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NTZ Game Over Initiative
Survivor Leader Committee
NTZ Game Over Initiative, Survivor Leader Human Trafficking Signage at NRG Park
Background
Globally, Human Trafficking is the fastest-growing illegal industry in the world. Second only to the illicit drug industry. Locally, Houston/Harris County is among the top three trafficking hubs in the nation. Our region is a huge profit center for trafficking. This distinction warrants
intentional urgency. NRG Park is the most-attended sports and entertainment complex in the country, a leader in the industry, attracting nearly six million people each year. With the prolific national and international events hosted here and the prevalence of
human trafficking in Houston and Harris County, we recognize that those events could bring with them a criminal element that must be stopped. Through a comprehensive plan of action and collaboration with our partners in government, law enforcement, and private industry, NRG Park became the first “NTZ” No Trafficking Zone in the country in 2020. Through awareness campaigns, training, and collaboration with on-site partners such as Aramark and ASM-Global, NRG Park is proud to be a leader at the forefront in combating this horrific crime.
“No Trafficking Zone” monumental signage was installed throughout NRG Park, written by survivor leaders working alongside law enforcement and NTZ to create signs that create awareness and resources for help. Please meet the survivor leaders who are on the NTZ Survivor Leader Sports and Entertainment Committee.
MEET THE SURVIVOR Leaders BEHIND THe Campaign
Tanya Gould
Tanya Gould is a dedicated solutionist in the fight against human trafficking, passionately working to influence legislative policy and elevate public awareness. She currently serves as the Anti-Human Trafficking Director for the Office of the Attorney General in Virginia and was appointed to the Governor Younkin’s Commission on Human Trafficking Prevention and Survivor Support.
In 2022, Tanya received the prestigious Presidential Award for Extraordinary Efforts to Combat Human Trafficking in Persons. She has served two terms on the U.S. Advisory Council on Human Trafficking appointed by President Trump and has been a member of the OSCE Office for Democratic Institutions and Human Rights (ODIHR) International
Survivors of Trafficking Advisory Council (ISTAC).
Tanya is a sought-after speaker, having delivered lectures and training sessions at universities and participated in numerous podcasts, articles, and public service announcements. She co-produced the documentary short film *Groomed*, which sheds light on the dark realities of human trafficking.
As a keynote speaker at anti-human trafficking conferences, Tanya has engaged with various communities and raised awareness both nationally and internationally. She has
consulted for multiple agencies, including the U.S. Department of Justice’s Office for Victims of Crime, the Department of Education, the Department of Transportation, the U.S. Department of Homeland Security’s Blue Campaign, Global Strategic Operatives for the Eradication of Human Trafficking, Inc., and the U.S. Department of State’s Trafficking in Persons (TIP) Office. Tanya also serves on boards such as Polaris, Beloved Haven, the Parliamentary Intelligence-Security Forum Task Force on Human Trafficking, and The National Center on Sexual Exploitation (NCOSE).
In addition to her professional endeavors, Tanya is deeply committed to her community. She has served as a Museum and Fine Arts Commissioner for the city of Portsmouth,
started an after-school program, and co-led the annual Cradock Festival. Tanya has also supported families at crisis pregnancy centers in Virginia as a director and was a republican candidate for the Virginia House of Delegates District 21 race in 2021.
Tanya’s exceptional contributions have been recognized with the Attorney General Alliance Sword and Shield Award in 2023. She represented the Commonwealth of Virginia at the 11th meeting of the Conference of the Parties to the United Nations Convention against Transnational Organized Crime as an official member of the U.S. delegation. With a wealth of experience and a tireless commitment to eradicating human trafficking, Tanya Gould is a powerful keynote speaker who brings passion, insight, and inspiration to every engagement.
In 2022, Tanya received the prestigious Presidential Award for Extraordinary Efforts to Combat Human Trafficking in Persons. She has served two terms on the U.S. Advisory Council on Human Trafficking appointed by President Trump and has been a member of the OSCE Office for Democratic Institutions and Human Rights (ODIHR) International
Survivors of Trafficking Advisory Council (ISTAC).
Tanya is a sought-after speaker, having delivered lectures and training sessions at universities and participated in numerous podcasts, articles, and public service announcements. She co-produced the documentary short film *Groomed*, which sheds light on the dark realities of human trafficking.
As a keynote speaker at anti-human trafficking conferences, Tanya has engaged with various communities and raised awareness both nationally and internationally. She has
consulted for multiple agencies, including the U.S. Department of Justice’s Office for Victims of Crime, the Department of Education, the Department of Transportation, the U.S. Department of Homeland Security’s Blue Campaign, Global Strategic Operatives for the Eradication of Human Trafficking, Inc., and the U.S. Department of State’s Trafficking in Persons (TIP) Office. Tanya also serves on boards such as Polaris, Beloved Haven, the Parliamentary Intelligence-Security Forum Task Force on Human Trafficking, and The National Center on Sexual Exploitation (NCOSE).
In addition to her professional endeavors, Tanya is deeply committed to her community. She has served as a Museum and Fine Arts Commissioner for the city of Portsmouth,
started an after-school program, and co-led the annual Cradock Festival. Tanya has also supported families at crisis pregnancy centers in Virginia as a director and was a republican candidate for the Virginia House of Delegates District 21 race in 2021.
Tanya’s exceptional contributions have been recognized with the Attorney General Alliance Sword and Shield Award in 2023. She represented the Commonwealth of Virginia at the 11th meeting of the Conference of the Parties to the United Nations Convention against Transnational Organized Crime as an official member of the U.S. delegation. With a wealth of experience and a tireless commitment to eradicating human trafficking, Tanya Gould is a powerful keynote speaker who brings passion, insight, and inspiration to every engagement.
Courtney Litvak
Courtney Litvak is a Survivor Leader and the Director of Survivor Leader Initiatives for No Trafficking Zone (NTZ). In this role, she works alongside NTZ leadership to ensure that survivor voices, lived experiences, insights, and vision are authentically represented and transformed into real, actionable programs, policies, and initiatives.
She is committed to lifting survivor voices, shaping trauma-informed practices, and ensuring that every NTZ effort reflects the needs and wisdom of those directly impacted.
Courtney also served as an Honorable Member of the United States Advisory Council on Human Trafficking, appointed by President Donald Trump. She is a subject-matter expert, advocate, public speaker, passionate activist, and lobbyist, and is part of the Survivor Consultant Network for the U.S. Department of Homeland Security’s Blue Campaign.
Born in Houston, Texas in 1998, Courtney attended school in Katy ISD, where she excelled as a varsity swimmer on one of the district’s top-ranking teams. Her years as a competitive swimmer instilled the strength, discipline, and perseverance that would later anchor her advocacy and leadership.
Before dedicating her life to survivor advocacy, Courtney was methodically lured into “The Life,” also known as sex trafficking. After years off the grid and under the emotional and physical control of organized exploiters, she escaped and entered a long-term recovery program for survivors. Through an intensive, faith-based healing process, Courtney rebuilt her life and credits Jesus Christ for helping her reconnect with her faith and rediscover her purpose.
Her testimony has helped shape legislation to protect youth and students in every school district in Texas, and expanding protections statewide. Courtney testified in support of S.B. 1831, the No Trafficking Zone School Act, which made every Texas school a No Trafficking Zone.
Most recently, in 2025, she testified for S.B. 1212, landmark legislation designating the entire State of Texas as a No Trafficking Zone. This historic law elevates human trafficking to a first-degree felony punishable by 25–99 years to life, marking one of the strongest trafficking penalties in the nation. Courtney is passionate about national public speaking, survivor-centered education, and training professionals and students across the country. She actively meets with federal agencies that make up the President’s Interagency Task Force to Combat Human Trafficking and develops recommendations for Congress and the federal government.
She partners with local, state, and national anti-trafficking organizations and serves in peer-to peer interventions, mentoring, and supporting leaders across jurisdictions to improve policy and protect victims from being criminalized or re-exploited.
Courtney continues to advise leading champions nationwide, including bipartisan members of
Congress, State Senators, Honorable Judges, the U.S. Department of State’s TIP Office, and former Senior Advisor to the President, Ivanka Trump. In early 2020, she was honored at the Executive White House Summit on Combating Human Trafficking.
“I want all individuals impacted by the devastation of human trafficking to know that you are made for so much more than all of this. I am a walking miracle of perseverance and living proof of God’s faithfulness and unconditional love... My brokenness and lived experiences led me to
my true calling, to turn what the enemy intended for evil into God’s glory; to help save the lives of many by carrying out God’s grace and mercy.”
She is committed to lifting survivor voices, shaping trauma-informed practices, and ensuring that every NTZ effort reflects the needs and wisdom of those directly impacted.
Courtney also served as an Honorable Member of the United States Advisory Council on Human Trafficking, appointed by President Donald Trump. She is a subject-matter expert, advocate, public speaker, passionate activist, and lobbyist, and is part of the Survivor Consultant Network for the U.S. Department of Homeland Security’s Blue Campaign.
Born in Houston, Texas in 1998, Courtney attended school in Katy ISD, where she excelled as a varsity swimmer on one of the district’s top-ranking teams. Her years as a competitive swimmer instilled the strength, discipline, and perseverance that would later anchor her advocacy and leadership.
Before dedicating her life to survivor advocacy, Courtney was methodically lured into “The Life,” also known as sex trafficking. After years off the grid and under the emotional and physical control of organized exploiters, she escaped and entered a long-term recovery program for survivors. Through an intensive, faith-based healing process, Courtney rebuilt her life and credits Jesus Christ for helping her reconnect with her faith and rediscover her purpose.
Her testimony has helped shape legislation to protect youth and students in every school district in Texas, and expanding protections statewide. Courtney testified in support of S.B. 1831, the No Trafficking Zone School Act, which made every Texas school a No Trafficking Zone.
Most recently, in 2025, she testified for S.B. 1212, landmark legislation designating the entire State of Texas as a No Trafficking Zone. This historic law elevates human trafficking to a first-degree felony punishable by 25–99 years to life, marking one of the strongest trafficking penalties in the nation. Courtney is passionate about national public speaking, survivor-centered education, and training professionals and students across the country. She actively meets with federal agencies that make up the President’s Interagency Task Force to Combat Human Trafficking and develops recommendations for Congress and the federal government.
She partners with local, state, and national anti-trafficking organizations and serves in peer-to peer interventions, mentoring, and supporting leaders across jurisdictions to improve policy and protect victims from being criminalized or re-exploited.
Courtney continues to advise leading champions nationwide, including bipartisan members of
Congress, State Senators, Honorable Judges, the U.S. Department of State’s TIP Office, and former Senior Advisor to the President, Ivanka Trump. In early 2020, she was honored at the Executive White House Summit on Combating Human Trafficking.
“I want all individuals impacted by the devastation of human trafficking to know that you are made for so much more than all of this. I am a walking miracle of perseverance and living proof of God’s faithfulness and unconditional love... My brokenness and lived experiences led me to
my true calling, to turn what the enemy intended for evil into God’s glory; to help save the lives of many by carrying out God’s grace and mercy.”
Dr. Marlene Carson
Dr. Marlene Carson is a nationally recognized thought leader at the intersection of social justice and social enterprise. A survivor of domestic sex trafficking, she has transformed personal adversity into scalable impact, designing systems that do not just rescue but reintegrate. As the founder of the Black Leaders Against Sex Trafficking and a former U.S. Advisory Council Chair, current Co-Chair of The Commission on Trafficking of Children and Youth. Dr. Carson disrupts outdated frameworks and replaces them with actionable, data-informed strategies.
She believes that survivors do not need pity; they need pipelines.
Through innovative entrepreneurship models and economic equity initiatives, she challenges exploitative systems and
builds ecosystems that restore dignity and opportunity. For over three decades, she has mobilized leaders in government, business, and community spaces to operationalize justice and not just talk about it.
Whether she is in the boardroom or on the frontlines, Dr. Carson turns compassion into capital and awareness into action. Her mission is clear: to build economies where survivors thrive and justice is scalable.
She believes that survivors do not need pity; they need pipelines.
Through innovative entrepreneurship models and economic equity initiatives, she challenges exploitative systems and
builds ecosystems that restore dignity and opportunity. For over three decades, she has mobilized leaders in government, business, and community spaces to operationalize justice and not just talk about it.
Whether she is in the boardroom or on the frontlines, Dr. Carson turns compassion into capital and awareness into action. Her mission is clear: to build economies where survivors thrive and justice is scalable.
Beatrix Salyer
Beatrix Salyer, Survivor Leader.
Beatrix was raised by her stepdad on a ranch in Southeastern Arizona. She was a stellar runner on her high school track team and had a passion for riding horses. At the age of fifteen, she was taken by her biological father and for twenty-eight months was isolated, abused, raped, coerced, and trafficked in four different states by him.
When Beatrix was seventeen, she was eight and a half months pregnant with her trafficker’s child. She was rescued by a maternity home in Keller, Texas. This was the beginning of the road to freedom for her. She completed several transitional housing programs soon after.
Beatrix has been married for seventeen years. Her husband served in the United States Infantry
and still serves in the Army Reserves. She has three teenage sons and enjoys living an active lifestyle.
In May 2020, she began the process of legally pressing charges against her trafficker in every state she was trafficked. It is Beatrix’s hope that in doing so, even after 20 years others may have courage to step out of bondage and fear.
Beatrix graduated from School of Urban Missions and Theological Seminary with Summa Cum Laude in Fort Worth, Texas in June 2021.
She has expertise in familial, minor, truckstop, stripclub and border trafficking. She also has an extensive background in interactions with cults, how sometimes these entities are involved in trafficking, their similarities to traffickers, and how to recognize the tactics that are used.
Beatrix has worked with several outstanding organizations in the Dallas/Fort Worth MetroPlex which strive to combat human trafficking and serve those whom it has effected. She has also been involved in various other alliances in the Dallas/Fort Worth MetroPlex and has an extensive understanding and is passionate about mentoring, advocating, and equipping through programs individuals who have been put in difficult situations and need support in order to live a more abundant, sustaining life. She also has experience in curriculum writing and small intimate class teaching for survivors.
Beatrix not only has a hunger to see all humans set free from modern-day slavery and all forms of abuse, but she holds that same passion for horses. She volunteers at horse rescues where her years of expertise in equine is used as well.
Beatrix loves God and the freedom and restoration that she has gained through the victory of
Jesus Christ.
Beatrix was raised by her stepdad on a ranch in Southeastern Arizona. She was a stellar runner on her high school track team and had a passion for riding horses. At the age of fifteen, she was taken by her biological father and for twenty-eight months was isolated, abused, raped, coerced, and trafficked in four different states by him.
When Beatrix was seventeen, she was eight and a half months pregnant with her trafficker’s child. She was rescued by a maternity home in Keller, Texas. This was the beginning of the road to freedom for her. She completed several transitional housing programs soon after.
Beatrix has been married for seventeen years. Her husband served in the United States Infantry
and still serves in the Army Reserves. She has three teenage sons and enjoys living an active lifestyle.
In May 2020, she began the process of legally pressing charges against her trafficker in every state she was trafficked. It is Beatrix’s hope that in doing so, even after 20 years others may have courage to step out of bondage and fear.
Beatrix graduated from School of Urban Missions and Theological Seminary with Summa Cum Laude in Fort Worth, Texas in June 2021.
She has expertise in familial, minor, truckstop, stripclub and border trafficking. She also has an extensive background in interactions with cults, how sometimes these entities are involved in trafficking, their similarities to traffickers, and how to recognize the tactics that are used.
Beatrix has worked with several outstanding organizations in the Dallas/Fort Worth MetroPlex which strive to combat human trafficking and serve those whom it has effected. She has also been involved in various other alliances in the Dallas/Fort Worth MetroPlex and has an extensive understanding and is passionate about mentoring, advocating, and equipping through programs individuals who have been put in difficult situations and need support in order to live a more abundant, sustaining life. She also has experience in curriculum writing and small intimate class teaching for survivors.
Beatrix not only has a hunger to see all humans set free from modern-day slavery and all forms of abuse, but she holds that same passion for horses. She volunteers at horse rescues where her years of expertise in equine is used as well.
Beatrix loves God and the freedom and restoration that she has gained through the victory of
Jesus Christ.
Dr. Jennisue Jessen
Trauma Healing Consultant | Global Educator|
From the depths of unspeakable trauma to the heights of global advocacy, Jennisue has spent over 25 years transforming pain into purpose. Sold into the sex trade at age four, her journey toward healing began after a failed suicide attempt at seventeen—and led to a life devoted to freedom, justice, and restoration.
Today, she is the Founder & CEO of Compass 31, an international NGO serving survivors of exploitation in 43 countries. Appointed to the U.S. Advisory Council on Human Trafficking in 2021, Jennisue has helped shape federal counter-trafficking policy with the wisdom of one who has lived it.
But titles only tell part of the story.
Jennisue is a soul-guide for the weary, a witness to sacred transformation, and a fierce advocate for healing that is real, holistic, and lasting. Whether she’s standing before governments or sitting beside survivors, her message is the same: You are not broken. You are becoming. And healing is your birthright.
From the depths of unspeakable trauma to the heights of global advocacy, Jennisue has spent over 25 years transforming pain into purpose. Sold into the sex trade at age four, her journey toward healing began after a failed suicide attempt at seventeen—and led to a life devoted to freedom, justice, and restoration.
Today, she is the Founder & CEO of Compass 31, an international NGO serving survivors of exploitation in 43 countries. Appointed to the U.S. Advisory Council on Human Trafficking in 2021, Jennisue has helped shape federal counter-trafficking policy with the wisdom of one who has lived it.
But titles only tell part of the story.
Jennisue is a soul-guide for the weary, a witness to sacred transformation, and a fierce advocate for healing that is real, holistic, and lasting. Whether she’s standing before governments or sitting beside survivors, her message is the same: You are not broken. You are becoming. And healing is your birthright.
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