Professional Affiliation

Data Analyst, Polaris; National Human Trafficking Hotline and BeFree Textline

Expert Bio

Thérèse Couture is a data analyst with Polaris, a D.C.-based organization with the goal of eradicating modern slavery and restoring freedom to survivors. As part of Polaris’ Data Analysis Program, she analyzes data from the National Human Trafficking Hotline and the BeFree Textline operated by Polaris. She also works to identify external data sources and synthesize these with hotline data in order to build up increasingly accurate and detailed pictures of human trafficking trends and networks across North America. This data serves to help identify where and how traffickers operate in order to keep them from harming more people, and in order to help survivors connect with the services they need. She is the author of several Polaris reports including: More Than Drinks For Sale: Exposing Sex Trafficking in U.S. Cantinas and Bars, and Knocking at Your Door: Labor Trafficking on Traveling Sales Crews. Tessa graduated with a B.A. in English and French from the University of Dallas and an M.S. in Applied Intelligence from Mercyhurst University, where she completed her thesis on the topic of strategic intelligence development on the human trafficking issue in her home state of Maine.