law School.
Attorney Dina Dominitz has been the director of the National Anti-Trafficking Coordination Unit since March 2016. Atty. Dominitz has a bachelor's and master's degree earned in a combined degree track for outstanding students at Bar-Ilan University. She started her career at the Civil Department in the State Attorney's Office in 1998 as an intern, and subsequently went on to fill various professional and managerial positions, in this framework. She represented the State in a wide range of civil legal areas before the Supreme Court, focusing on the welfare of minors and family law, and in other legal proceedings and in various interministerial committees. Between 1999-2007 she served as director of the Legal Department in the Ministry of Interior, and between 2007-2016 served as Senior Deputy to the State Attorney in the Civil Department, where in addition to representing the state in the Supreme Court, she coordinated the efforts to combat human trafficking in all pertaining to civil prosecution, headed a governmental forum on best interests of minors and family matters and led an interministerial panel to deal with the prevention of defamation of public servants. Since 2016, she has been serving as the interministerial coordinator for anti-human trafficking efforts.
Tammy Ben-Haim is serving as minister for public diplomacy at the Embassy of Israel in Washington D.C., since August 2018. As a career diplomat, Tammy has spent more than 15 years in the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and over 20 years in civil service. During her time at the Ministry in Jerusalem, Tammy worked on both the Central and South Asia desks. In prior years she served as deputy chief of mission in Athens, Greece and as Counselor for Internal Politics in New Delhi, India. Before joining the Foreign Ministry, Tammy worked in media relations at the Ministry of Environmental Protection, the Ministry of Finance, and in the Finance Committee of the Knesset, Israel’s parliament. She also worked as an adviser to several lawmakers in the Knesset. In the Israeli armed forces, Tammy’s role was operations officer for the air force and concluded her service with a rank of lieutenant. Tammy has a master’s degree in international relations from the Hebrew University in Jerusalem.
Loribeth Weinstein is CEO Emerita of JWI. Under her leadership of 20 years, JWI created dozens of innovative programs and philanthropic initiatives to end violence, ensure economic security, and spotlight leadership and mentoring. Lori began her career at The Association of American Colleges' Project on the Status and Education of Women, where she conducted research and authored papers on women's re-entry into the workforce. She served as the coordinator of training, volunteers and direct services at My Sister's Place, a domestic violence shelter in Washington, D.C. As the director of The National Child Care Advocacy Project at the Children's Foundation, Lori coordinated a 50-state network of home day-care providers, helping to lift an underground economy to access federal training, education, and feeding programs for tens of thousands of low-income children. Taking her commitment to women and families into the political arena, she became a vice president of Caddell Associates, a political consulting firm, where her portfolio included adding a gender lens to the firm's media and strategic consulting work. She then started her own consulting firm to provide strategic planning and guidance to non-profits and family philanthropies. Lori is a founder of the Washington Area Women's Foundation and has served on the board of directors of American Jewish World Service, regional council of the New Israel Fund, and board of the Religious Coalition for Reproductive Choice, as well as serving as a trustee of the Emanuel and Anna Weinstein Foundation.