This month, we welcomed a new embedded expert to our team in Uganda. Gabrielle Massey joined HTI as Special Counsel to the Director of Public Prosecutions in Uganda. Gabrielle’s presence in the Office of the Director of Public Prosecutions will allow her to make a significant impact on human trafficking cases as they are being prosecuted and promote collaboration between investigators and prosecutors.
As Special Counsel, she works alongside the specialized anti-human trafficking investigative and prosecution teams to help them build specialized skills to stop traffickers. She provides real-time expertise and technical training to Ugandan investigators and prosecutors as they pursue human trafficking cases.
“We are thrilled to welcome Gabby to the team in such a pivotal role,” said Victor Boutros, CEO. “Drawing on her extensive experience as a human trafficking prosecutor, she will work directly with police and prosecutors to build strong cases against traffickers. I know Gabby will be a powerful force in decimating trafficking in Uganda.”
Before joining HTI, Gabrielle was a prosecutor focused on gender-based violence and sexual abuse crimes. She created the first Special Victims Unit for McLennan County and was the chief prosecutor there. She was one of two primary prosecutors handing all human trafficking cases in the county for four years. As an Assistant Attorney General for Texas, she led extensive trainings for prosecutors and investigators across Texas and in Mongolia, preparing her well to share her skills from within the Office of the Director of Public Prosecutions in Uganda.
Gabrielle is excited by the chance to use her skills built in the United States to help prosecutors in Uganda stop even more traffickers. She said, “I am looking forward to the challenge of learning to navigate an entirely different legal system from ours, and hopefully to take my empathy and compassion for these survivors and use that to help the trafficking survivors in Uganda.”