By Elizabeth Lenart
New Friends New Life (NFNL) proclaims the 2025 ProtectHER Award recipients: Erin Nealy Cox, Chad Frymire, Eliza McCoy, and Laila Mickelwait. The honorees shall be acknowledged on the annual NFNL Stand for Her Luncheon, on September 12 at the OMNI Dallas Hotel. The ProtectHER Awards are offered by Thomson Reuters. The occasion will function actress, producer, and advocate Lucy Liu, who will interact in a dialog moderated by NBC 5 anchor Laura Harris.
The Honorable Betsy Price will function honorary luncheon chair, becoming a member of occasion Co-Chairs Lynn Dowdle and Karla Smith in main the occasion, which helps NFNL’s mission to revive and empower survivors of intercourse trafficking and sexual exploitation.
Created in 2013, and introduced along with NFNL’s annual luncheon, the NFNL ProtectHER awards acknowledge people, companies, and companies who assist the safety and worth of girls and women within the Dallas neighborhood, throughout the nation, and all over the world. Past recipients embody Texas First Lady Cecilia Abbott, American Airlines, Lynn McBee, The Meadows Foundation, Methodist Health System, and Santander Consumer USA Foundation, Inc.
Erin Nealy Cox is a associate at Kirkland & Ellis, serving within the agency’s Dallas and Washington, D.C., workplaces. A former United States Attorney for the Northern District of Texas, she is widely known as a fierce advocate within the struggle towards intercourse trafficking. During her tenure, she led groundbreaking efforts via the North Texas Trafficking Task Force, which she revitalized in partnership with Homeland Security Investigations (HSI). Under her management, the duty pressure tackled intercourse trafficking from a number of fronts, together with demand discount. In 2020, The Dallas Morning News nominated her for Texan of the Year in recognition of her pioneering work. Today, she represents companies, boards of administrators, and executives in advanced, multi-jurisdictional disputes and high-stakes investigations. She is a key member of Kirkland & Ellis’s Government, Regulatory & Internal Investigations Practice Group, and at present serves on the New Friends New Life Board of Directors.
“From her exemplary tenure within the courtroom to her devoted service within the boardroom, Erin has persistently displayed each tenacity and compassion within the seek for justice for survivors of trafficking, home violence, and different crimes that disproportionately have an effect on ladies and women,” mentioned Bianca Davis, CEO, NFNL. “She is a real inspiration to us all.”
Chad Frymire, director of public coverage at Dallas CASA for 17 years, is a number one advocate for at-risk youth and a driving pressure within the struggle towards human trafficking. He has served as president of the North Texas Coalition Against Human Trafficking (NTCAHT) for over a decade and has been concerned with the Office of the Governor’s Care Coordination Multidisciplinary Team since its inception. He serves on a number of advisory our bodies, together with the Dallas Children’s Advocacy Center Care Coordination Advisory Board, the Texas Attorney General’s Anti-Trafficking Task Force, and the City of Dallas Mayor’s Domestic Violence and Human Trafficking Advisory Council. Frymire additionally sits on the boards of the North Texas Foster Care Consortium and Your Nonprofit Controller, leads Dallas CASA’s legislative advocacy, and coordinates National Adoption Day in Dallas County.His work is deeply private—after dropping his sister as a result of circumstances associated to trafficking, he adopted her youngster from foster care, additional fueling his dedication to defending exploited and susceptible youth.”
“Through his tireless skilled management and his private connection to the horrors of this brutal trade, Chad is a brave and type voice within the anti-trafficking house and a dwelling instance of what it seems to be like to show ache into goal,” mentioned Davis.
Eliza McCoy is vice chairman of applications and influence on the American Hotel and Lodging Association (AHLA) Foundation, the place she has labored to develop and assist the No Room For Trafficking Initiative—mobilizing the hospitality trade to forestall human trafficking via schooling, coaching, and survivor assist. She spearheaded the launch of the No Room For Trafficking Survivor Fund, which offers long-term financial empowerment for survivors via community-based organizations whereas advancing coaching to forestall human trafficking within the lodging trade. McCoy additionally oversees a portfolio of workforce improvement applications, together with youth empowerment, educational {and professional} improvement scholarships together with apprenticeships. With over 15 years of nonprofit management, she beforehand served as govt director on the National Center for Missing & Exploited Children, main nationwide outreach and prevention efforts. A former investigator with the Manhattan District Attorney’s Office, she brings deep experience in regulation enforcement, sufferer advocacy, and program improvement.
“Eliza McCoy is a pressure within the struggle towards human trafficking—her management has not solely mobilized a complete trade however has created actual, lasting pathways to therapeutic and stability for survivors. She has devoted her profession to making sure survivors are seen and heard, embodying every thing the ProtectHER Award stands for,” mentioned Davis.
Laila Mickelwait is the co-founder and CEO of the Justice Defense Fund, a nonprofit group devoted to empowering survivors of intercourse trafficking, youngster sexual abuse materials (CSAM), and felony image-based sexual abuse via strategic litigation and advocacy. She can be the founder and chief of the TraffickingHub motion – a decentralized, various world effort to carry Pornhub accountable for enabling and taking advantage of mass sexual exploitation and to push for insurance policies that stop felony sexual abuse throughout the Internet. Mickelwait is the nationwide bestselling creator of Takedown: Inside the Fight to Shut Down Pornhub for Child Abuse, Rape, and Sex Trafficking and has been researching and combating the injustice of intercourse trafficking since 2006. She is acknowledged as a number one knowledgeable within the world motion to fight sexual exploitation.
“Laila’s relentless efforts to carry corporations and shoppers accountable for unlawful and exploitative on-line content material is the wake-up name that this motion has lengthy wanted,” mentioned Davis. “Her work has not solely raised consciousness in regards to the hurt and risks of on-line pornography however has additionally completely disrupted the trade.”
“Thomson Reuters is proud to face alongside New Friends New Life in honoring these ProtectHER Award recipients,” mentioned Heather Panton, Senior Advisor of Social Impact and Human Rights, Thomson Reuters. “Their tireless efforts mirror the values we champion – fact, justice, and human dignity. We are dedicated to leveraging our knowledge, know-how, and subject material experience to assist fight trafficking and promote human rights in communities throughout the U.S. and all over the world.”
Underwriting sponsorship alternatives start at $2,500, and particular person tickets can be found August 22 at $250. Luncheon media sponsors are NBC 5/ Telemundo 39and PaperCity.
For sponsorship or ticket data, go to www.newfriendsnewlife.org/luncheon, e-mail occasions@newfriendsnewlife.org or contact Chief Development Officer Priya Murphy at 214-217-8652.
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About New Friends New Life (NFNL)
New Friends New Life is a nonprofit group devoted to serving to ladies and youngsters who’ve been exploited by intercourse trafficking. NFNL affords restorative companies and works to lift consciousness about this important difficulty in our neighborhood. For extra data, go to www.newfriendsnewlife.org.