Recap: 2025 Train the Trainer Academy

On October 23–24, 2025, HEAL Trafficking hosted the annual Train the Trainer Academy, a two-day, live virtual training designed to equip healthcare and public health professionals to deliver effective, trauma-informed, and evidence-based human trafficking trainings within their organizations and communities.

Presented in collaboration with Boston Children’s Hospital’s Department of Education, the academy offered up to 10 continuing education credits for physicians, physician assistants, nurses, social workers, and psychologists. The course was led by HEAL faculty members Nani Cuadrado, MSPAS, PA-C; Hanni Stoklosa, MD, MPH; and Rahel Bosson, MD, whose collective expertise spans emergency medicine, psychiatry, medical education, and survivor-centered systems change.

Participation & Impact

This year’s cohort brought together 41 participants representing 12 professions, including social workers, nurses, service providers, nonprofit professionals, and educators. Through interactive workshops, case studies, and small-group sessions, participants gained practical tools to strengthen identification and response to human trafficking while developing skills to teach these principles to others.

Over the course of two days, attendees engaged in dynamic workshops, breakout discussions, and collaborative learning activities that bridged theory with real-world practice. The training also featured workshops co-facilitated by survivor leaders, emphasizing the importance of lived experience and ethical storytelling in anti-trafficking education.

Key Takeaways

The academy focused on building capacity across three interconnected areas: knowledge, facilitation, and systems change.

Participants:

• Reframed trafficking through a public health lens, examining root causes and the socio-ecological factors that shape vulnerability and resilience.
• Practiced trauma-informed teaching strategies, learning to adapt content for adult learners, promote psychological safety, and engage diverse audiences.
• Applied the PEARR Tool to practice trauma-informed communication and screening approaches within healthcare settings.
• Used HEAL’s Protocol Toolkit to identify systems-level changes that improve institutional responses and align policies with trauma-informed care principles.
• Collaborated in team presentations, designing and delivering short training modules with peer and faculty feedback to refine facilitation skills.

Each session reinforced that effective anti-trafficking education begins with humility, collaboration, and the ability to meet learners where they are. Participants left with concrete action plans to implement new protocols, design trainings, and strengthen multidisciplinary networks within their own workplaces.

Looking Ahead

The Train the Trainer Academy continues to expand HEAL Trafficking’s mission of strengthening healthcare’s response to human trafficking through education, advocacy, and leadership. Participants now join a growing network of clinician-educators who are leading culture change within their institutions, each becoming an open door to safety and care for survivors.

We extend our gratitude to the participants, survivor leaders, our partners, and our dedicated faculty for two days of thoughtful dialogue, shared learning, and collective commitment to building trauma-informed systems of care.

Stay connected

If you’re interested in trainings like the Train the Trainer Academy, we invite you to join HEAL Trafficking’s email list. Subscribers are the first to hear about upcoming courses, free HEAL Hour sessions, and new resources designed to strengthen healthcare’s response to human trafficking. Subscribe Here.

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