From Silenced
To Saved

Marilyn Coors is Associate Professor Emerita of Bioethics at the Center for Bioethics and Humanities at the University of Colorado Anschutz Medical Campus. The ethical issues in clinical and behavioral genomic research were the focus of her research, teaching, and professional service for over 20 years. Dr. Coors received her undergraduate education from Cornell University where she majored in biological sciences. She then attended the University of Denver, earning a M.S. in cytogenetics, a M.A. in ethics and religion, and a Ph.D. in bioethics. Coors serves on the National Catholic Bioethics Center and Educating on the Nature and Dignity of Women (ENDOW) Boards of Directors. She is married to Peter Coors, and they have six adult children and fifteen grandchildren.

Marilyn Coors is Associate Professor Emerita of Bioethics at the Center for Bioethics and Humanities at the University of Colorado Anschutz Medical Campus. The ethical issues in clinical and behavioral genomic research were the focus of her research, teaching, and professional service for over 20 years.

Dr. Coors received her undergraduate education from Cornell University where she majored in biological sciences. She then attended the University of Denver, earning a M.S. in cytogenetics, a M.A. in ethics and religion, and a Ph.D. in bioethics. Coors serves on the National Catholic Bioethics Center and Educating on the Nature and Dignity of Women (ENDOW) Boards of Directors. She is married to Peter Coors, and they have six adult children and fifteen grandchildren.

Troy Vigil has more than a decade of experience preparing tax returns and representing taxpayers. He primarily works with small to medium-sized business owners in professional services, high net-worth individuals, and real estate clients. Troy’s experience in taxes and accounting, together with his background at the Internal Revenue Service (IRS), enable him to provide a broader perspective than most tax professionals.

Troy started his career at the IRS as a Revenue Agent. He built a solid foundation for his career auditing small business owners, self-employed taxpayers, and individual wage earners. Since then, Troy transitioned to representing taxpayers rather than the IRS. He became a Certified Public Accountant in January 2008.

Troy brings valuable IRS audit* experience, offering insights into tax and accounting business practices. He advises clients on choosing a business structure, tax planning strategies, and complex tax issues.

Troy earned his Bachelor’s Degree in Accounting from Colorado State University Pueblo. He is a member of the Colorado Society of CPAs (COCPA) and the National Association of Tax Practitioners (NATP). He is also involved with charities, including From Silenced to Saved (FSTS) and There With Care.

Stacey Alles is a seasoned professional with over 25 years of experience in the field of grant administration and compliance. Her expertise spans federal and state grant management, stakeholder engagement, and regulatory interpretation, complemented by a strong ability to develop and deliver impactful training programs. Stacey excels in fostering collaboration and building strong relationships with stakeholders, consistently leading teams to achieve measurable outcomes with a focus on operational efficiency. She cultivates a culture of accountability and excellence. She is a former co-chair of the Colorado-Wyoming chapter of the National Grant Management Association. Currently, Stacey co-leads the Statewide Grant Managers Group, where she shares her knowledge and experience by providing training and technical assistance on grant management best practices. She holds a Master of Criminal Justice from the University of Colorado-Denver.

Sergeant Shanna Michael with the Denver Police Department, currently assigned to supervise the Human Trafficking Unit. I have served with the department for the past 22 years. Before my promotion to Sergeant, I spent five years as a Detective on the FBI’s Child Exploitation and Human Trafficking Task Force. Our unit investigates both sex and labor trafficking involving adults and juveniles, including cases linked to illicit massage businesses. The Denver Police Department’s Human Trafficking Unit is proud to hold the record for the longest sentence in a human trafficking case nationwide—448 years.

Kelly is the Co-founder and Executive Director of Sierra Cares Foundation, which serves to locate, recover, educate, and serve women and children vulnerable to sex and labor trafficking trapped in the Middle East. Since 2020, Sierra Cares has worked to repatriate and provide critical services to over 6,700 people in West Africa and Sierra Leone. Kelly has a public policy consulting firm, Montezillo, LLC, which consults with the 57 NATO Countries and US Department of State to write and pass legislation on anti-trafficking and best practice laws. She uses her lived experience to advocate, educate, and raise awareness to the degree of human sex and labor trafficking across the world and serve as a policy and legislative consultant to several Presidents, Parliaments, cabinet members and State Departments in several countries. She has written and helped to pass over 257 pieces of legislation geared towards protecting displaced women, children, migrants and refugees in conflict regions around the world. She continues this work in her home state of Colorado as SCF helps survivors who are cancer survivors, displaced and supports them with expungement and legal support to help them start fresh after exploitation. Kelly helped to author a guide, Estimating the Prevalence of Human Trafficking in the United States, recognizes familial trafficking and is published in the National Academies of Science, Engineering and Medicine. Kelly is passionate about walking with people and vulnerable communities working to help them thrive and see that they are worth loving.

Jacob Kremin is a seasoned trial attorney with nearly a decade of courtroom experience handling the most serious and complex cases in Colorado. Jacob served for nearly nine years in the 18th Judicial District Attorney’s Office, where he rose to the position of Chief Deputy District Attorney. As a Chief Deputy District Attorney, Jacob supervised a team of felony prosecutors and led the Human Trafficking and Cold Case Units for the 18th Judicial District Attorney’s Office. Jacob worked alongside FSTS on many cases as a prosecutor and has extensive experience prosecuting complex, survivor-centered cases. Jacob serves as the Legal Chair on the Board of Directors.

Jacob now works as a Trial Attorney at the Dan Caplis Law Firm. His practice focuses on helping victims and their families in civil litigation, including cases involving catastrophic injury and death, sexual assault, and human trafficking. Drawing on his background as a prosecutor, Jacob now applies the same intensity, preparation, and courtroom skill to advocating for individuals who have been injured.

Jacob’s trial experience is extensive. Over the course of his career, he has tried more than 80 cases to verdict, handling a wide range of serious felony matters. His practice has focused heavily on special victims cases, including sexual assault, crimes against children, human trafficking, and homicide. He is known for his ability to manage complex multi-agency investigations and present emotionally charged cases clearly and persuasively to juries.

Jacob attended Loyola University Chicago, where he earned dual bachelor’s degrees in political science and philosophy. He then received his Juris Doctor from the University of Denver Sturm College of Law, where his studies focused extensively on trial strategy and courtroom advocacy.

He is proud to contribute his legal expertise and strategic perspective to further FSTS’s mission of empowering survivors, transforming systems, and increasing collaboration with local law enforcement.

Deacon Mark is a retired engineer with 35 years of experience in the nuclear power industry. He currently serves as the Board President for “Friends of Friars” in New Mexico. In 2011, he was ordained as a Deacon in the Roman Catholic Church, serving the Santa Fe, NM area. In 2019, he transitioned to Colorado, where he became a Deacon in the Archdiocese of Denver. He has been actively involved in the RISE ministry, which provides professional services to support victims of sexual abuse, leading to his association with FSTS and subsequent partnership. Over the past three years, Deacon Mark has led the Friends of Maggie program within FSTS. Under his leadership, the Archdiocese has effectively supported numerous survivors of human trafficking through a large volunteer network.

Daniel J. Steele is a nationally recognized expert in human trafficking investigations and the commercial sexual exploitation of children, with nearly 24 years of distinguished law enforcement service across local, state, and federal jurisdictions. A veteran of the U.S. Air Force, Steele served with the Denver Police Department (DPD), rising through the ranks to Sergeant and earning widespread recognition for leadership, tactical command, and victim-centered innovation.

While at DPD, Steele led or served in elite units including the Gang Bureau, Vice/Drug Control Bureau, Street Crimes Attack Team (SCAT), and the Crisis Negotiations Team, where he supervised responses to high-risk hostage and barricade incidents. He also held dual assignments as both Detective and Supervisor within the Vice Unit, where he specialized in undercover operations and dismantling sex trafficking networks.

Steele founded and led the FBI’s Rocky Mountain Innocence Lost Task Force (RMILTF)—a pioneering anti-trafficking unit that he built into a multi-jurisdictional model of success across the Denver metro region. He served over a decade as a federally deputized Task Force Officer and Special Deputy U.S. Marshal, investigating child sex trafficking cases as part of the FBI’s national initiative. For his leadership in this arena, Steele was awarded the Malone Prize for Visionary Leadership in Fighting Sex Trafficking.

Following his tenure with DPD, Steele continued this work as a Criminal Investigator with the 18th Judicial District Attorney’s Office, targeting trafficking operations across Arapahoe, Douglas, Elbert, and Lincoln Counties within the Special Investigations Unit.

A prolific policy writer and curriculum developer, Steele authored department-wide protocols on prostitution, trafficking, and asset forfeiture, and helped develop the High-Risk Victim model now in widespread use across Colorado. He helped create multiple certified training programs through Colorado POST, co-authored the FBI Behavioral Analysis Unit’s Sex Trafficking of Juveniles: An Investigative Guide for Law Enforcement, and was invited to contribute a chapter to Challenging Perspectives on Street-Based Sex Work (Temple University Press, 2017).

As a national trainer and thought leader, Steele has educated over 20,000 professionals in trafficking intervention and has contributed to strategic roundtables hosted by GEMS, the Carter Center, FBI, and National Trafficking in Persons Symposium, among others. His partnerships with the National Criminal Justice Training Center led to the development of widely accessed online law enforcement trainings.

Appointed twice to the Colorado Human Trafficking Council—first by the Governor as a law enforcement representative and later as a regional task force lead—Steele co-chaired both the Legislative and Training Subcommittees. His advisory board service includes Extended Hands of Hope, Hunt Alternatives’ Demand Abolition, Restore Innocence’s Wildflower Ranch, and SHIFT: The Freedom Movement. In 2015, Steele’s statewide impact on law enforcement policy and investigative excellence was recognized with the Colorado Attorney General’s Excellence in Law Enforcement Award.

Steele is a court-certified expert witness in both Colorado and California in areas including domestic and international sex trafficking, pimping, and child exploitation. He has testified before state legislatures and served on a U.S. Congressional Panel on demand abolition.

He has been widely recognized as a subject matter expert on human trafficking and exploitation, serving as a trusted voice in national media and investigative journalism. Steele has been featured in ABC World News, PBS, the Huffington Post, and 5280 Magazine, and has appeared as an expert in acclaimed documentaries including Tricked, Disguises, Live Through This, and Traded and Trafficked—helping shape public understanding of trafficking dynamics, victim impact, and law enforcement response.

Stephanie Benitez began her professional journey as a dedicated high school teacher, specializing in advanced social sciences and serving as a committed varsity volleyball and track coach. With a master’s degree in education, she brought academic rigor and a deep passion for student development to both the classroom and the athletic field.

In 2002, she joined the FBI, where she served with distinction for over two decades in complex criminal investigations, crisis response, and victim advocacy. Beginning in Los Angeles, she worked major cases involving crimes against children, gangs, fugitives, and violent robberies. She went on to lead the FBI’s Child Abduction Rapid Deployment Team, overseeing tactical responses to high-stakes, non-familial child abductions and spearheading national training programs for law enforcement on child abduction response and child sex tourism.

By 2010, Stephanie had become the FBI’s National Human Trafficking Program Manager in Washington, D.C. In this role, she expanded the Bureau’s anti-trafficking initiatives, supported investigations across all 56 Field Offices, and developed training curriculum and investigative techniques still in use today.

She concluded her FBI career in Colorado, where she investigated civil rights and public corruption cases, and founded the Colorado Trafficking and Organized Crime Coalition—a task force that creatively leveraged money laundering, drug, and organized crime statutes to dismantle human trafficking networks. In her final years, she was embedded with the Boulder County Sheriff’s Office, handling a broad range of criminal investigations.

Beyond her investigative work, Stephanie held numerous specialized roles, including Threat Assessment Coordinator, Certified Police Instructor, FBI Diver, and Photographer and Drone Pilot for the FBI’s Evidence Response Team. She also served on the Victim Services Response Team, deploying to mass casualty events across the country.

Stephanie’s career reflects a lifelong commitment to justice, innovation, and victim advocacy.