Richard Leger, Co-Founder & President
Richard Leger is a Co-Founder of the Abolish Slavery Coalition. He began his professional career holding key executive positions in real estate investment firms and has since acted upon his longtime passion and desire to help end modern-day slavery. He began playing an active role in humanitarian efforts with his church and with organizations such as the ROCK of Africa Mission, where he served as Chairman on the Advisory Board providing medicine, medical supplies, food and fresh water to poverty-stricken regions of Africa. Richard also promotes funding for the research and development of finding and securing sustainable solutions for severe medical issues that remain prevalent in underdeveloped nations. He works with the Abolish Slavery team to eliminate and prevent the spread of modern-day slavery by developing steps toward solutions, such as establishing and mentoring human trafficking task forces on domestic and global fronts, and finding, rescuing and protecting victims of human trafficking. Richard and the Abolish Slavery team share the goal of establishing an infrastructure to assist survivors on their road to recovery. Richard provides logistical, financial and strategic support for victims and survivors, facilitating tactical oversight in identifying and rescuing victims of human trafficking.
Sandy Leger, Board Chairman
As one of the principle founders and CEO of the Abolish Slavery Coalition, Sandy Leger has set the standard for consistency in helping to provide resources for victims of human trafficking worldwide. She has been a key participant in numerous humanitarian efforts domestically and overseas, including in Cambodia, where she has taken a special interest in helping survivors for the last several years. Her acts of devotion include personally funding and sustaining efforts to give education, medical support and vocational training to survivors who AbolishSlavery.org has helped rescue. Additionally, Sandy provides food supplies, water, medicine and care resources for groups of internally displaced peoples (IDPs) among the Ban Mai refugees of Burma. She has also assisted with efforts to support IDPs of Laos and Thailand, providing life saving support for survivors.
Dawn Adams, Task Force Director
Dawn Adams’s main focus as an abolitionist has been to combat human trafficking in the United States by mentoring and inspiring task forces in Las Vegas and Reno, Nev. and in Chico, Calif. Dawn successfully established the first Abolish Slavery Day in Chico through diligent and passionate work with the mayor and local government. She helped galvanize law enforcement into forming task force meetings, consequently inspiring the city into backing its civic leaders and law enforcement community. Dawn also escalated federal support for task forces in Nevada by bringing in the FBI to work with police departments in Las Vegas and Reno. Many people don’t realize that the majority of the human trafficking cases in the United States involve runaway minors. Dawn has made this particular area the primary emphasis of her human rights activism. The success of her campaigns show that when people come together in a combined force, we can truly make great strides in abolishing slavery.
Melissa Grace Hoon, Victim Advocate
As Victim Advocate for Abolish Slavery, Melissa works as a mentor and academic advisor to young victims recently rescued by Abolish Slavery, guiding them through their rehabilitation process. She begins this process with the victims immediately following their initial liberation from being enslaved under pimp control and works with Abolish Slavery staff throughout the entire evolution process towards its end where a victim can identify herself as a self-sufficient survivor with restored dignity. With a Master’s degree in American Studies, where she focused her studies on gendered violence and victim mentality, Melissa works with Abolish Slavery and other sex trafficking experts to secure the necessary resources for a victim to come full circle in her recovery process, where she is free to achieve her goals and dreams. These resources include, but are not limited to therapy sessions, transitional housing, a college education, vocational training and living expenses. Having always been a firm believer in all souls having the right to be free to realize their own destiny, Melissa chose her commitment to helping transition young victims out of a life in human trafficking so that they, too, can have a sense of purpose with freedom to exercise their right of choice in pursuing all of their passions on the path toward their destiny.
