As the executive director, Alison “Ali” Boak (she/her/hers) is responsible for overseeing all day-to-day functions of LifeWay Network, including its safe housing and education programs, development, finance, human resources and strategy. As the lead public advocate for LifeWay Network’s mission, Ali works to champion LifeWay’s impact across its programs and the anti-trafficking field as a whole. Ali began her anti-trafficking work when she discovered that traffickers were recruiting children and youth out of the schools, universities and orphanages where she served as a Peace Corps volunteer and Fulbright Scholar in the Baltic States.
For more than 25 years, Ali has worked alongside survivors of all forms of trafficking to develop innovative, survivor-driven approaches to prevent and address human trafficking across the United States, Africa, Eastern Europe, Latin America and Asia.
As a pioneer in the anti-trafficking movement, Ali cofounded several organizations, networks and coalitions at the forefront of the anti-trafficking field today, including the International Organization for Adolescents (IOFA), Freedom Network USA, the Westchester County Anti-Trafficking Task Force, and the National Human Trafficking and Disabilities Working Group. Most recently, Ali served as the inaugural director of the Global Center on Human Trafficking at Montclair State University.
Ali graduated magna cum laude from the State University of New York at Albany with a B.A. in political science, international affairs concentration, and earned a master of public health (MPH) degree from the Mailman School of Public Health at Columbia University, the Division for Population and Family Health. She also holds a certificate in mentoring supervision from Fordham University.