Description
Hosted by Mayor John Cranley and Senator Teresa Fedor, this townhall event will be moderated by Representative Thomas West and feature special guests, Ohio Innocence Project exoneree Laurese Glover, and Human Trafficking Survivor EleSondra "Ele" DeRomano.
Speaker Bios:
EleSondra "Ele" DeRomano is a survivor of commercial sexual exploitation/sex trafficking, a local and national consultant, a motivational speaker, an advocate against all forms of exploitation, and the Founder of Standing Together Against Real Slavery (STARS). Since 2004, Ele has worked with women and youth who are at-risk for a myriad of factors, including sexual assault/exploitation, domestic violence, street and gang violence, and substance abuse/addiction. Ele is uniquely capable of mentoring exploited and at-risk women and girls with her direct yet nurturing approach and personality. She offers brutal honesty but creates an atmosphere of hope for women and girls who have been abandoned by society.
Ele spreads her message of hope and inspiration through Ohio's prison systems, youth programs, and, most importantly, the streets. Unlike other privately-funded non-profit organizations with similar objectives, Ele focuses primarily on street outreach. Because of her past, Ele has the extraordinary ability to connect with women and youth trapped in cycles of substance abuse, violence, and exploitation in a way that others cannot.
Ele's dedication to helping other women and girls is the foundation of STARS. Ele has created one-of-a-kind programs such as the Girls Crisis Prevention/Intervention Program and Outreach for Survivors of Prostitution. These programs foster love and trust to a sector of our society that is too often lost and forgotten. She shares her knowledge and expertise with professionals and communities across the country, as well as youth in inner-city schools facing gang and street violence.
(Bio Credit: Standing Together Against Real Slavery )
Laurese Glover had her convictions for the 1995 murder of Clifton Hudson Jr. thrown out in 2015, after nearly a decade of legal advocacy from the Ohio Innocence Project at Cincinnati Law. Two events precipitated the triple exoneration: a key eyewitness recanted her testimony, and the court learned that information from police reports that cast doubt on the defendants’ guilt had not been disclosed to the trial team years earlier.
(Bio Credit: University of Cincinnati College of Law)
John Cranley has devoted his life to helping others and implementing real-world change. His father, a Vietnam veteran, and his mother, a school teacher, taught him the values of faith, service, integrity, and making the world a better place. Raised in the Price Hill neighborhood of Cincinnati, John attended St. Williams Elementary School and St. Xavier High School. He then went on to earn his undergraduate degree from John Carroll University and graduate from Harvard Law School and Harvard Divinity School.
Motivated by a deep sense of social justice, John co-founded the Ohio Innocence Project in 2002, which by using DNA technology has exonerated and freed 33 wrongfully convicted people.
Senator Teresa Fedor, State Senator, Ohio’s 11th Senate District: Since 2010, Senator Teresa Fedor (D-Toledo), representing Ohio's 11th Senate District, has hosted the Annual Human Trafficking Awareness Day, growing to over one thousand participants from around the world. Senator Fedor has unprecedented success in passing bills to fight human trafficking. In 2009, she passed legislation creating an Ohio Attorney General’s Human Trafficking commission to study the issue in Ohio and a penalty enhancement for human traffickers. She now serves as the co-chair of the Legal and Legislative Subcommittee within the Commission. In 2010, she passed legislation making human trafficking a stand-alone felony. In 2012, then Representative Fedor passed The Safe Harbor Act, a comprehensive, victim centered human trafficking bill. This legislation was followed by the End Demand Act, which tackles market-driven demand for human trafficking by increasing penalties for purchasing sex from minors. In 2020, Senate Bill 13, a bill applying the same human trafficking protections to all victims under 18, was enacted into law.