Founder & Chief Executive Officer
Kirsta has been putting human traffickers in prison for the past decade of her 20-year prosecutorial career, most recently as the Deputy Criminal Chief of the Human Trafficking and Transnational/Organized Crime Section of the Office of the Attorney General of Texas. Responsible for several of the State’s first life sentences for trafficking, as well as regular verdicts of 40 years or more, Kirsta served as the lead prosecutor for the State of Texas in the takedown of Backpage.com in April 2018.
Prior to her focus on trafficking, Kirsta prosecuted defendants for the physical and sexual abuse of children, sexual assaults of adults, and family violence from assault to capital murder at the Bexar County District Attorney’s Office from 2000 to 2015. It was during her time in San Antonio that she helped establish and lead the Bexar County District Attorney’s Human Trafficking Unit, as well as reinvigorating and leading the Alamo Area Coalition Against Trafficking.
From 2011 through the 2019 legislative session, Kirsta played a critical role in the restructuring of Texas trafficking law and procedure and was regularly called to consult with and testify before the Texas Legislature on trafficking-related issues.
Kirsta has trained more than 20,000 people in-person on human trafficking, equally at home in front of intimate audiences and packed auditoriums. Training films in which she has been featured have been seen and utilized by hundreds of thousands of additional people. She chaired both the Texas Statewide Human Trafficking Prevention Task Force and Coordinating Council and served on the steering committee of the Central Texas Coalition against Trafficking in Austin, as well as collaborating with trafficking researchers across the country.
In addition, Kirsta is one of the founding members of Truckers Against Trafficking, a nationwide campaign dedicated to educating, equipping, empowering, and mobilizing the trucking, bus, and energy industries in the fight against human trafficking.
B.A. with honors, Cornell University
M.P.Aff., Lyndon B. Johnson School of Public Affairs, The University of Texas
J.D. with honors, The University of Texas School of Law
Bar Admission – Texas, 1998
Theodore Roosevelt
Co-Author: Alamo Area Coalition Against Trafficking, Human Trafficking Training for Schools
Author: Bexar County District Attorney’s Office, Human Trafficking Training for Law Enforcement
Author: Human Trafficking on Our Doorstep: A Crime of Opportunity
Author: Texas Trafficking: A Hard Look at What Is Happening in Our State
Author: Domestic Minor Sex Trafficking: Raising Awareness to Empower Schools
Author: Slavery at Our Doorsteps: Fighting Human Trafficking in the Hospitality Industry
Author: Culture Counts: The Intersection of Pimp Culture, Pornography, Prostitution and Trafficking
Author: It Takes a Village: Collaboration and Cooperation in the Investigation and Prosecution of Human Trafficking
Author: Modern-Day Slavery in Juvenile Justice
Author: Slavery: What’s Analysis Got to Do with It?
Co-Author: Human Trafficking: As Close as the Next Exit
Author: Medical Intervention in the Lives of Modern Day Slaves
Author: Understanding Trafficking from Your Prosecutor’s Perspective
Author: Lost in Translation: Building Effective Working Relationships Between Coalition Partners
Author: When the First Twelve in the Box Just Won’t Do: Jury Selection in Human Trafficking Cases
Author: Tricks and Traps of Human Trafficking Prosecution
Co-Author: Pimpology in Practice: The Continuous Trafficking Case of Glen Dukes
Author: Juan and Bobby Moreno: Traffickers Around the Corner
Author: Witnesses for the Prosecution: The Use of Buyers in Sex Trafficking Prosecutions
Author: Targeting the Wounded: Traffickers and the Foster Care Population
Creator: Office of the Attorney General of Texas “Not for Sale” Brochure and Campaign, 2015
Contributing Author: Sexual Assault Family Violence Investigator Course (SAFVIC) – Human Trafficking Curriculum
Author: Slavery at Our Doorstep for the Texas State Bar Advanced Criminal Law Seminar, 2016
Co-Author: Texans Can Help End Modern Day Slavery, Houston Chronicle, September 19, 2016
Ghost Writer: How Texas Can End Human Trafficking, One Hero at a Time, Dallas Morning News, January 10, 2017
Co-Creator: Office of the Attorney General of Texas “Be the One” Campaign 2018
Co-Author: Office of the Attorney General of Texas Red Flags, 2017
The Texas Young Lawyer’s Association’s, Slavery Out of the Shadows: A Spotlight on Human Trafficking
Truckers Against Trafficking’s Trucking Industry Training DVD and Law Enforcement Training DVD
Office of the Attorney General of Texas’ Be the One in the Fight Against Human Trafficking
“Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere.” – Martin Luther King, Jr.
In the old cowboy movies when all the shooting is done, and the dust clears, the hero rides off into the sunset alone. He came, stood for the town against the forces of greed, violence, and villainy and now he takes the lonely road to the next community in need of his brand of justice.
The world is hurting. 2020 has brought loss to each one of us, and while it has taken more than its fair share, it has left a gift of its own if we are wise enough to recognize it. It doesn’t come in glitzy paper, a sparkling bow, or designer bag. Think brown paper, corners coming untucked, a tear on the edge, and a smudged return address.