Megan
Lundstrom
Megan Lundstrom is a co-founder and the Chief Executive Officer of the Colorado-based, nationally-recognized non-profit, The Avery Center for Research & Services.The Avery Center, while known for its groundbreaking, survivor-led research projects, is also known for being an industry leader when it comes to economic empowerment for survivors of human trafficking.
Ms. Lundstrom holds a Bachelor of Science in Finance and a Master’s in Sociology from the University of Northern Colorado.Initially driven from a personal interest in the intersection of financial crimes and human trafficking as a survivor of both herself, Megan has provided significant contributions to the anti-trafficking field’s body of knowledge on this topic.
Starting in 2016, Megan developed and published the only financial wellness curriculum for survivors of commercial sexual exploitation and sex trafficking, the Survivor’s Guide to Money, which is now available in both workbook and e-course options. Megan first collaborated with Polaris in 2020 to analyze a portion of her bank statements from the time of her trafficking, and the findings can be read in the co-authored publication: How Survivor-Led Collaborations Can Lead Anti-Money Laundering Efforts. Since that time, Megan has been a regular attendee of Polaris’ Financial Intelligence Unit working group and provided real-time intelligence on how sex trafficking presents on social media, and how the pandemic shifted sex trafficking operations and cashflows.
Additionally, Megan has been a Network Consultant through the Office for Trafficking in Persons since 2019 and has had the honor of contributing to projects such as the Department of Treasury’s Report to Congress on An Analysis of Anti-Money Laundering Efforts Related to Human Trafficking.
Megan also completed the Human Trafficking Leadership Academy through the National Human Trafficking Training and Technical Assistance Center, working with a team of survivors and allies to produce the recommendations for Financial Stability of Trafficking Survivors Through a Social Capital Lens.Megan is passionate about increasing identification of sex trafficking operations utilizing financial intelligence as a means of harm reduction to survivors through the investigation and prosecution processes.