Dr. Leona
Vaughn
Dr Leona Vaughn is the Vulnerable Populations Lead for Finance Against Slavery and Trafficking (FAST) initiative within the United Nations University Centre for Policy Research.
Leona holds a PhD (Sociology, Social Policy and Criminology) and a Masters in Social Research and has over 25 years’ experience working as an equalities and social justice expert in the UK and internationally within higher education, civil society and government. Her research expertise is in risk, prevention and safeguarding - her PhD research explored counter-terrorism and children and her post-doctoral research focussed on modern slavery in Africa, Asia and the Caribbean.
At FAST, Leona is leading work to gather insights into the needs of vulnerable populations, victims, survivors and those at-risk of vulnerability to slavery and trafficking, and what the finance sector can do to address these. Her work is concentrating on geographical locations and populations at highest risk of slavery and trafficking – the Global South and marginalised populations such as refugees.