INSPIRATION TO YOUR INBOX
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CEO, Co-Founder, Board Member
Peggy has worked to end slavery on five continents. She was shocked in 1999 to learn that slavery still existed. Peggy truly thought that Abraham had taken care of the problem.
She was wrong.
Peggy ditched her work as a television reporter/producer/director and joined forces with fierce social justice warriors Kevin Bales and Jolene Smith in 2000 to co-found Free the Slaves.
In 2011 Peggy co-founded Voices4Freedom with freedom lover, Bryn Freedman.
Peggy is pretty sure that good anti-slavery work in the field must include bailing water in a leaky boat or getting stuck in the mud. She is so grateful that she gets to see hope light up the eyes of people when they learn that freedom is on the way.
Creative Director, Impact Relations Lead
Tawney’s fight against modern-day slavery began in 2009 with a life-changing 600-mile bicycle ride through India alongside young survivors raising awareness about trafficking. The experience instantly reshaped her career path. As Creative Director and Impact Relations Lead at Voices4Freedom, Tawney oversees initiatives including event coordination, donor trips, community engagement, online marketing, photography, videography, and major campaigns.
Outside of her work, Tawney is passionate about the ocean, adventurous camping trips, her beloved rescue pup, and enjoying a warm cup of coffee.
Director of Strategic Partnerships
After working in Engineering and Marketing for companies like AT&T and Hewlett Packard, Gwendolyn Oliver left the Silicon Valley to pursue an acting career in Los Angeles. One of the first people she met was Peggy Callahan. Imagine her surprise (and revulsion) when Peggy explained that slavery was still alive and well across the globe. She was immediately on board when Peggy, Jolene and Kevin started Free the Slaves in 2000 and provided marketing assistance when needed.
In 2024, Gwendolyn joined the Voices 4 Freedom team to lend her marketing expertise and do whatever is needed to get the word out about modern day slavery.
When she’s not working with the formidable Voices 4 Freedom team, she can be found acting on television and movie sets or performing voiceover work in her home studio, in her pjs.
In her spare time, Gwendolyn teaches free ballet and jazz dance classes to children from economically disadvantaged neighborhoods in the Los Angeles area.
Gwendolyn’s superpower is her knack for sniffing out desserts. She’s got her favorites, but any combination of butter, sugar and flour will do.
Senior Advisor
Jolene is a trailblazer in the anti-slavery movement, an advisor and a speaker. In 2000 she worked with Peggy Callahan and Kevin Bales to bring the global antislavery movement to the United States and co-founded Free the Slaves. She and her colleagues grew the organization to have programs in 6 countries and spearheaded the first global efforts to eradicate slavery from business supply chains.
Her secret weapon? Being short. It’s easier to get things done quickly when underestimated (and well-rested; even long flights and crowded overnight trains are surprisingly comfortable without having to deal without having to deal with pesky height).
Finance and Metrics Manager
Kristen recently joined the amazing Voices4Freedom team as and Metrics Manager. Prior to that she had a 15 year career doing Business Strategy and Operations for the pioneering internet company, America Online. As fulfilling as that work was for many years, she ultimately craved work where she could make a bigger impact on people’s lives. As luck would have it, she met Jolene Smith around that time and was shocked to learn about the issue of modern-day slavery. As part of a mid-life soul search, she had a career horoscope reading (don’t laugh) and was told she should seek work in the non-profit world. So when Jolene asked her if she wanted to be part of the amazing Voices4Freedom team, Kristen jumped at the chance!
Kristen’s superpower is apparently being in the right place at the right time.
CoFounder, Board Member
She was introduced to anti-slavery work by her friend and Co-Founder Peggy Callahan 17 years ago. Frankly Bryn is impatient and likes to see results. So, when she learned that there was more slavery today than in any time in history and yet, it is possible to end slavery in our lifetime, she joined the fight. It’s good to be on the winning side. Bryn also shares the advantage of being short with Jolene and realized that she was destined to become an abolitionist as her name is FREEDMAN or BFREE for short.
International Advisory Board Member
Kevin Bales is basically a lazy guy who starts a lot of things, and finishes some of them. Luckily, he’s also been clever enough to get to work with people like Jolene Smith and Peggy Callahan, who keep him pointed in the right direction. He wrote some books about modern slavery, and ends up being asked to speak about slavery a lot.
* Kevin is a humble person who clearly wrote this bio and forgot to mention that he wrote the world’s first book on modern slavery, which was nominated for a Pulitzer and turned into a documentary film that he co-wrote. The film won a Peabody and two Emmys. He’s currently Professor of Contemporary Slavery, and Research Director of the Rights Lab at the University of Nottingham, UK with not enough shelf space for all the awards he’s won—including an especially fancy one (the CMG, for you Anglophiles) from the Queen of England. Professor, researcher, human rights activist, writer, board member…. Real lazy, Kevin. Real lazy.
CEO, Co-Founder, Board Member
Peggy has worked to end slavery on five continents. She was shocked in 1999 to learn that slavery still existed. Peggy truly thought that Abraham had taken care of the problem. She was wrong.
Peggy ditched her work as a television reporter/producer/director and joined forces with fierce social justice warriors Kevin Bales and Jolene Smith in 2000 to co-found Free the Slaves. In 2011 Peggy co-founded Voices4Freedom with freedom lover, Bryn Freedman.
Peggy is pretty sure that good anti-slavery work in the field must include bailing water in a leaky boat or getting stuck in the mud. She is so grateful that she gets to see hope light up the eyes of people when they learn that freedom is on the way.
Board Member
Rickie is one of the most acclaimed and beloved singer-songwriters there is in the genre of inspirational/New Thought. She uses music to connect with communities and has built a beautiful history of activism both locally and abroad as a result. Fun fact: Rickie has performed for His Holiness the Dalai Lama 5 times!
Board Member
Tari is a mother, a start-up founder, an artist and an anti-slavery activist. She earned a Masters degree in Public Relations, spent a decade in account management and new business development, founded a PR consultancy for women, and created strategic fundraising solutions for nonprofits. Tari is the CEO/co-founder of illumin and a founding board member of Voices4Freedom.
International Advisory Board Member
Vincent is bringing his curiosity as a neuroscientist, his skill and determination as an entrepreneur, and his sensitivity and expression as a photographer and poet to our effort to eradicate slavery. While beginning a career in neuroscience research and university teaching, he founded Vital Images, Inc., a pioneer in the development and effective use of 3D visualization software in science, engineering and medicine. Once specialized in medical imaging, the company became the first to make volume visualization of CT scan data rapid, intuitive and clinically useful. Today Vincent is applying his learnings in scaling and focusing organizations to advising and supporting Voices4Freedom and the anti-slavery movement.
Says Vincent, “India is precious to me because of my long study of consciousness and meditation. When I saw the transformation of villages from generational slavery to sustained freedom and self-sufficiency on my first field trip with Voices4Freedom, I realized I had to find within myself a way to do more to help. There is no poverty more extreme than slavery, no greater theft than that of entire lifetimes.”
Served on our International Advisory Board, was a warrior for justice, and left the world more joyful.
Nobel Peace Prize winner Archbishop Desmond Tutu is a fierce and eloquent supporter of human rights. Arch (as he is commonly called) speaks truth to power around the globe and led the fight to end apartheid in South Africa. He has used his voice and influence for decades to help people in slavery. His sense of humor and compassion is a beacon of hope in a world that can sometimes seem so dark. He once assured a group of anti-slavery activists that God was proud of us. He knew that for a fact because, as he says, ‘I have a hotline!’
‘So much of my life has been spent striving for freedom, reaching for freedom, calling out and praying for freedom. No child should be born without hope; no person should live without freedom. We all know that in a world thirsty for freedom, we’ve all got to fill our buckets and haul this living water. Voices4Freedom is part of freedom’s river, and I am happy to carry my bucket and to urge others to take up their buckets as well.’
Served on our International Advisory Board, was a warrior for education, and left the world more creative.
Sir Ken Robinson has raised his voice against modern day slavery for more than a decade. He is renowned for his work with governments, education systems, international agencies, global corporations and some of the world’s leading cultural organizations to unlock the creative energy of people and organizations. He has led national and international projects on creative and cultural education in the UK, Europe, Asia and the United States. Sir Ken Robinson is the most watched speaker in TED’s history. His 2006 talk, “Do Schools Kill Creativity” has been seen by an estimated 350 million people.
He has been named as one of Time/Fortune/CNN’s ‘Principal Voices’. Sir Ken was acclaimed by Fast Company magazine as one of “the world’s elite thinkers on creativity and innovation” and was ranked in the Thinkers50 list of the world’s top business thinkers. In 2003, he received a knighthood from Queen Elizabeth II for his services to the arts.
“Our task is to educate our students whole being so they can face the future. We may not see the future, but they will and our job is to help them make something of it.” – Ken Robinson
Frontline Team
Supriya has spent more than 20 years creating grassroots and systemic solutions for slavery eradication. She supports Voices4Freedom’s programing, research, and the frontline team in India. Supriya has a deep knowledge of micro and macro issues of the sub continent’s social and cultural realities. This knowledge allows her to work with diverse populations in South Asia and build a bridge between those who need support and those who want to support.
One of V4F’s core beliefs is that we cannot helicopter into another culture and presume to know the best ways to combat slavery there. That makes frontline partners all-important.
Our frontline team is based in Varanasi, India and has been fighting slavery and the systems that allow slavery to exist since 1996. Currently our Schools4Freedom have 50 full-time and part-time team members in India, including teachers, frontline workers and support staff through our partnership.
Slave owners sometimes threaten to kill or beat team members in the villages. Teachers have been known to get to work during the rainy season on inner-tubes to get to their students. It is a long walk [or swim] to freedom. All of us are honored to make that journey with villagers who are risking everything for freedom.
Strategic Partnerships Coordinator, UN Representatives
As with many nerds, it all started with a book. Katherine learned about modern day slavery through fiction at the ripe age of fourteen, and resolved she’d spend her life working with the best anti-trafficking teams to prevent and end trafficking of persons. On the local level she has coauthored a human trafficking prevention curriculum that’s currently being implemented in every public school in D.C. and New York. Her international anti-trafficking work began at the United Nations where she now represents Voices4Freedom on the Steering Committee of the NGO Committee to Stop Trafficking in Persons.
She passionately believes that no one of us can be free until everybody is free and hopes that YOU will join her in this effort.
We are so excited to connect with you! Join our email list for more insight on how we can WIN the fight against modern day slavery together!
By signing up you agree to Voices4Freedom’s Privacy Policy.