The Minnesota Coalition Against Sexual Assault (MNCASA) has announced that it will present an AWARE Award to The Advocates' Mary C. Ellison, Staff Attorney, and Cheryl Thomas, Women's Program Director, at its 2010 AWARE Event on April 7th.  The award letter notes that the award is being presented “in recognition of your organization’s outstanding research, education and legislative advocacy efforts on behalf of victims and survivors of human sex trafficking.  In particular we would like to publicly acknowledge the work of staff attorney Mary Ellison.  Through her tireless efforts over the past year, Minnesota now has stronger sex trafficking criminal penalties.  She has earned the respect of legislators and allies across the state for her expertise and commitment to this issue.  We would also like to acknowledge Cheryl Thomas’s leadership as Director of the Women’s Human Rights Program for guiding this significant work.”

 Congratulations, Mary and Cheryl!