Non-Tenure Track Faculty Research Excellence Award 2024

Lydia Aletraris, associate research scientist in the School of Social Work, has made remarkable contributions to research innovation with a profound impact on the fields of social science and human trafficking. She is coordinator of the Prevalence Reduction Innovation Forum (PRIF) within the Center on Human Trafficking Research & Outreach at UGA. This U.S. Department of State-funded initiative aims to improve the science of human trafficking estimation. Aletraris’ leadership skills are instrumental in providing direction to the international PRIF teams that implement trafficking prevalence studies in six countries. She plays a vital role in developing standardized statistical trafficking indicators and definitions for researchers to use in prevalence estimation of populations that are hidden and hard to measure. Aletraris’ emerging work integrates her prior research on substance use by assessing substance-use problems of trafficking survivors. She has improved the clarity and reliability of trafficking research, propelled the field forward, and fostered community among scholars globally.