Global Affairs and Women Trafficking
Andrea Wojtak is a senior human trafficking, organized crime and gender-based violence expert. She has worked on projects related to human trafficking, violence against women and girls and online sexual exploitation of children in the Balkans, Asia, Africa and the Middle East for over 20 years.
Andrea has a Juris Doctorate from Western University and initially began her legal career practicing civil and then criminal law in Ontario. In 2002, Andrea left her role as an Assistant Crown Attorney in St Thomas and joined the United Nations Mission in Kosovo where she was appointed to the role of Human Trafficking Advisor for the UN Mission. In this role, she advised the UN and the Kosovo Prime Minister’s office on: reforming legislation; training police, prosecutors and judges, and creating a National Action Plan to fight human trafficking.
Andrea worked for the United Nations for over 8 years, including in Vienna, Austria with the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime, helping UN Member States fight organized crime including firearms, drug and organ trafficking.
For the past 12 years, Andrea has been based in London, Ontario, working as a consultant helping to develop justice systems that respond more effectively to violence against women and girls and human trafficking. Most recently, she has worked with the governments of Mongolia, South Sudan and Jordan helping to strengthen their laws and policies, training police, prosecutors and other first line responders to improve their investigative skills and advising on how to fight trafficking using the power of technology.
Andrea believes that one of the most important aspects of her work, is to convince international organizations, national governments and law enforcement agencies that the focus of their work needs to be on the rights of victims. She now focuses her trainings on victim-centered, trauma-informed approaches to combating these crimes.
Lieutenant Wayne Hissong (Ret) is a senior law enforcement consultant with over 25 years of experience working both domestically and internationally. Beginning with the Southaven Police Department in Mississippi, he was eventually promoted to Chief of Detectives where he was responsible for the oversight of all investigators and criminal cases. Additionally, he was assigned to the FBI as an investigator engaged in investigating various criminal complaints.
In 2003 Wayne began his international policing career with the UN Mission in Kosovo. His work in Kosovo involved experience as an investigator and ultimately being promoted the Deputy Police Commissioner, being responsible for all criminal investigations, and operations in a post-war country.
Wayne’s extensive career has allowed him to teach in Police foundations courses at Lambton College and Wilfrid Laurier University. He has also continued to train police and investigators in post-conflict areas such as Canada, the Balkans, Mongolia, Jordan, Amsterdam, the USA, Uzbekistan the Middle East, and West Africa.
He is now working as a consultant, developing and delivering training on conducting criminal investigation, open-source intelligence (OSINT) police operations, de-escalation, crisis management, interviewing and interrogation techniques utilizing the PEACE model, workplace violence, and critical security incidents including active shooters, as well as conducting internal workplace investigations into harassment, theft, and misconduct.
Wayne is certified in Special Weapons and Tactics, investigations, executive protection, and counter-sniper tactics. He also holds an MSc in Criminology from the University of Leicester.