Melinda is a Canberra author, speaker, columnists, media commentator, blogger, and advocate for women & girls.
A co-founder of Collective Shout: for a world free of sexploitation, Melinda is named in Who's Who of Women (Australia) and World Who's Who of Women.
Melinda is well known for her work on the objectification of women and sexualization of girls and working to address gender-based violence.
Melinda Tankard Reist
Mary Rose Somarriba
Mary Rose is Executive Editor and Culture Editor of Verily Magazine, a publication praised by the Huffington Post for its dedication to non-photoshopped images.
She recently completed a journalism fellowship exploring the connections between sex trafficking and pornography and has since spoken at such universities as Princeton and Yale.
Mary Rose has moderated panel discussions and written articles critiquing our hypersexualized culture.
Center for Youth
For more than forty years, The Center for Youth has been a staple resource for youth in the Rochester area community.
Providing emergency housing, school-based programs, tutoring, street outreach for those at risk for trafficking, a crisis nursery, and community outreach, The Counter for Youth addresses real needs.
A representative from the organization will be part of a panel presentation at our youth outreach efforts.