SHANDRA WOWORUNTU, Chief Executive Officer
Shandra Woworuntu is an international advocate and leader in the fight of human trafficking. Shandra is a motivational and inspirational speaker in raising awareness about human rights. She trains law enforcement, attorneys, social workers, medical practitioners, and businesses and she lectures university students across the country and internationally. As a writer, she wrote for CNN, Glam, The Hill and her curatorial was published in MOMA Design & Violence.
Shandra was a banker and money market trader in Indonesia her native country. Escaping political turbulence and religious persecution Shandra expanded her employment to the U.S., where she was kidnapped and sold into an underground sex business in New York and surrounded areas. She escaped and collaborate with Law Enforcement to arrest the traffickers. Shandra learned from her experiences and used it to help victims and survivors. She founded Mentari to mentor and empower survivors of trafficking in their reintegration into society independently. As a lobbyist; Shandra has testified at the Senate Foreign Relations Committee hearings, New York City Budget hearings to raise funding for services and lobbied federal/state bills as they passed and became laws. Shandra was a New Jersey State commissioner and she has been appointed by Barack Obama to be the founding member of the First U.S. Advisory Council on Human Trafficking to the Presidential Integration Task Force in 2015. Shandra is the 2017 national honoree of L’Oréal Paris Women of Worth. She received numerous awards for her work against human trafficking.
Photo Credit: Emily Young Photography
Marti MacGibbon, President
Marti MacGibbon survived and triumphed over human trafficking, adolescent sexual assault/abuse/exploitation, domestic violence, complex PTSD, addiction, and homelessness. She’s an expert on trauma resolution and addiction recovery, holding five professional certifications in her specialized field. Marti is a renowned speaker and humorist, and is the author of two nationally award-winning memoirs: Never Give in to Fear and Fierce, Funny, and Female. Marti uses her personal story, clinical expertise, and comedic skill to entertain, educate, uplift, and motivate audiences. She received the 2015 IAIC Lifetime Recovery Advocate Award, for outstanding accomplishments in support of recovery and reducing the stigma surrounding addiction, mental illness, homelessness, and human trafficking.
Kathleen Moran, Vice President
Kathleen Moran is an outstanding advocate for ending human trafficking through prevention and public awareness. She supports and adheres to a trauma-informed and survivor-centered approach in anti-trafficking programs. At the heart of all services delivered she believes it is essential to include the voices of survivors. With 25 years of experience as a registered Nurse in a variety of areas, Ms. Moran has focused on the well-being of people. In 2010, she started volunteering for The Partnership for the Eradication of Human Trafficking (PEHT), a committee with the United Nations Association (UNA). In 2017, Kathleen became Co-Chairperson of PEHT, and she also joined the board of UNA, Southern NY District where she served until 2019. Assisting people through their journey of healing to reach their individual potential has been a lifelong passion. For the past few years, Ms. Moran has been promoting the equality model in New York and globally.
RANDALL ROCA, Vice President
Randall Roca served for over 30 years in the city of New York as a Detective/ Investigator in the New York City Police Department. Previously as a senior rackets investigator for the Manhattan District Attorney’s office, Randall assisted in the prosecution of numerous criminal cases. Fighting against organized crime for many years, Randall is very knowledgeable of the human condition.
Victims of crime in general suffer from emotional scars due to their traumatic experiences. Victims of human trafficking or modern slavery suffer from a Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder that is more complicated due to the hopelessness of their situation. It is not uncommon for the victims of human trafficking to be treated like criminals in the eyes of Law Enforcement. It is Randall's belief that there is a need to address human trafficking at the Law Enforcement level as well as increasing public awareness, resources development, victim services, mentorship, and survivor empowerment. Recently Randall received a 2020 Honor Roll from President G.W. Bush from Points of Light for his tireless work in helping survivors of human trafficking.
Chris Fitzhugh, Secretary
Chris Fitzhugh is a steadfast ally and advocate in the movement to end human trafficking. Since 2009, he’s worked alongside survivor leaders, including his wife, Marti MacGibbon, to support prevention through awareness and education, to dispel societal stigma, and to promote justice for victims and survivors. Chris participated in successful legislative advocacy in California in 2014, in support of a bill aimed at reducing child sex trafficking which was signed into law in 2015. From 2012 through 2016, Chris was a member of The Indiana Attorney General’s Anti-Trafficking Task Force, IPATH, Indiana Protection for Abused and Trafficked Humans. He worked as a California realtor, and has a background in the music and entertainment industry, but is currently happily retired. Chris holds a Bachelor of Science degree in marketing from Sonoma State University and also studied at UC Berkeley. From 2011 through 2018, Chris and his wife Marti co-produced Laff-Aholics, a standup comedy benefit for recovery, at the Indianapolis Museum of Art’s Toby Theater. One hundred percent of the profits from the show went to non-profits in Indianapolis that provide housing and access to mental health and addiction recovery care for the community’s most vulnerable.
Ima Matul, Treasurer
Ima Matul is the Survivor Leader based in Los Angeles. She is a powerful speaker and advocate for the rights of immigrant laborers in the United States and has spoken to politicians and legislators to promote survivor-centered legislation on the issue of human trafficking. Ima has received numerous awards for her leadership. In September 2012, Ima was recognized by President Barack Obama as a hero in today’s abolitionist movement.
Ima was born and raised in Indonesia. When she was just a teenager, she got an offer to work in the US. It seemed like a blessing and an opportunity for a better life. A labor recruiter said everything would be taken care of: passports, visas, and tickets. The recruiter promised her $150 a month in pay. While this was not a lot of money, it was more than she could earn in Indonesia. However, when Ima arrived in Los Angeles, it turned out the labor recruiter was a trafficker, and the house where she worked became a prison. After 3 years of physical and emotional abuse, she secretly wrote a letter to the nanny next door. A few days later, her neighbor arranged her escape. Ima was rescued and she received help from the office of the service provider in Los Angeles.
Metta Murdaya, Board member
Metta Murdaya is an innovator who founded JUARA, a skincare & wellness line based on Indonesian herbal traditions, with offices in New York, Jakarta, and Singapore. She also works with PT. CCM, a diversified Indonesian conglomerate focusing on future business strategy and human capital talent management.
Metta graduated from the University of California at Berkeley in 1997 with a double Bachelor’s degree in Cognitive Science and Architecture, and received her MBA from NYU Stern School of Business in 2002 in Finance and Management. Metta has a background in operations, consulting, general management in branded consumer goods, working in, and with, large companies including Home Depot and Nike, and small companies where consulted for women and minority-owned businesses.
Now, she is an active member of the Young President’s Organization (YPO). as a previous mentor with Endeavor working with fast-growth entrepreneurs, she has a passion to develop leadership talent.
Metta was a Previous-Chairman and current Board Member for the South East Asian Leadership Academy (SEALA) Program and Board Member for Solve Education an education technology software company. She is also a certified acro-yoga instructor.
Joycelyn Francis, Board member
Joycelyn Francis is a NASM Certified Fitness and Nutrition Coach on a mission to change a million lives through movement. As a survivor of childhood sexual abuse, she knows the power of fitness firsthand. Ms. Francis used fitness in her life to prevail over the mental and emotional trauma she experienced so that she could propel herself into the life she deserves. Her effectiveness in helping other women entrepreneurs (and men) on their healing journey, using fitness as a tool, ties into her knowing intimately just how intertwined our emotions and waistlines really are. From Joy's purview changing the world, literally means "Changing one feeling at a time, with One workout at a time”.
Hailing from the beautiful twin islands of Trinidad and Tobago, Joy's fitness aptitude was honored by the Trinidad and Tobago Military with the "Fittest Female" training instructor title in 2016. Today, her services span a variety of creative outlets including online fitness courses and challenges, personal training packages, group class pop-ups, etc. Joy's platform of promoting emotional freedom through fitness has helped her take her message to large stages, garnering renown as a respected voice on women's rights and mental health topics. Hiking trails around her NJ residence, her church family fitness ministry, and outdoor adventures with her husband and boys all bear witness to her commitment to the movement, on and off the clock.
Paola Martinez, Survivor Leadership Team
Paola Martinez is a front-line leader; she believes that the well-being of survivors is our focus as they reintegrate as contributing members of society. Whether you’re an immigrant, part of the LGBTQ community, or other minority groups, that in the past haven’t been fully recognized it’s important that people that have been trafficked obtain identification status
Patricia Milien, Survivor Leadership Team
Patricia is a survivor leader who works on trauma healing, and resources to help survivors at Mentari to ensure Mentari’s clients will receive help and support.
Choki Wangmo, Ambassador for Bhutan
Choki Wangmo is an advocate for ending Gender-based violence in Bhutan. She works directly with young women and raises awareness about gender-based violence and generation equality adopted by the United Nations SDGs. She provides information about human trafficking, domestic violence, child abuse, and other types of abuse and can find help if they need it.
Mutunda Malichi, Ambassador for Zambia
Mutunda Malichi was born in a humble family and is motivated to ensure that what he went through as a child does not repeat itself on other children. Malichi is a founder of the January 4th Academy aiming to bring together and foster help for vulnerable children born on 4th of January as a criterion to help out children born from child mothers with no known responsible fathers. He was born, grew up, and worked in rural areas of Zambia experiencing the worst poverty levels being endured by his people that led the into vices such as prostitution, human trafficking, and early marriages for girls. Malichi is now involved with Mentari USA in developing new ways to end child sex and general human trafficking that has characterized most rural areas of Zambia.
Malichi has worked with humanitarian organizations for 7 years ensuring access to water and sanitation services to rural dwellers, this gave him a clear understanding of the poverty levels people are going through leading them to be engaged in vices that lead them into human and sex trafficking. In 2022, Malichi joined the national fight against child marriage and has since collaborated with a number of organizations that are fighting both child marriage and sex trafficking.
Malichi has also been engaged in advocating for SDGs especially those focusing on gender equality, peace, and justice for all, and also poverty reduction as a way to meet the Vision 2030 that the country has set. He is looking for partners that will support the agenda to sensitize school children, and victims of child marriage and sex trafficking by involving parents; cultural and traditional; and civic leaders to meet this objective. In a culture where issues of sex are rarely discussed, the HIV infection rate is at 30%, Malichi intends to go on a national advocacy and campaign journey and become a lonely voice in fighting this scourge.
With statistics soaring high in child marriages, sex trafficking, and gender inequalities, Malichi is determined to ensure that the National Vision 2030 is achieved. He is privileged to partner and volunteer with MENTARI USA to bring these statistics down. In achieving this, Malichi is engaging lawmakers to enact sufficient laws that provide for stiffer punishment for perpetrators of sex and human trafficking including child marriages and early sex.
Rifa Nurul Salsabila Tsulanjana, Ambassador for Indonesia
Rifa Nurul Salsabila Tsulanjana is a fearless survivor leader in West Java. She does outreach and public awareness events, and she is helping victims and survivors locally to get services and protection. After having a horrific experienced, Yayasan Isteri Binangkit provided her with social services and she was mentored by Shandra Woworuntu to become a survivor leader. She received a leadership opportunity, and she led the survivor group in Cianjur and assisted the NGO to help victims and survivors.