33-"Exploit Others? You're Going to Lose your Liberty and We're Going to Take Your *Stuff"- The Healing Power of Justice with Alessandra Serano Libertas International Podcast

 Libertas is honored to be welcoming Alessandra Serano to the Libertas International Podcast! *Content warning. Contains strong language. Alessandra Serano rejoined the United States Department of Justice and currently serves as an Assistant U.S. Attorney in the Criminal Division for the Eastern District of Virgina where she handles child exploitation cases and cyber related matters. Ms. Serano was previously employed by the United States Department of Justice in various roles for over 18 years.  From 2003-2017, Ms. Serano served as an Assistant United States Attorney in the Southern District of California where she prosecuted child exploitation and trafficking cases as well as organized crime and gang-related cases involving narcotics, human and sex trafficking. She litigated numerous immigration and border related crimes, firearms offenses, and national security cases. From 2017-19, she worked at Main Justice as the Department of Justice's National Project Safe Childhood Coordinator in Washington D.C. where she served as a subject matter expert on child exploitation, human and sex trafficking involving minors, and other federal child sexual exploitation offenses. Ms. Serano also served as Senior Counsel to the Assistant Attorney General, Office of Legal Policy where she worked on human trafficking policy for the Department.   From 2020-21, Ms. Serano served as the First Assistant United States Attorney and Criminal Chief for the U.S. Attorney’ s Office – District of the Virgin Islands.  Ms. Serano received numerous individual awards relating to her work and expertise in human trafficking including the U.S. Attorney General’s Award, the Federal Bar Association’s Hon. Sarah T. Hughes Civil Rights Award, and Women in Federal Law Enforcement’s “Top Prosecutor” Award. She has received several team awards including the Commissioner’s Award from the San Diego County Juvenile Justice Commission, Meritorious Unit Citation from the San Diego County Sheriff’s Department for Operation “Stolen Souls,” Investigative Team of the Year Award by the California Narcotic Officers’ Association, and Outstanding Overall Partnership Award by the U.S. Department of Justice.  Since 2014, Ms. Serano serves as an Adjunct Law Professor at the University of San Diego where she teaches an upper division class on human trafficking and child exploitation and guest lectures at the California Western School of Law and Georgetown Law.  Ms. Serano graduated magna c*m laude from the University of Miami, School of Law in 1999, and received her B.A. in Political Science/Law & Society from the University of California, Riverside in 1993. She is currently working on her Executive Certificate in Public Leadership from the Harvard Kennedy School of Government.  Ms. Serano is a licensed real estate broker in California and earned her private pilot's license.Mr. Serano's work achieved over 150k in restitution for the survivors of Project Bat Bridge. https://cbsaustin.com/news/local/former-aisd-teacher-sentenced-to-7-years-in-prison-for-paying-for-sex-with-columbian-girls-minor-children-federal-court-austin-isd-us-department-of-justice-attorney-medellin-columbia-round-rock-sadler-means-ywla-garcia-ymla-navarro-echs-indictmentA past case of her's when she was with the Department of Justice https://www.sandiegouniontribune.com/sdut-1m30child235650-ex-teacher-37-arrested-child-porn--2008dec30-story.html