Kelly Galloway

Show Notes

• What Kelly considers her greatest accomplishment
• How Kelly's vision for a better future was shaped
• What defines human trafficking and modern-day slavery
• What are the different forms of human trafficking
• How many victims of human trafficking are there
• Who are primarily the victims of human trafficking
• What Kelly's work at Project Mona's House has taught her about healing
• What Kelly is most proud of
• How best to factor human trafficking issues into the DEI space in the world of work

Transcript

Kelly Galloway

Fighting for human trafficking, fighting against human trafficking and fighting against slavery, and fighting for the freedom of people is not just a fad for me. It's not trendy. It is personal, as I am a descendant.

Phil Wagner

Hello from the halls of the Mason School of Business here at William & Mary. I'm Phil, and this is Diversity Goes to Work. Buckle up because we're getting ready to take a deep dive into the real human lived experiences that shape and guide our diversity work in the world of work. Should be fun. Welcome, listeners, to yet another episode of Diversity Goes to Work. Today we have the opportunity to take our conversation in a bit of a different direction, and I'm beyond delighted to be able to host Kelly Galloway, who is the founder and director of Mona's House, a Buffalo base restoration home for human trafficking victims. Kelly is a modern-day abolitionist. She is a leader on the move, addressing some of the darkest and bleakest moments of the human condition. Kelly raises awareness on human trafficking and modern-day slavery everywhere she goes. One of my favorite things that she's done is her direct involvement with the Freedom Walk, which is an almost 1000 miles journey, I believe, that follows the Underground Railroad, which helps raise awareness on human trafficking and slavery. She's out there. She's doing the work. And I'm delighted to be able to welcome you here today.

Phil Wagner

Kelly, thanks for joining us. I think I read a little bit of your bio, but that's just a small piece of who you are and what you do. Can you share maybe for our listeners a little bit more about who you are and the work you do every day at Mona's House?

Kelly Galloway

Yeah. So like you said, my name is Kelly Diane Galloway. I am a modern-day abolitionist, activist, and civil rights leader. Out of all my titles and all of my accolades that I've received over the last couple of years, as it says in the last instance of my bio is, my greatest accomplishment is being a servant of God. And I'm on a mission to die empty. And that's in anything that I put my hand to do. I believe that it's favored, and it's a part of God's plan. And so I occupy, and I take up space in the places that I'm sent to. And right now, I believe in freedom. Well, not right now, but I've always and always will believe in freedom for all people, not as a privilege, but as a right. And until that happens, I won't stop fighting.

Phil Wagner

Awesome. Kelly, you've done a lot over the years. You have a very active Instagram profile, and I've been following your work for a while. Tell us where your passions came from for this work. I mean, you talk about this commitment to freedom, not just as, like you said, a privilege, but a right. So can you share a little bit more about I know a little bit about your story and this experience with Ramona that you've spoken of? Does that resonate with you? Can you share a little bit more on that story with us and how it shaped your vision for a better future, one defined by freedom?

Kelly Galloway

Yeah. Well, first of all, we have to address what is human trafficking. What is slavery? Slavery.

Phil Wagner

Let's begin there. Let's define this term because it's really loaded, right?

Kelly Galloway

Yeah. Honestly, I think that sometimes we overcomplicate things as humans because we like to overcomplicate things and seem like the smartest people in the room. But in actuality, slavery is literally forcing somebody to do something against their will for some kind of financial gain and or power or influence. And so human trafficking is this buying and selling of human beings. It's literally that simple. It is the term human trafficking, in my opinion, is a romantic or sensationalized term for slavery. And I just turned 37 years old a couple of weeks ago.

Phil Wagner

Happy Birthday.

Kelly Galloway

Thank you. And as a 37-year-old black woman in the United States of America, I'm only the third person in my family, third generation in my family, to be born free. But what does that mean? Because your history books makes it seem like this happened thousands of years ago. That means that I, Kelly Diane Galloway, born 1985, I was born free. That means my father, Warren Keith Galloway, born 1950, he was born free. That means that my grandmother, Sarah May Galloway, the late Sarah May Galloway, born 1929, was born free. Everybody else before that in my family was enslaved. Even after slavery was eradicated, they were still enslaved. And so I am a descendant of individuals who are victims of human trafficking, bought and sold for labor, bought and sold for sex, bought and sold for medical experimentation and entertainment. And so fighting for human trafficking, fighting against human trafficking and fighting against slavery, and fighting for the freedom of people is not just a fad for me. It's not trendy. It is personal, as I am a descendant. And so you got to think about it. Harriet Tubman died just ten years before my grandmother was born. This is recent history. And so when I encountered Ramona when I was living in a city called Thessaloniki, Greece, working for an organization called A21 run by a dynamic woman named Christine Caine of Hillsong Church, I met Ramona, and we quickly formed a strong bond and relationship and sisterhood because it wasn't any other workers there that understood Spanish. It was just a quick thing that kind of happened. But in that time, I realized that I learned that Ramona was a victim of human trafficking, who was a wife of one husband and a mother of three children. And I remember, unfortunately, when I was in Greece working, I was prepped for this prior to my interviews about just the type of working conditions that I would encounter by working in Greece. And so I knew what I was getting into, but well, I thought I knew what I was getting into. But when I finally arrived, it was a pretty hostile environment in some ways. And so I found myself living in this beautiful country, doing what I love to do, but complaining every single day. And so it wasn't until I had a conversation with Ramona one day, because everything was not always happy-go-lucky inside that house, I asked her, like, why are you always so peaceful? And she shared with me why she was, and she shared with me her faith, and she shared with me a passage of scripture for her that resonated with her. And the way that I interpreted what she said was that tomorrow is going better than today, and two days from now, it's going to be better than tomorrow. And I know one day I'll be reunited with my family. In that moment, it instantly sobered me. And I realized that I didn't want to be a complainer. And in that moment, Ramona sobered me, and she gave me hope. And so that's why I named Project Mona's house after her because it needs to be a place of hope. It is a place of hope, and hope is the only thing that's going to get people going, keep people going every single day.

Phil Wagner

Yeah. And I feel like any time you look at you and your journey in any capacity, that's what you see with how you lead is just this commitment that hope is out there, hope is possible. I want to go back to the definition that you laid out for us because I think often related to what you talked about. We have confused understandings of trafficking. We often think sex trafficking, which is indeed like part of this. But are there other forms of trafficking that we should really sort of put a name to or identify clearly?

Kelly Galloway

Absolutely.

Phil Wagner

Okay, yeah. Clarify.

Kelly Galloway

Absolutely. And I think because of that. I'm happy that you brought that up because education and awareness is the first form of prevention. And so some people always call sex trafficking sex trafficking. But you have to imagine human trafficking as this huge umbrella, and up under it are different types of trafficking. So you have sex trafficking as a form of human trafficking. You have labor trafficking as a form of human trafficking. You have begging. You have servitude. You have organ harvesting. Our two major forms of human trafficking in the United States are sex and labor. And then it's so many studies that have gone out that says, like, even though we cannot prove that organs are harvested in the United States, but that Canada and the United States of America are the number one purchasers of organs sold on the black market. And so United States leading the way, and Canada as the number two. Unfortunately, this is a daily life. This is what happens every single day for millions of people around the world. It's the second-largest crime on the entire planet. So buying and selling drugs is the first largest crime, and then buying and selling humans is the second largest crime. And then on the other side of that is buying and selling of weapons. So buying and selling humans is sandwiched in between buying weapons and buying drugs, which is what creates this breeding ground for trafficking to take place. Basically, we have made bodies commodities, things, and so that's why we say buy things, not humans, to continue to let people know that bodies should never be for sale.

Phil Wagner

I know the statistics are hard to put a finger on, right, because this is often underground. You mentioned black market, but this happens obviously in secret places. Do you have any information on how prevalent this is, either globally or in our nation? Do we have the understanding of the gravity of the problem?

Kelly Galloway

Well, we know, according to the International Labor Bureau, that over $150,000,000,000 circulates within the realm and because of the buying and selling of human beings. And also, numbers are out there from Polaris Project and FBI, and other local other national organizations that say less than 1% are ever rescued. And so if this affects over 40.3 million people a year and less than 1% are ever rescued, we really have to do something. But I believe that most people don't want to do anything about human trafficking because they don't believe that it exists and/or they, in some part, or we in some part, help fuel this industry, and in a lot of ways, we don't know how. So right now, I'm introducing in the month of September, I'm introducing the concept or not just concept, but actual documented studies on the normalization of bodies being bought and sold for different things that they were never meant to. And so that's an attack directly on porn, directly on strip clubs, directly on the sex industry. So those are things that my team and I are really diving into because it also helps to feed into adultification bias, which also directly impacts black and brown people at a higher percentage than it does anybody else, which results in black and brown people, especially victims of human trafficking being incarcerated when they really should be getting restoration. Because they're not criminals, they're victims.

Phil Wagner

Yeah. When we close our eyes and we think about the term trafficking or human trafficking, or sex trafficking, I think it's a lot like what happens when we close our eyes and think about domestic violence or sexual violence. I've done some work in those spaces we often picture, particularly women, young girls, victimized. Is that where it really starts? Are men a part of this narrative, too? How might we think about who is trafficked and how they are trafficked? Does your work give us insight there too?

Kelly Galloway

Well, first, so it's only because of funding that I only work with women and girls, but that is not because only women and girls are affected. Boys, girls, transgender, nonbinary, everybody is a victim of human trafficking. And so we have to look at our vulnerable populations. And so that is really what. I find out what are our vulnerable populations. Vulnerable populations right now are individuals who are a part of the foster care system, children who run away, anybody that's in poverty, people that have a past with trauma, LGBTQ plus populations, undocumented internationals, refugees, people addicted or abused who abuse substances. And so we have to look at vulnerable populations and realize, okay, well, they may be more susceptible to trafficking, but this is really a systemic issue that really has to be addressed at a root level. And until we address that, we're going to continue to see the numbers for trafficking rising, especially as wealth gaps widen as more people become incarcerated, which I do believe especially privatized prisons are nothing but human trafficking. This buying and selling humans and they make billions and billions of dollars being there, and they lobby for unfair sentencing. Listen, I can go into this all day.

Phil Wagner

Yeah, I'm like on the edge of my feet on the other side of this. My feet are going. I mean, talk to me about funding. So every day, people like me, I care so much about what you do. And as a DEI practitioner, I care very much about what you do. I have no idea how the funding for this works and the funding obstacles that somebody like you faces. Can you speak to those? And how can everyday people also support what you're doing so that we can continue to put money in the pockets of people who are out there bringing about change?

Kelly Galloway

Well, one thing that I don't like to do is I don't like to speak in general terms. I can only speak for myself and my organization.

Phil Wagner

Sure.

Kelly Galloway

And so there are more funding resources, especially federally, that are opening for human trafficking organizations. However, I partner with tons of human trafficking anti-trafficking organizations around the nation. And it seems like organizations that are led either by minorities or by individuals who were trafficked themselves have the hardest time getting funding. It's organizations that largely run by Caucasians and people or organizations that have been around for hundreds of years or at least 100 years. They have a better chance of getting funding because even the application process is not equitable. It is not inclusive, and it does not really embrace diversity and representation of populations who really should be getting the funding. So you have to think about it, especially if you're in preventative work, right? So Project Mona's House, we work on the preventative side and restorative side. We do not work in the middle, which I look at everything I can sandwich, maybe because I'm always hungry, I'm not sure. But I believe like the top loaf for bread is prevention. Like, for instance, we were noticing that a lot of women that were coming into our care. In the very beginning, when I first opened the doors of Project Mona's House, we had women in their forty's, thirty's, late twenty's. Now, all of a sudden, the women that are coming into our care, into our services, into our center that I'm in right now are 18 and 19 years old. And so, what does that tell us? That means that we had to figure out a way to get into high schools and let people in high schools, juvenile detention centers, anywhere that these vulnerable populations were going to be. And then we had to talk to them. I think that when it comes to funding when you do preventative work, not only do you prevent human trafficking, but you could prevent high school dropouts, teen pregnancy. Like, when we run our preventative programming, like our Young Women's Empowerment program, we have girls that are writing books, girls who are opening businesses. We have authors as young as eight. So these people, we're going into vulnerable populations and making them less vulnerable. But when you look at the stats on these vulnerable populations, they're not just more likely to be trafficked, but they're more likely to be single parents, more likely to be involved in crime, more likely to be high school dropouts. So when we do preventative programming, it doesn't just prevent them from being victims of human trafficking, but it prevents them from the stigmas and the statistics that plague these certain populations. And so, I don't deny statistics, but I do believe with the adequate funding, we can change them.

Phil Wagner

Yeah.

Kelly Galloway

And so I think that more funding should be accessible. That is not so much red tape. And you don't have to jump through so many hoops for organizations that are survivor-led, overcomer-led, and minority-led because other organizations don't have to do that.

Phil Wagner

Yeah, well, super powerful. Thanks for putting that out there. Okay, so you are clearly somebody who is just bold. You do bold work. You are unafraid. Unashamed. You're ready to go there. I need to ask you a tough question because I'm trying to learn more about this myself. As I think about raising the profile for human trafficking awareness, I think about all that the media has done in sort of bringing narratives to light that we might not have otherwise considered. And along with that, there tends to be now this sort of public concern that sometimes blanket accusations of human trafficking are made by others based on sort of suspicions that turn out to be unfounded. Right? You know this, right? They're are examples of women, typically white women, who issue sort of moral panics because someone looks at their child the wrong way at Target or the grocery store. But also, I know this is an issue of global significance. So you're an expert in this area. I really want to learn from you. How do we think about real danger, real exploitation, and then sort of isolate those instances where it might be a false moral panic? That probably works against the work that you do. Help me out.

Kelly Galloway

Absolutely works against the work that we do. It's like the boy that cried wolf.

Phil Wagner

Yeah.

Kelly Galloway

And so you paint these pictures of, this is trafficking. This is trafficking. No, that really might just be a pervert that really just wants, that might be a psychopath, that might be a murderer, it might be a rapist. And I'm not saying that.

Phil Wagner

Or a normal person. Maybe it's in your head, too, right?

Kelly Galloway

Yeah, it could be that. But you have to stop calling everything trafficking. Everything trafficking. It's literally a headache. So what we did for, I think, about five months, if people go to our social media or even our blog on our website, we did something called Misinformation Monday. We went through so many different this happened, this car seat, this zip tie, all this stuff, like people doing stuff just for likes. Just to get follows on TikTok. At the end of the day, what you do is you cause a public panic over something that really is not necessarily geared towards trafficking. Yes. I followed this one page yesterday, and I was really upset because, as anti-trafficking workers, we have a duty, and we have a responsibility to spread facts and not fear. Now, there are some things that I will say to make sure that you do that will help you be safer. I'm not going to promise that if you do this, nothing bad will ever happen to you.

Phil Wagner

No of course not.

Kelly Galloway

Nobody, regardless if you are a man or a woman, nobody should be walking down a busy street with both ear pods in their ear. You cannot hear around you. You don't know what's going on. These ear pods have noise-canceling abilities, so you don't even know. I lead a bike club, like a cycling club. We have about 600 700 members. And when I tell people, listen, you can bring a speaker, and you could wear an ear pod, but do not put two in. Because you cannot hear a horn, you cannot hear a siren. And I mean, as a woman, if you look at yourself as, hey, like, I don't feel necessarily super safe in certain places, then, yeah, get on the phone if you're by yourself that way, somebody knows where you are, or let somebody know there are ways to be safe. But just because somebody is following you around the store does not mean that they're a trafficker. Trafficking is the second-largest crime on the planet for a reason because it remains hidden.

Phil Wagner

Yeah, yeah.

Kelly Galloway

It remains hidden. So now, all of a sudden, your untrained eye can just pick up a trafficker anywhere. No, that could be a pervert. That could be somebody that I don't know. It could be a lot of different things, but it does not have to be trafficking. So I hate when people come out with these stories like, oh, my God, somebody tried to traffic me. How do you know that?

Phil Wagner

So it doesn't really do anything for you. In fact, it works against because then it turns out not to be true. It turns out to not be true. It turns out not to be true. And then when it is true, second largest happening, right? Then what? Then it all falls to you, and then it's a real crime. It's a real situation.

Kelly Galloway

But it also, I think, affects the mental health of it of everyday citizens. So now you have a mother who doesn't even want her child to go out and play. So now that child is inside, and they're just watching TV now, and then all of a sudden they get a diagnosis for ADHD, but it's really just because they're inside. Their mom is not letting them play outside. So they have screen fixation. They have dopamine levels because somebody spread fear. You know, like it trickles down, and it manifests in so many different ways. And then it's the overmedication of children who just need different types of stimulation. And so I want people to look at things in a holistic way, and that's how we look at it here. And so that's why we are very intent and very intentional rather, to spread facts and not fear. Send your kids outside and play, but do it in a safe way. You have ring doorbells, you have pets, you have fenced-in yards, or you can actually sit on the porch and read a book while they're playing.

Phil Wagner

From your phone. Right? Right. All right, so that's super helpful to me. I want to talk about another theme that I think about when I see you, and you're very clear about this. You're clear that Mona's house it's more than a shelter. Your work is more multi-dimensional than one thing. In many ways, you are this catalyst for restoration. I'm wondering what your work has taught you about healing and how we can adapt what you've learned to insights to support victims or survivors from all walks of life. I mean, you've been a healer in your community. You're from Buffalo, right? I mean, obviously, Buffalo has seen its own forms of tragedies in other ways beyond this, too. So talk to us about the role of healing in this process and how you help people who have experienced trauma find their way back to hope and to restoration.

Kelly Galloway

Guy, that's such a layered question.

Phil Wagner

I know. I'm so guilty of this. I asked 17 questions in one because I want to get everything out of you that I can.

Kelly Galloway

All right, so hope is like the precious jewel. Resilience is the blanket that covers and protects hope. What situations in life will do is try to chip at your resilience. Well, Kelly, what is resilience? Resilience is what gives you the opportunity to keep waking up, keep standing up. It is only when that blanket of resistance is chipped away that people can actually start or that your hope starts to deteriorate. And so at all costs, we do have to protect hope because hope is what keeps people dreaming. Hope is what keeps people going and makes people really believe that I can do something in my life. And so I think in terms to try to answer your question, Project Mona's House, prior to me starting it, I had already visited tons of shelters all around the world, like literally all around the world. And I found out things that I thought were beautiful and things that I was just like, this is actually not beneficial for staff or people. Then I realized that I don't want to build a place for survivors because I think that and that is what the book that I'm working on now and the curriculum I'm working on now is that survivorship is not the goal. But somewhere in translation, somewhere in history, we thought surviving was enough. And it's not. And it has never ever been enough. And it will never ever be enough. To survive literally means not to die. That's how you want to live your life every day. I'm just trying not to die. So when do you get to the point where you can actually thrive? When does that happen? And so that's why we say women come into Project Mona's House as victims. They're transformed into survivors. But by the time they leave, they are overcomers. Overcomers make history. Overcomers can help other people heal, can help other people overcome. That means what used to have power and authority over me, I now have power and authority over it. So when women Project Mona's House is not for everybody. And I hope I never ever, as long as I have breath in my body, paint that picture. It is not for everybody. Project Mona's House is literally a program that you have to agree to. And we are not doing the work for you. But when a woman comes, and she signs on the dotted line, she is saying, listen, I want to work on changing my life, and I'm inviting you, Project Mona's House people, to be a part of that journey. This is my journey. I'm just inviting you in. And I'm grateful that you're giving me a place to put my head while I'm doing it. This is not us doing the work. This is we are not the heroes in the story. The women are because they're doing the hard work because it takes courage and bravery to heal. It takes courage and bravery because sometimes, being a victim can be almost comforting. Because, oh my God, I can't believe this happened to you. Here, here, here. And so some people can get nestled into this place of, well, I'm a victim, I'm a victim. But it takes courage to say, you know what? That happened to me. But that's not who I am.

Phil Wagner

Yeah.

Kelly Galloway

And so for Project Mona's House, we have like eight pillars, right, where we focus on, and we believe that that is going to help the women achieve one goal. And our goal is that they'll be contributing and functioning members of society. But it takes sacrifice, and it takes bravery. And we are holistic. We are a holistic being. We are a holistic program for a multi-dimensional being. Like people are not just black and white. Because I'm going to be honest, when I first wrote the rules for Mona's House, Phil, and our policies and procedures, let me tell you how God worked it out. I was just like, oh, yeah, I'll open Project Mona's House. Everything is right here. These are all the forms. This is what the daily schedules look like. Here and I'm going go back overseas and do all my international work. It did not work like that. Why? Because we didn't have the money. I had to end up being the house mom. When I moved into Project Mona's House for that first year to be the house mom, I realized that all of our rules, all of our policies, and procedures were written for robots. They were not realistic. And so we had to go to the drawing board over and over and over again and every three months we go right back to the drawing board. Is this working? Is it not working? Can it work better? And we're in a different place now. We know better now. And so I think that our approach is holistic and our results are holistic.

Phil Wagner

You just give me chills every time you speak. Again you're just so bold and passionate about this message, and I so appreciate it. Tell me, Kelly, what are you the most proud of all the things that you've done? Speak to your work. What do you look back and be like? I'm proud of this. I've helped do this well. I've helped build this well. You've done so much.

Kelly Galloway

So if you would have asked me this question before I got my new therapist, the answer would be different. So if you were to ask me this question like three weeks ago, my answer would be different. But right now, as this date and this time today, I am most proud of myself. I am proud that despite everything that I've done, right and wrong, all the i's that I dotted and all the t's that I crossed and all the i's that I missed and all the t's I never even saw, I'm proud that I said yes to this work. Because I promise you, in so many days I'm just like, forget it. Like you all don't care. I don't care. You all don't want to fund this? All right, well then, forget it. But I'm proud of myself to get up every single day and just keep going because it is so easy to quit.

Phil Wagner

I believe that.

Kelly Galloway

It is very easy just to stop and to quit and to live as to live and not be alive. And it takes a lot of bravery to manage my own personal life and to do this work and to be responsible for more than I ever thought. And sometimes, it seems like the easiest thing to do is just go away, but it's not. And so I think that what I'm most proud of is the radical yes that I gave an extraordinary god to do this work every single day. And so I am at a space in my life where I am celebrating the yes that I have to give multiple times a day, every single day. And so I think that's what I'm most proud of right now.

Phil Wagner

So I have one final-ish question for you here, which is, you know, this podcast, our primary audience is people in the world of work doing DEI work in some way. And as we talk about modern-day slavery and human trafficking, can you speak to those people as to how we can better factor issues like this one into our diversity, equity, and inclusion work in the world of work? Any insights you can offer for us?

Kelly Galloway

So it's the same way everybody that's really close of our life works in that space. And so the same thing that I tell them is I think that number one, doing DEI work right now, is very important. And I hope that they're there because they realize that this work can literally change the psyche of man. It may not be able to change the heart, but you can open up people to new thought ideas and raise up new thought leaders. And I hope that this isn't just something that they are into because it's trending right now. A lot of companies are creating positions for this. But in order to really do this work, you have to address systemic issues that created the need for DEI specialists all around the nation and even world. So until we really get down to the root issues of why are spaces not diverse, why are spaces and processes and systems and corporations and policies and procedures and laws and legislation not equitable? Why are things not as inclusive as they should be? So I think as it relates to human trafficking, we have to understand, number one, why do people think that it's okay for people to be for sale? This country has been built on the backs of individuals who were victims of human trafficking. So it's literally in our DNA to expect much when giving little. And that's not just from Caucasian versus Black experience in this country. It is literally the mindset.

Phil Wagner

Yeah, yeah.

Kelly Galloway

And so we have to address that. Then when we're addressing issues as to human trafficking, we have to realize that human trafficking normally happens to people who are part of vulnerable populations. And so when you're addressing vulnerable populations, what can we do in these populations to make sure that they have a level playing field? What needs to happen with runaways and foster children? What needs to happen to individuals who are new to this country as refugees or undocumented internationals and seeking asylum? What needs to happen to individuals who abuse substances? Right. What needs to happen with individuals who literally just abuse social media and they don't have best practices? And so when we look at vulnerable populations as DEI experts, I would expect for a gift of strategy to come forth and for us to develop systems that can systems and ways of teaching. How can we go to schools and teach DEI as it relates to runaway children, foster children, and children of refugees in a way that's going to keep them safe and keep them protected? What are the rules about truancy? What kind of food? You got to think about it. Like in Buffalo, we're having an issue right now where I'm bringing all our DEI experts to address our school board because you have schools over here that have rotisserie chickens and asparagus and macaroni and cheese for lunch. Then you have a school with individuals from all around the city and county who are deemed as bad children, and all they get is a granola bar. So they're hungry. And so then they have more of an attitude, which means they don't go to school because they're hungry. And it's easier for them to sleep with somebody or to be out in the streets hustling and selling drugs because they're hungry when other kids get to go to school and get full meals.

Phil Wagner

Yeah.

Kelly Galloway

And so, why is that practice not equitable? And why is it not inclusive? And so I think it seems like little things like that that make a big difference. And so I would just say be more aware of your surroundings. On Project Mona's House website, once a month minus July and August, we always teach a few free human trafficking one-on-one class, find out about the vulnerable populations, and challenge yourself to say, you know what I want to attack one of these populations, and I'm going to write out a plan. And the people who, lord, I hate that term. But the people who have authority over this or some kind of say so in this plan over this population, and I'm going to present something to them. I'm going to do some real research. And all my DEI training, I'm going to actually make a difference. And you making a difference. You will have helped a vulnerable population be less susceptible to trafficking.

Phil Wagner

Oh, man. All right. That's so good. Final question, but this is the easiest one. What and where can our listeners go or do to support you? All the work that you're doing, people who are listening to this all across the nation, how can they support Project Mona's House? All the good work you're doing?

Kelly Galloway

Number one, go to our website, www.projectmonashouse.com and within 3 seconds of being on the website, fill in your email address. A little subscriber box is going to pop up, and that way, you can stay current. Follow us on all social media, Instagram, LinkedIn, Pinterest, Twitter, Facebook, and then next week. We'll have a TikTok account.

Phil Wagner

All right. Exciting. Kelly, thank you so much. I know you're not after accolades or a cape or congratulations for the work that you do, but really, thank you for that work. It's so impactful to watch from afar. You've educated me here, and thank you for educating our listeners. It's been such a pleasure. Thank you so much.

Kelly Galloway

Thank you for having me.

Phil Wagner

Thanks for taking a second to listen to Diversity Goes to Work. If you like what you heard, share the show with a friend, leave us a review on Apple podcast or wherever you listen to podcasts, and reach out because we're always looking for new friends. And if you'd like to learn more about any of our programs or initiatives here in the business school at William & Mary, be sure to visit us at mason.wm.edu. Until next time.