On October 13th, 2011, the Executive Director and Communications Director of the AHA Foundation attended Forced Marriage in the United States, a conference in Utica, NY on identifying cases of forced marriage, supporting victims and the collaborative community response necessary to address this abuse. The conference was hosted by the Oneida County Domestic and Sexual Violence Coalition.
Featured speakers included:
- Vidya Sri, Founder of Gangashakti.org and forced marriage survivor
- Debjani Roy, Program & Development Manager/Advocate of Manavi
- Yasmeen Hamza, LMSW, Director or Preventative and Domestic Violence Services of The Arab-American Family Support Center
- Jeanne Smoot, ESQ., Director of Public Policy of Tahirih Justice Center
- Julia Alanen, ESQ., Director/Co-Founder of Global Justice Initiative, Inc.