Joy Paluska joined the National Center for Missing & Exploited Children in 2019 as a Program Manager in the Missing Children Division. In this role, she supports the Disaster Preparedness and Response Program and other special projects related to children on the autism spectrum, children of color, and Indigenous children. Between 2010-2018 Joy served as a civil servant within the Executive Office of the President, Office of Administration. Prior to that she worked in disaster recovery with both FEMA and the American Red Cross. Joy began her career at the Leadership Conference on Civil and Human Rights and following that worked as an attorney for Legal Aid and in private practice in her home state of Illinois. Joy is a graduate of the University of Iowa and the City University of New York School of Law at Queens College.

At NCMEC, Shannon is responsible for helping families reunite, heal and locate local services when there is a missing or sexually exploited child. She manages the travel programs and grant funding for the Family Advocacy Division and is responsible for all data collecting and reporting. Shannon also provides training to mental health professionals, social service agencies, law enforcement and community members concerning missing and sexually exploited children. Shannon currently serves as the Victim Services Committee Chair for the Northern Virginia Human Trafficking Task Force. Shannon has been designated a reunification specialist by the Department of State and has traveled internationally to present on best practices when parents and children reunite.

Dr. Samantha Sahl, DSW, LCSW is the Supervisor over the newly developed Child Sex Trafficking Recovery Services Team (RST) at the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children (NCMEC). RST is a team of regionally assigned Resource Specialists who provide case-based assistance, training, and technical assistance to child welfare professionals and other multidisciplinary team members in the development of trauma-informed and victim-centered recovery plans for survivors of child sex trafficking who are reported missing to NCMEC. Prior to joining the team at NCMEC, Dr. Sahl helped to coordinate the community response to child sex trafficking in New Orleans, first through the New Orleans Children’s Advocacy Center, and then with the Respect, Invest in, Support & Empower (RISE) Initiative at the Orleans Parish Juvenile Court. Dr. Sahl has provided training and technical assistance throughout Louisiana and nationally on child trafficking identification and response.