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Minal Davis – Houston Mayor Sylvester Turner’s Special Advisor on Human Trafficking

Minal Patel Davis serves as Houston Mayor Sylvester Turner’s Special Advisor on Human Trafficking, the first municipal-level position of its kind in the U.S. Appointed in July 2015, Davis is charged with making a local impact on human trafficking in the 4th  largest city in the U.S. from a policy-level perspective and by advancing systems change. She developed and is currently implementing Mayor Turner’s Anti-Human Trafficking Strategic Plan, which is the first comprehensive municipal response to human trafficking by a U.S. city. Davis is passionate about helping other cities in their own anti-human trafficking efforts and designed and delivers the city’s Ten/Ten Human Trafficking Response Municipal Fellowship, a 2-day immersion program for Mayors and their executive staff to develop their own municipal approaches. Davis has spoken on several local, national, and international panels to present the City of Houston’s approach. She is a past speaker at the United Nations World Humanitarian Summit, the U.S. Conference of Mayors and recently traveled to India and Canada at the request of the State Department to discuss municipal leadership in trafficking with government officials. In 2018 Minal was awarded the Presidential Award for Extraordinary Efforts to Combat Trafficking. Her work has been covered on NPR, in the Washington Post, New York Times and other national and international media outlets. Davis received her J.D. and M.B.A. from the University of Connecticut and a B.A. from New York University