Staff Leadership

Samantha Healy Vardaman
Senior Director

Samantha Vardaman is the lead on policy issues for Shared Hope International coordinating advocacy efforts to further the protection of sex trafficking victims. After directing a rule of law program in Moldova for three years in which human trafficking issues figured prominently, Samantha joined Shared Hope International in July 2005 to direct the Trafficking Markets project, resulting in the research report and documentary titled DEMAND, which compares sex trafficking markets in four countries: Jamaica, Japan, the Netherlands, and the United States. In 2006, she began directing a three-year research project in ten U.S. locations into the sex trafficking of American and lawful permanent resident minors in the United States funded by the U.S. Department of Justice, Office of Justice Programs, Bureau of Justice Assistance. The project led to published assessments of the identification and delivery of services to victims of child sex trafficking in each of the 10 locations, as well as training resources for first responders new to the issue. Four more locations were assessed in 2009 and 2010. The research was compiled into the National Report on Domestic Minor Sex Trafficking: America’s Prostituted Children, released in July 2009 at a Congressional briefing to highlight the issue of child sex trafficking in America and admitted into the Congressional Record as evidence of the scope of the problem of child sex trafficking in the U.S. In 2011, Samantha designed and led the Protected Innocence Legislative Framework and Initiative, establishing minimum standards for the protection and response to child sex trafficking at the state level, leading to the December 2011 release of the first annual Protected Innocence Challenge Report Cards grading each state’s framework of laws in order to provide the blueprint for comprehensive legislative action for each state. At the same time, Samantha oversees the implementation of restoration programs at Shared Hope International, which includes technical assistance and best practices dissemination for service and shelter providers, as well as grant funding to service providers in the U.S., Fiji, Jamaica, India and Nepal.

Eliza Reock
Director of Programs

Eliza Reock has a strong background in non-profit and private foundation leadership. Prior to joining the Shared Hope team she was responsible for the distribution and strategic implementation of over $5 million in funding, targeted at combatting domestic minor sex trafficking. These initiatives supported a range of issues including advocacy to end online classified facilitation of sex trafficking, grass roots coalition building, comprehensive research initiatives and promising practices guidelines for state level initiatives. Eliza has served in numerous advisory and committee roles at both the state and national level, contributing to the development of a services protocol in Georgia and pathbreaking strategies in access to services for child sex trafficking victims and promising practices for other states. She is a frequent speaker and trainer on domestic minor sex trafficking identification and response, and has worked to combat child sex slavery through research, advocacy and direct victim service. As Director of Programs at Shared Hope International, Eliza manages Shared Hope’s funding and development of restoration programs, monitors and evaluates current services partners, and works to identify and share leading field techniques to develop service and shelter provision systems across the nation. She also provides critical policy support to Shared Hope’s Protected Innocence Initiative as an advocate on the issues around establishing protections from Internet facilitation of child sex trafficking.

Ruth Hill
National Awareness Director

Ruth works to communicate Share Hope’s vision and promote awareness of and support for its many projects. Before joining the Shared Hope team, she was the Executive Minister of the Department of Women Ministries for the Evangelical Covenant Church for twelve years. In that position she led initiatives advocating for women, nationally and internationally.  A major emphasis was human trafficking, mobilizing and training people to engage the issue in effective ways. She continues to serve on its Human Trafficking Prevention Task Force.

Nancy Winston
Director & Board Member Emerita

Nancy is engaged deeply in the issue of human trafficking. She has been actively working alongside Linda Smith since 1999, and joined the Shared Hope International Board of Directors in 2004. After leaving Cerner Corporation at the end of 2007, Nancy began a full time position with Shared Hope International as National Awareness Director. She has been an active presenter, trainer, creative writer and donor relationship manager for Shared Hope. Since 2008, she has served on the Maryland Human Trafficking Task Force and is an active member of the task force’s Victim Services committee. In the capacity of a task force member and a Shared Hope employee, she testified before both the Maryland House of Delegates Judiciary Committee and the Maryland Senate Judiciary Proceedings Committee in defense of legislation that would increase penalties for those convicted of human trafficking in the state.

Sheila Avery
Director of Finance

As Director of Finance, Sheila is a senior staff member in Shared Hope’s Vancouver office, and has been on staff since May of 2007. She provides fiscal guidance and direction to Shared Hope and oversees all financial activities. Prior to joining Shared Hope, Sheila’s career involved various areas of corporate accounting and business administration. Sheila has volunteered with various non-profit organizations.