Bill Woolf has dedicated his personal and professional life to combatting human trafficking – most notably being recognized by receiving the Presidential Medal for Extraordinary Efforts to Combat Trafficking in Persons.  He started his professional career as a police officer, and later Gang Detective where he encountered the insidious crime of human trafficking. Previously undetected and unaddressed, he became dedicated to combatting the issue, serving as a federal task force officer, with both the FBI and HSI, investigating and prosecuting cases locally and federally.

He was instrumental in receiving funding to start a human trafficking task force in northern Virginia.  Bill co- directed the task force with the US Attorney’s Office and the Virginia Attorney General’s Office. He was tasked with coordinating enforcement and interdiction efforts with other regional, state, and federal law enforcement.  He was also tasked with forging partnerships with non-governmental agencies that could provide necessary services to those victimized by human trafficking.  In the first two years, under Bill’s leadership, the task force was able to identify 217 victims of sex and labor trafficking and recover over 126 of them. The task force also identified and initiated investigations into more than 100 traffickers that had conducted illegal activities in the northern Virginia area.

Bill founded the Just Ask Prevention Project, now Anti-Trafficking International, which continues to be a leader in preventing human trafficking in communities across the globe.  He led the effort to develop a systematic approach of education, prevention and intervention developing effective strategies in addressing the threat of human trafficking.

Bill was called upon by the U.S. Department of Justice to accept a position as a member of the Senior Executive Service in the role of Human Trafficking Programs Director where he was responsible for overseeing the nearly $100 million budget to support human trafficking programs all across the United States.  He was asked to step in as the Acting Director of the Office for Victims of Crime and continued to serve as the Principal Deputy Director overseeing more $6.5 billion in grant programs. Bill also served as Special Advisor to the White House for Human Trafficking overseeing the implementation of the first-ever National Action Plan to Combat Human Trafficking.

Bill is also the co-author of “Eradicating Human Trafficking: A Transformative Approach to Collective Impact” which has laid the most comprehensive blueprint to date in the anti-human trafficking field. Today he serves as Principal at The Woolf Group, a strategic solutions firm driving social impact. He also seeks to influence the next generation by serving as an adjunct professor at George Mason University.  Of all his accomplishments he is most proud of his six incredible children who continue to amaze and surprise him on a daily basis.