Join the International & Comparative Law Program for a panel discussion on international human trafficking law, featuring Ambassador Cindy Dyer and Hilary Axam, Director of the Civil Rights Division's Human Trafficking Prosecution Unit at the DOJ. Professors Soumya Silver and Kate Hill will serve as moderators. 

Speakers:

Cindy Dyer serves as the United States Ambassador-at-Large to Monitor and Combat Trafficking in Persons and leads the Department’s Office to Monitor and Combat Trafficking in Persons.  In December 2022, the Senate unanimously confirmed her, and President Biden appointed her, to lead the United States’ global engagement to combat human trafficking and support the coordination of anti-trafficking efforts across the U.S. government.
Ambassador Dyer is a human rights advocate and lawyer with three decades of experience working at the local, national, and international levels to prevent and respond to human trafficking, sexual assault, and domestic violence. In 2021, she was appointed to serve on the Independent Review Commission on Sexual Assault in the Military (IRC) that was ordered by Secretary of Defense Lloyd J. Austin, III, at the direction of President Biden, to take bold action to address sexual assault and harassment in the military.  Her appointment was extended to assist the Department of Defense with the implementation and oversight of the IRC recommendations.

Hilary Axam was designated as National Human Trafficking Coordinator in April 2023, and is responsible for developing and implementing Department-wide and interagency national strategies, coordinating anti-trafficking efforts throughout the Department, and representing the Department in significant interagency and external stakeholder engagements.
Axam has served as the Director of the Human Trafficking Prosecution Unit (HTPU) in the Justice Department’s Civil Rights Division since 2009. She previously served as the Unit’s Senior Litigation Counsel. Since joining the Department as a federal prosecutor in 2001, she has prosecuted and supervised human trafficking cases of national significance involving sex trafficking, compelled farm and factory labor, domestic servitude, and forced labor in restaurants, bars, and cantinas. As HTPU’s Director, Axam serves as one of the Department’s preeminent anti-trafficking subject matter experts.

Kate Hill is a federal prosecutor for the U.S. Department of Justice Civil Rights Division, Human Trafficking Prosecution Unit. The Human Trafficking Prosecution Unit (or “HTPU”) prosecutes cases of adult-victim sex trafficking, forced labor, and other human trafficking-related crimes. HTPU works with federal agents and U.S. Attorney’s Offices in every District of the United States. In addition to investigating and prosecuting human trafficking cases, Ms. Hill conducts international and national training on human trafficking for law enforcement and prosecutors. Ms. Hill is a Professorial Lecturer in Law at the George Washington University, where she teaches Human Trafficking Law. 
Before joining the Department of Justice, Ms. Hill was an Assistant District Attorney in Houston, Texas, where she handled sex trafficking and domestic violence cases. Prior to that, she worked in private practice. Ms. Hill is a graduate of the George Washington University and Harvard Law School. She served as a judicial law clerk for the Honorable Keith P. Ellison in the Southern District of Texas. Before attending law school, Ms. Hill was a Fulbright Scholar in Hanoi, Vietnam.

Soumya Silver is Senior Legal Affairs Advisor in the Office to Monitor and Combat Trafficking in Persons (J/TIP). In this role, she serves as the Department’s subject matter expert on legal issues pertaining to foreign governments’ anti-trafficking legislation. She has been with J/TIP since 2012 and previously served as a Reports and Political Affairs Officer covering a portfolio of over 30 African and European countries.
Ms. Silver has also served as Attorney Advisor for the U.S. Department of Justice’s Human Trafficking Prosecution Unit and as a Rule of Law Advisor in the U.S. Agency for International Development. Ms. Silver is a professorial lecturer of law at the George Washington University Law School and has guest lectured at various other institutions, including Yale University Law School, New York University Law School, and the International Legal Institute. Her work on international human trafficking law has been published by Yale University. 
Ms. Silver has a Bachelor’s degree from Oglethorpe University, a Juris Doctorate from the George Washington University Law School, and a Masters in International Human Rights Law from Oxford University. She is bar certified in the Commonwealth of Virginia.