Speaker details

Biography

Ambassador (ret.) Susan Coppedge is the Executive Director of the Georgia Legal Services Program which provides access to justice and opportunities out of poverty for Georgians, particularly those with low incomes, the elderly, and those in rural areas. Susan is an expert on human trafficking having worked in the field over 23 years. She previously was nominated by President Obama and confirmed by the U.S. Senate as the Ambassador-at-Large for the Office to Monitor and Combat Trafficking in Persons at the United States Department of State (Oct. 2015 - July 2017). She also served as an Assistant United States Attorney in the Northern District of Georgia focusing on investigating and prosecuting human trafficking cases including indicting over 50 human traffickers and assisting over 93 victims (May 1999 - Oct. 2015). Susan recently volunteered her time to win the release of a wrongly convicted sex trafficking survivor who had served 10-plus years of a 20-year prison sentence. Susan serves on the Boards of Polaris, which operates the U.S. National Human Trafficking Hotline, and Street Grace which focuses on combatting the sexual exploitation of children. She also serves as a Board member for the United Nations Voluntary Trust Fund on Contemporary Forms of Slavery which awards grants to civil society organizations to support survivors of human trafficking.