Brenda Herr

I started my career in 2000, 26 years ago, working as a field sales engineer in the electronic component world. About 11 years ago, I had the opportunity to travel to Southeast Asia and learn about sex trafficking and exploitation of women and children. I started volunteering in this work while continuing my career in electronics, doing both in parallel. This year, I finally retired from the electronic component world so I could focus solely on this mission, and I feel very blessed to be able to just focus on this and not have to do both. As founder and executive director of Operation Love Global, which I founded almost 6 years ago, I work with many partner nonprofits that have homes for rescued women and children, providing them with counseling, medical care, and for the women, job training and job placement. I also conduct digital safety workshops for teens, parents, teachers, and coaches because there's a lot of exploitation in the U.S. coming from kids on their phones. I still travel to Southeast Asia twice a year to come alongside our partner nonprofits, visit with women in the homes, volunteer in any capacity, and bring provisions for whatever their needs are. My heart is really to be with the survivors because I never want to be far away from what's happening. It's not just about giving money or teaching preventative things - it's really understanding where people are in those circumstances, and they're people.