PACT BIOS
PACT Board Member Bios
Denny Winkelman
Interim Chairman of the Board and Eastern Region Director
An avid fan of his University of Oregon Ducks, Dennis was born and raised in the printing industry where he and his family ran one of the largest and oldest printing plants in San Francisco, Howard Quinn Publishing Company. From his early days of learning the printing business to developing client relationships and partners throughout the western region, Dennis helped take a local business and spread it throughout the west where he finally settled in Portland. As the print market and the demand changed, Dennis and his team adapted and brought forth new technology and processes to take care of his clients such as Nike, Fred Meyer, Columbia Sportswear, Hollywood Video and others.
Dennis’s community service extended past his help at the Portland First Presbyterian Church to mentoring young men and women while he was a member of the board for Boys & Girls Clubs of Portland Metropolitan Area. The father of four girls and now 4 grandchildren, Dennis’ understanding and appreciation of the vulnerability of young girls is extremely acute. As one of the original founding members of PACT Board of Directors, Dennis’ vision is to see PACT develop a platform of care that can be provided through a network of partners standing together as one.
Richard Neusche
Richard and Sylvia met as students at Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary in Fort Worth, Texas. They were married in 1981 and left that same year to accept their first pastorate. Richard and Sylvia pastored churches in Washington State for nine years, and their two children, Adrienne and Jared, were born in Richland, Washington.
Hungry for more of the Holy Spirit, Richard and Sylvia left their denomination in 1990 and moved to Austin, Texas – Richard's home town – to become part of a church where the Holy Spirit was moving in a powerful way. This began a difficult 10 year "desert" training time for Richard and Sylvia where God began removing old mindsets and replacing them with His heart and plan for their lives. They came to value character over gifting, heart transformation over outward performance, and intimacy with Jesus as foundational to their ministry. The grace and compassion of the Father's heart is a common thread that runs throughout the ministries of their church. They each have a deep desire to see God's Kingdom established here on earth as it is in heaven.
True Life Fellowship was birthed in 2005 and is a reflection of the many things that God has poured into the hearts of Richard and Sylvia.
As Senior Pastor, Richard oversees the Elders and staff, and closely works with the Men's Ministry and the Transformation Ministry. Richard is a gifted speaker and has the ability to make the truths of God's word applicable and practical for everyday life. His strong pastoral gifting causes people to feel loved and encouraged.
Trisha Blake
Board Secretary
Trisha is the mother of three boys aged 14, 12 and 8. She first attended a PACT informational session over a decade ago before PACT’s research led the organization to develop the peer-based approach that now both successfully and uniquely differentiates it from all other organizations. After the birth of Trisha’s third son, she was reintroduced to PACT when she began searching for meaningful opportunities to contribute to humanity and advocate for the well-being of children. In a happy coincidence, she realized that Rick Naylor and her husband attended bible study together and it made her partnership with PACT all the more meaningful.
Trisha has a Juris Doctorate and a Masters in Business Administration. She has a wide range of experience in various industries though she has deliberately chosen to primarily be a stay-at-home mother to her boys. She also serves on the Board of the Literacy Council of Williamson County and is the Fundraising Liaison for the PST at Round Rock Christian Academy.
Trisha currently serves as the PACT Secretary and assists with the administration and development of the student chapters under SACT. She and Rick are working on strategies to develop corporate focused resources to extend PACT’s reach in this fight against child trafficking. Trisha strongly believes that it should be every person’s mission and duty to insure that there is “not one more victim” and is grateful to be a part of an organization that it doing its part to prevent heinous crimes against children in particular.
Janell Smith
PACT Ambassador Chair
To those of you have been around PACT over the last few years, you probably met Janell Smith. Janell defines what Defense means in the value propositions of PACT: Detect, Defend and Disrupt. In fact, she does all three. Whether it is teaching a defense class of PACT Student Ambassadors at the University of Texas, or in her studio in North Austin, or on camera while she is doing stunt work with fellow actors she is always “on” inside but composed on the outside.
She was always an athlete first, but her studies took her in new directions from business and art and finally into the world of martial arts. First training in Taekwondo and eventually earned a 1st degree Black Belt. In 2004, she discovered Tukong Moosul, a form of martial arts developed by Grandmaster Wonik Yi.
With countless awards and degrees of recognition, Janell began to serve as instructor at Grandmaster Yi’s academy. In 2005, the academy was selected by directors Robert Rodriquez and Frank Miller as a training ground for their film "Sin City". Janell was fascinated with the process of training with actors and was motivated to help establish the Action Film Institute and Fighting Stunts Association.
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Dana Brown
Ministry Liaison
In 1969, Dana began his military career in the Navy as an E5 during the Vietnam War conflict where he held a NATO Top Secret Clearance working in ASW (Anti-Submarine Warfare) and earned a Navy Achievement recommendation while supporting the MK-48 Torpedo System initiative. Through his electronics experience in the Navy, Dana continued into an electronic test engineering career where he became the founder of ATES which manufactured printed circuit board test programming services and served as President for over 10 years. But throughout his military and business career, his heart has always been a servant’s heart. Over the last dozen years, he has held positions such as a Parrish Council Member at Emmaus Catholic Church, a Pro-Life Committee Member with the Diocese of Austin, and the South Austin Deanery Lead at Central Texas Fellowship of Catholic Men. For over four years, Dana has been a volunteer at PACT and leading events such as the event Lakeway Church where he helped gather 450 people from 7 local churches along with St. Emmaus. He calls that event affectionately 7 Pastors & a Priest capturing everyone’s attention on how they discussed the biggest contributor to child trafficking: pornography. Dana is not shy to tell everyone he meets that we need to stop child trafficking and best way is through education.
Dana is married to Caren where they enjoy traveling around in their RV when he is not restoring his old cars or playing in his Barn-da-minium that he and Caren designed.
Bram Floria
Bram Floria is another familiar face around PACT as his family has been supporters of PACT after Bram first interviewed Rick several years ago. Bram the President and Speaker of Compassion Radio met his wife Sandi in 1984 while doing missions work together in Eastern Europe.
Apart and together, they led teams of Christian musicians on evangelistic tours throughout Western Europe, the Soviet Bloc, Africa and Southeast Asia. As a Development Director for Continental Ministries and Christian Artists, Inc., Bram helped advance the arts in creative worship on three continents.
Bram and Sandi have devoted themselves to fulfilling the vision Dr. Nelson established of making Compassion Radio ‘The Radio Voice for Global Mission.’
Courtney Harrison
Since 2015, Courtney Harrison has been a Special Agent with the Florida Department of Law Enforcement/TFO, Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) Human Trafficking. A graduate of the University of Central Florida in Criminal Justice, she has been in law enforcement her 16 years working in the Deputy Sheriff’s Office in Orange and Clay Counties prior to joining the FBI.
Courtney brings a unique knowledge to PACT, the Board of Directors, our youth educational programs and first-hand investigative knowledge to our constituents that support PACT. Courtney thoroughly understands the criminal Justice system, the mindset of the predators and victims and how the vulnerable our children are everywhere. She has investigated more than thirty trafficking cases and interviewed more than 400 trafficking victims.
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Erik Brandin
Erik and Rita Brandin live in San Diego, California. In addition to successful business careers over nearly 25 years of marriage, they have traveled the world on exotic excursions. The guides, the characters, the sights, the adventure, the Cathedrals and the people they meet along the way are inspirations for their work.
Their experiences have influenced their stories and they bring their characters to life with a flair and descriptive style that plunges their readers into each scene. "Stalin’s Priests" is their first published novel and has won immediate praise and acclaim.
Callum Harralson
Callum Harralson is an undergraduate at the University of Texas at Austin and has spent over 5 years working with PACT. As just a sophomore at Anderson High School, Callum started the PACT Ambassadors club, which met biweekly and included over twenty members. During high school, Callum also aided in fundraising events, curriculum development, and community outreach.
Since the inception of PACT Ambassadors, Callum has continued to work with PACT in filming curriculum videos that educate minors about sex trafficking prevention. Following his graduation in 2021, Callum hopes to enroll in law school.
Jamie Chaidez
Jamie first became a speaker with PACT over 3 years ago when she realized that telling her personal story of being trafficked by her mother could help other teens from experiencing a similar fate.
Her professional career began when she attended Stanford University Medical Center as a Human Resource Generalist. She later delved into her entrepreneurial interests after moving to Austin, TX as a stay-at-home mom which led her to establish several organizations including a non-profit animal rescue center and an upscale consignment shop. As always, invests in her community and became the Membership Coordinator for a local networking group, an ambassador for her town’s Chamber of Commerce, and of course a speaker for PACT and part-time administrative assistant.
However, pulled by the family relationships she had with her dad and grandmother she moved back to their Christian roots in San Jose, CA. She and Juan, her husband, and six children are now surrounded by family and friends and a new beginning her dreams; building a presence of PACT in the Bay Area, to share her story and help be the advocate to protect children and students.
PACT could not have been happier to invite her to be a Member of the PACT Board of Directors, where she is already leveraging her CA Realtors License while creating an amazing opportunity to share her life-changing story. For those in the Bay Area, you will get to see and hear Jamie as she will be a guest speaker for many of the Rotary Clubs and probably at an upcoming meeting at the Board of Realtors!
Jamie has already been asked to take her story out to other nonprofits, businesses, and her church. Her mission is clear: to provide teens with valuable information on preventing child trafficking and how not to become a victim. There isn’t anyone more capable than Jaime to share a life-changing story on God’s redemptive powers and give her the tools of empowerment and hope to all students.
Jamie’s story as seen on NBC in 2019: https://youtu.be/K1JkhJlrWew
PACT Executive Advisory Board Bios
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Dr. Louis Iorio
Dr. Lou Iorio is a retired Orthopedic Surgeon. He practiced in Connecticut for most of his medical career. In 2016, “Dr. Lou” founded Wellness Patriots, LLC which works closely with Healthcare2U, a direct primary care (DPC) provider based in Austin, TX.
While Dr Lou spent over 40 years in the medical field, it was his passion to save children from predators by working with other corporations, agencies, and churches to educate them about the facts related to child sex trafficking. He is a devoted supporter of the overall mission and purpose of PACT .
Michelle Seets
Michelle Seets has been very involved with her community throughout her life and believes strongly in making a positive difference wherever she can. She has served for 24 years on a variety of non-profit boards, most often in the role of president.
She joined Rotary 5 years ago, seeing it as the next step in her volunteer evolution. She is the past president of her local Rotary club in Excelsior, Minnesota. Currently, she is serving as one of the founding members and President-elect of the new Rotary Club to End Human Trafficking.
Michelle resides in Texas. She holds a Bachelor’s Degree in Electrical Engineering from Texas A&M University and has held many professional roles to include project and product management, database architect and systems engineer. Her favorite and final professional role was working at the Minnetonka School District to inspire students to volunteer.
PACT Staff Bios
Rick Naylor
PACT Founder and CEO
Rick is the Founder and CEO of Partners Against Child Trafficking, a 501.c3 nonprofit based in Austin, TX established in June 2015.
Rick had spent most of his career with Fortune 500 technology companies, including Xerox and IBM, where he had national and international executive roles. However, it was during his days at UC Berkley in Engineering and then Business where his first interest in social justice took a very active role for him. His first activity was when he decided to take on Standard Oil Company of California for oil pollution in the Bay Area in 1971. A story that sounds like a real life-threatening mystery thriller and it was true.
After surviving those days, he went into technology but was still determined to “help build a better community through service” perspective, Rick’s community service stems over several decades from the Make a Wish Foundation, Rotary, Austin Disaster Relief Center to ABBA, an incubator of nonprofits dedicated to community service where he was on the Board of Directors in 2014.
While at ABBA, he received a God call... taking him to an assignment way outside his subject matter expertise. Rick doesn’t make light of his calling nor why he dropped everything to serve. His assignment: was to stop child sex trafficking, not victim services. This was his calling.
Rick has spoken to thousands of organizations such as Rotary Clubs, Independent School Districts, businesses, doctors, nurses, and students from California to Boston.
·In 2016: Rick was honored to be the Baccalaureate speaker at Anderson High School
·In 2017, PACT was recognized as a Continuing Education provider by Texas Health and Human Services
·In 2021 PACT was endorsed by the International Rotary Club to End Human Trafficking (RCEHT), to further the mission to end human trafficking across the globe
- In 2022, PACT and For Freedom International completed the Thai- based curriculum and culture Training Programs to be deployed to15,000 students in Thailand.
Mary Theissen
Director: Education & Training Program
Mary Theissen has a bachelor’s degree in Business Administration and a Master’s Degree in International Studies. She worked in the Department of International Programs supporting international students during her studies and develop a passion for meeting and learning about people from all around the world. After the international adoption of her three children, she deliberately chose to be primarily a stay-at-home mother to three children.
She has been married for 27 years to her German husband. They chose to raise their children in Germany. She, therefore, has a deep understanding of German culture. They have been back in the United States for 6 years. She and her husband had been involved in the marriage ministry at their local German church in Germany and are now involved in the marriage ministry at their local church in Austin, Texas. It is her firm belief that a healthy marriage and family build a stable and healthy society. She currently mentors women both in the United States and in Germany.
She met the wife of PACT’s founder through her Austin bible study and recognized that Europe also needs this kind of program to prevent child sex trafficking. After the impact the war in Ukraine has left on vulnerable young women and children’s refugees, she is even more committed to starting PACT in Germany in August of 2022.
It is her vision to create a safe future for the next generation of through education.