Our Mission
We are a collaboration of organizations, businesses and individuals working to end human trafficking in Santa Cruz and Monterey counties through education, advocacy, policy change, services for survivors and prosecution of offenders. We put victims and survivors of human trafficking at the center of all our work.
Coalition Leadership
Rebecca McGill, Chair
Rebecca McGill is the Co-Founder and Executive Director of Aurora Freedom, a nonprofit that works towards freedom from human trafficking through survivor advocacy, organizational allyship, and community awareness. Rebecca currently serves as Chair of the Coalition to End Human Trafficking in Santa Cruz and Monterey Counties. Her dedication to this work spans more than fifteen years, rooted in a belief that every survivor deserves a pathway to empowerment and that healing happens best in the context of relationships.
Rebecca’s advocacy began in high school, when she founded a club to mobilize students in the fight against human trafficking. She then supported the initiative’s growth beyond its founding chapter, extending it to other local schools.
Her career bridges direct survivor care, clinical practice, and macro-level advocacy. Rebecca spent over three years supporting minor survivors internationally with Agape International Missions in Cambodia, gaining deep expertise in the complex needs of vulnerable youth. Since returning to the U.S., Rebecca has furthered her experience and understanding by serving as a teen resource family parent, a human trafficking caseworker, a county social worker with Housing for Health, and a therapist at a residential therapeutic program in Santa Cruz County.
As an Associate Social Worker, Rebecca brings specialized skills in trauma-informed care, therapeutic interventions, complex care case management, culturally responsive services, and interdisciplinary partnerships. Rebecca graduated summa cum laude with her master’s in social work from California State University, San Bernardino. Her research on the effectiveness of services for youth who have experienced CSEC was awarded Best Social Work Research and was nominated for Best Master’s Level Research in 2025.
Rebecca is driven by the belief that sustainable change requires meeting survivors where they are — with compassion, cultural humility, and a commitment to their long-term healing and agency.
Julie Schneider
Ms. Schneider (she/her) began working in the field of Advocacy for Victims of Crime in 1988 at the Santa Cruz County District Attorney’s Office. A member of the Victim Emergency Response Team (VERT) on a grant through OCJP Ms. Schneider responded to victims of violent crimes within the County of Santa Cruz to provide support and resources to victims immediately following a violent crime. In 1990 Ms. Schneider was hired by the City of Santa Cruz Police Department to provide on-going victims of crime services to juvenile victims of violent crimes. Since that time she has expanded the program to include all victims of violent crime in the city of Santa Cruz with a special emphasis on victims of Domestic Violence, Sexual Assault and Homicide.
Ms. Schneider participated in the creation of the Santa Cruz County Sexual Assault Protocol and the Santa Cruz County Domestic Violence Protocol. She has worked as a Senior Social Worker for the County of Santa Cruz Child Protective Services Division of the Human Resource Agency, is the past Chair of the Santa Cruz County Children’s Commission and the past chair of the Board of Directors of the Walnut Avenue Family and Women’s Center. She currently sits on the Executive Committee of the Coalition to End Human Trafficking in Santa Cruz and Monterey Counties. Through her collaboration with local, state and non-profit agencies she works effectively within the county systems to provide resources, court support, in both family law and criminal court, information about the criminal justice system and referrals for therapeutic intervention to victims of violent crime in the county of Santa Cruz.
Carmel Jud
Carmel has always lived with the belief that anything is possible. With two years of high school, she founded an award-winning advertising and market research firm at the age of 19. As a teen survivor of sexual violence, entrepreneurship is how she stepped into her power.
Through this journey of financial and personal growth Carmel was inspired to create opportunities for other survivors and marginalized people. She believes that those who are impacted by an issue are the most qualified to solve it. And so began the journey of creating Rising Worldwide. Rising is a global organization transforming the lives of survivors of war, gender-based violence, human trafficking and extreme poverty through economic justice and community building. Every year Rising serves over 5000 survivors and their families.
As a part of Rising’s economic development initiatives, Carmel invented a fair trade direct sales business model that has won Rising many awards including the Ashoka Changemaker Award and the Silicon Valley Community Impact Award. Like much of the rest of the world she thought human trafficking was an international problem. After receiving a tip about a child trafficking case locally, She spearheaded the launch of the Coalition to End Human Trafficking in Santa Cruz and Monterey Counties. She co-founded Rising Safe and Sound, a human trafficking prevention program for youth that is developed and delivered by survivor leaders. The program is thought to be the first human trafficking prevention program led by survivors in California schools. She also co-founded a national professional development program for survivors of trafficking so that impacted people can be at the forefront of the anti-trafficking movement.
For survivors of trauma the mind must learn to slowly find safety in the heart. It has been Carmel’s honor and privilege to support others in realizing there is no such thing as impossible.