Law enforcement officers create the front line of defense in the fight to end sex trafficking. Our team of expert trainers brings a wealth of knowledge and experience in training law enforcement to recognize and build cases to end sex trafficking.

Meet the leaders of our protection initiative

law enforcement training team

Dr. Stephany Powell retired from the LAPD as a sergeant in charge of a vice unit and accepted the leadership role at Journey Out in October 2013. In addition to her LAPD tenure, Dr. Powell is a Doctor of Education in Organizational Leadership and utilizes that singular combination in several ways. She created and facilitated Team Building and Executive Leadership workshops for the Fire and Police departments. She is an Adjunct Assistant Professor of Behavioral Science at Los Angeles Trade Technical College. She is a powerful speaker, a tenacious educator and advocate for change, and one of the premiere experts in this field. Dr. Powell has been featured by Los Angeles local media, both and featured by CNN/HLN.

In August of 2020, Dr. Powell accepted a national position with the National Center on Sexual Exploitation as the Director of Law Enforcement Training and Victim Services.

Corinne Stannish, retired Captain of the Sarasota Police Department, brings over 30 years of experience in law enforcement. She received her B.S. from the University of South Florida in Criminal Justice.  After being hired by the Sarasota Police Department in 1988, she started her career in the Patrol Division and worked in the Community Resource Team. During her early career at the Agency, she worked in the Planning and Inspections Unit, which was the policy writing arm of the Police Department as well as performing audit inspections to insure policy and procedure were being followed.  Afterwards she transferred into the Criminal Investigation Division where she investigated Crimes Against Children for ten years.  Corinne was a member of the first organized Honor Guard Unit at the Sarasota Police Department and was a Hostage Negotiator for response to critical incident scenes involving barricaded, hostage or suicidal subjects.

After becoming a Sergeant in 2006, she was a Shift Commander on the road as well as a District Commander, serving as a liaison between the Community and the Police Department.  She was the first female to be promoted to the rank of Captain, serving in the Support Services Division followed by the Criminal Investigation Division.  As the Commander of the Detective Division, she directly oversaw the Street Crimes Unit, which has partnered with Selah Freedom and TYLA (Turn Your Life Around), a successful prostitution court diversion program and actively worked on building a human trafficking unit.   Corinne recently retired after thirty years of law enforcement service and is a national law enforcement training consultant.  Her passion is training on TYLA and CSEC (Commercial Sexual Exploitation of Children) with The Selah Way Foundation. She is married to a retired law enforcement captain and is the proud parent of a son who is a nurse in their area and two daughters who attend college.

Meet the Rest of Our Expert Team of Trainers

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Adam Kavanaugh served as Sergeant of the St. Louis Police Department with 26 years of experience.  Sgt. Kavanaugh started in the city and then moved to St. Louis County taking on roles in the Vice Unit as a detective, going undercover in the drug squad and now, as part of the FBI Task Force locating, finding and rescuing victims of human trafficking and online predators within Eastern Missouri. Sgt. Kavanaugh is supported by officers in many precincts across St. Louis and focuses his efforts on educating and training law enforcement about what to look for when locating victims and predators but also educating parents and the community about how to keep their children safe from online predators.

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Corporal Alan T. Wilkett has served more than 22 years as a public service official, including with the Indiana State Police and the Jackson County (Ohio) Sheriff’s Office. Cpl. Wilkett’s career has included positions in Property Crimes, Major Crimes, Cold Case, Narcotics, Child Abuse, Patrol, and Court Security. He has served as a chief deputy, captain, commander, and director of public safety. He is a member of the Tampa Bay Regional Human Trafficking Task Force and is an expert in how predators use technology to target their victims.

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Dan Murphy is a highly accomplished security, investigations and law enforcement professional with an outstanding 35 year career in law enforcement, including over 20 years in the NYPD. He has experience in a wide variety of patrol and investigative functions handling countless cases of violence, narcotics trafficking, kidnapping (over 125 cases), human trafficking and more. He is a seasoned leader, author, educator, and sought-after speaker and subject matter expert on various topics including workplace violence prevention and response program development, global security, international travel safety and security, physical security, executive protection and financial fraud investigative techniques. Murphy has 15 years of experience as a Corporate Security Director and Chief Security Officer, tasked with the overall safety and security of hundreds of thousands of people, in thousands of facilities, across numerous countries. He has extensive knowledge of security technology, and established and emerging best practices in building security programs. He possess a great many contacts within a variety of law enforcement, and private sector business worlds that may benefit The Selah Way Foundation's mission. He is an OSAC member with the US Dept of State, public private partnership and follows global security trends to share best practices.  Murphy has run several federal RICO investigations of violent gangs prosecuted in several US Attorney’s Offices, each included elements of human trafficking for sex trafficking.

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Misty LaPerriere is the National Law Enforcement Liaison and Trainer with Selah Freedom. She works directly with survivors of sex trafficking, trains law enforcement and the judicial system on this issue, while also providing certificate completion for officers. She serves on the 12th Judicial Circuit Anti-Human Trafficking Coalition and is a survivor herself and has worked with survivors for over a decade. Misty is designated as a Victims Advocate through the Florida Crime Prevention Training Institute for Human Trafficking with the Attorney General’s Office. Her certifications include 2018 Human Trafficking Summit from the Florida Attorney General’s Office, Certified Advanced Gang Specialist from the Florida Gang Investigators Association, Certified CSEC trainer. 

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Prostitution Court Diversion Program, One of the First of its Kind

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TYLA (Turn Your Life Around), is a deeply effective approach to prostitution diversion. It incorporates outreach, strong collaboration with community organizations, the judicial system, State Attorney's Office and ra e-directed law enforcement philosophy. Through the TYLA Program, survivors are supported by Selah Freedom's expert Outreach team during judicial proceedings and are eligible to have all prostitution-relation arrests expunged from their record.

Rescue Team

Colonel Joe Adams is a Former FBI, DEA and CIA Operative. When abduction of a victim occurs his expertise and years of experience is paramount in the rescue and recovery process.