In the sixth episode of Chasing Hope for America’s Children, Warren Binford speaks with Jenelle Goodrich, Founder and Executive Director of From Silenced to Saved (FSTS), a nonprofit organization providing on-scene response, advocacy, and comprehensive case management for victims and survivors of human trafficking. A certified Family Trauma Professional with over a decade of frontline experience, Goodrich works directly with law enforcement—including federal partners—to support trafficking investigations and survivor care.

Drawing on this experience, Goodrich shares how her organization fills critical gaps in the child protection system—partnering directly with law enforcement to support children from the moment of recovery through adjudication and beyond. She offers insight into the realities of child trafficking today, including the role of demand, the challenges of prosecution, and the importance of trauma-informed, survivor-centered care, with expertise often contributing to active cases and prosecutions.

Their conversation explores how coordinated advocacy, policy reform, and community awareness can strengthen responses to exploitation while improving outcomes for vulnerable youth. It also highlights emerging threats such as online exploitation and sextortion, and the urgent need for prevention efforts that reach children, families, and frontline professionals alike—work Goodrich also advances through policy advising, coalition leadership, and statewide initiatives, including her role on the Colorado Human Trafficking Council.

To learn more about From Silenced to Saved (FSTS) or to support their work, please visit https://www.fsts.org

In the fifth episode of Chasing Hope for America’s Children, we share a recorded conversation between Dr. Antonia Chiesa, a nationally recognized child abuse pediatrician and Director of the Kempe Center’s Integrated Health Services program, and medical student Gagandeep "Gigi" Rai.

Together, they explore how child abuse pediatrics sits at the intersection of medicine, justice, and humanity—discussing the importance of accuracy in public narratives, collaboration across systems, bias awareness in clinical decision-making, and the need to better prepare future physicians for this complex and deeply human work.

Their conversation offers both realism and hope, highlighting the responsibility—and opportunity—clinicians hold in strengthening child protection for the next generation.

In the fourth episode of Chasing Hope for America’s Children, Warren Binford speaks with South Carolina State Representative Brandon Guffey about the growing crisis of online exploitation impacting children and teens.

Rep. Guffey has become a leading advocate for child safety online, mental health awareness, and legislative action to hold platforms accountable.

His work has been featured by CN2 News, WSOC-TV, FITSNews, and The Post and Courier, as he continues to push for stronger protections for children in the digital age.

As pediatric health care providers, you are certain to encounter patients who have experienced foster or kinship care. Caring for children in foster care or kinship care can be complex and requires specialized knowledge and skills. Join Dr Mary Greiner, Chairperson of the American Academy of Pediatrics Council on Foster Care, Adoption, and Kinship Care, to learn about the newly released 3rd edition of Fostering Health: Health Care for Children and Adolescents in Foster Care, a comprehensive guide to health care for this population. As one of the book’s Editors-in-Chief and Medical Director of The CHECK (Comprehensive Health Evaluations for Cincinnati’s Kids) Center at Cincinnati Children’s Hospital, Dr Greiner will take us on a journey to explore the making of this book and how to use its exciting new content to better care for children in foster and kinship care.   

Dr. Mary Greiner Bio:

Dr. Mary V. Greiner is a child abuse pediatrician and the Medical Director of the Comprehensive Health Evaluations for Cincinnati’s Kids (CHECK) Foster Care Center at Cincinnati Children's Hospital. She is a professor with tenure in the University of Cincinnati Department of Pediatrics. Inspired by her grandfather, a pediatrician, and her mother, a guardian ad litem, Dr. Greiner has been passionate about pediatric care and child welfare from a young age. She pursued her medical degree at the Medical College of Virginia and completed her residency in Pediatrics at Wake Forest University Baptist Medical Center. She further specialized in child abuse pediatrics through a fellowship at Cincinnati Children's Hospital. 

 Since founding the CHECK Center in 2012, Dr. Greiner has focused on working across systems to develop a healthcare model that provides comprehensive, multidisciplinary care to children with child welfare involvement from birth through young adulthood. Her research centers on identifying health risks and developing and evaluating innovative solutions to improve outcomes for these children. She is the Chair of the Executive Committee of the American Academy of Pediatrics Council on Foster Care, Adoption, and Kinship Care. 

In the third episode of our “Chasing Hope for America’s Children,” Warren Binford interviews groundbreaking researcher Dr. Elizabeth Letourneau, who has dedicated her career to identifying effective ways to prevent the sexual abuse of children. 

Learn more about Dr. Elizabeth Letourneau here: https://publichealth.jhu.edu/faculty/2594/elizabeth-j-letourneau. Watch her TEDMED talk at: https://www.tedmed.com/talks/show?id=620399. 

Our series on 21st Century Child Abuse continues as host Warren Binford sits down with legal trailblazer James Marsh. They're diving deep into the constantly shifting legal landscape for victims and survivors of tech-facilitated child abuse.

How are our laws catching up with technology to protect children? Tune in to find out!

James R. Marsh Bio:

Founding Partner 

James has been licensed to practice law in New York and the District of Columbia for almost thirty years, and recently became licensed in his home state of Michigan. A University of Michigan Law School graduate, James represents victims and survivors of sex abuse in religious, educational, governmental, and military institutions; campus sexual assault and rape, online sexual exploitation; child pornography; sextortion and revenge porn. 

Everyone has now heard about the horrific sex crimes Jeffrey Epstein committed against countless girls and young women for decades through his sex trafficking organization. What many people do not know is that the Epstein survivors’ courageous fight to pursue justice and assert their rights changed the legal landscape for victims and survivors across the nation, and that their positive impact continues to be felt today. 

Listen to our latest episode of Radio Kempe to hear a firsthand account from attorney Paul Cassell about the determination of the Epstein survivors and their attorneys to ensure that no other children have to endure what they endured at the hands of America’s justice system.

Read more about Paul Cassell here: https://profiles.faculty.utah.edu/u0031056. If you would like to learn more about this decade-long legal battle, you can check out the book by his co-counsel, Bradley Edwards, at https://tinyurl.com/57ek24w4.

Don't miss the latest episode of "Chasing Hope for America’s Children: A Conversation with Bruce Lesley." We sit down with Bruce Lesley, the President of First Focus on Children, to discuss critical issues facing kids in America.

Learn more about Bruce's work here: https://firstfocus.org/about-us/staff-and-board/bruce-lesley/. 

The discussion focuses on the intersection of technology and child protection, particularly the risks children face online due to instant access to information, experiences, and people globally through smartphones.  

Richardson, with nearly 20 years at the Canadian Centre for Child Protection, explains their work, which includes operating Canada's national tip line for reporting online sexual exploitation of children (CyberTip.ca) and Project Arachnid, a global tool that aims to remove child sexual abuse material from the internet.  

The conversation draws parallels between the current challenges of regulating the internet and historical struggles with industries like tobacco, alcohol, and automotive, especially regarding seatbelt implementation. Richardson emphasizes that while technology offers benefits like education, it's a "double-edged sword" because society has not adequately mitigated its risks for children by applying lessons learned from other industries.  

A key issue highlighted is age and identity verification (Know Your Customer/Digital Identity) online. Richardson argues that it's not a complex technological problem but rather faces resistance due to disinformation and concerns about "mass surveillance." He explains that digital ID can be more privacy-preserving than physical ID, as it can disclose only the necessary information (e.g., being over 18) without revealing other personal details. While not a complete solution, he believes age verification would significantly mitigate harm to children online, especially in contexts like pornography websites (requiring 18+ verification) and social media platforms (where knowing the age of users can prevent luring). He also notes that platforms often fail to enforce rules against children under 13, despite laws like COPPA. 

Summary of Key Findings  

In the current state of technology, we have failed to create any meaningful legal framework to ensure our children are safe in the digital world. The lack of legal protections for children online differs from those of the physical world. Children online are at risk of experiencing poor mental health outcomes, being victims of predatory behavior, being exposed to harmful content, and being illegally sold firearms and/or drugs. Without age assurance or verification in the digital world, adults have unfettered access to children. Currently, most child sex trafficking victims report they are being contacted via text and internet platforms such as social media and gaming. Additionally, the number of images of child sex abuse material (CSAM; formerly referred to as child pornography) sent to authorities increased exponentially in the 21st century, and the vast majority of CSAM images come from social media. Children are also at greater risk of being exposed to adult content, including pornography, whether the exposure was sought out or unwanted. 

Protecting children online would require platforms to verify the ages of their users and to put restrictions in place so children can navigate the digital world safely. Various advanced age verification processes have been developed and are widely available. Despite this, many platforms have failed to implement age protections even when they know children frequent their sites. Thus, lawmakers are compelled to make clear that the same protections for children that exist in the physical world are also required in the digital world. There are many policy changes needed to further ensure technology safety, and a starting point is to: a) require pornography websites to verify user age to ensure only adults are accessing the sites; b) require social media companies and gaming platforms to verify a new account holder’s age; and c) requiring social media platforms to enable maximum default privacy settings for users who are children.

Maura Gissen Bio

Maura Gissen is a fifth year Clinical Psychology doctoral student with the University of Colorado Denver and has her master’s in counseling psychology. Maura currently works with the Farley Health Policy Center (FHPC) with CU Anschutz engaging in research and program implementation. More specifically, she has been focused on youth mental health related to diversifying the workforce pipeline, and on child health and safety in digital spaces. Maura has been working in the mental health field for ten years and focuses on the intersection of trauma and systemic disparities for individuals across the lifespan. She is passionate about engaging in clinical therapeutic practice, along with research focused on policy, advocacy, and systems-level change.