Executive Chair
Samantha Salamon
salamon@asiaohio.org
Samantha Salamon, Esq., serves as the Chief Counsel at Asian Services in Action, Inc. In 2017, Ms. Salamon began representing human trafficking survivors as ASIA’s Staff Attorney and was promoted to the Ahimsa Manager in 2018, and then promoted again in 2023 to Chief Counsel.
She holds a Bachelor’s degree in social work, and a law degree from Cleveland State University, Cleveland-Marshall College of Law, where she founded the Muslim Law Students’ Association. She has a passion for assisting vulnerable populations and believes that personal growth occurs most when working and helping others. After living and working abroad as an attorney in Dubai, Samantha understands the struggles an individual faces when dealing with unfamiliar cultural experiences and aspires to help people to her best ability obtain and protect their rights, from a legal perspective.
Currently, Samantha is the Chair of the Attorney General’s Human Trafficking Commission’s Legal & Legislative subcommittee and the Executive Chair of the Summit County Collaborative Against Human Trafficking. Samantha has been chosen as a 2023 Fellow for the Ohio State Bar Foundation’s Fellowship Program and a 2024 Ohio State Bar Association Leadership Academy.
Administrative Chair
Kellie Rose Kordinak
krosekordinak@gmail.com
Kellie Rose currently works as a Drop-In Case Manager at Street Outreach Services Program at Shelter Care, Inc. to meet the needs of at-risk and homeless young adults, ages 16-24, through street-based and drop-in services to assist them in securing safe, stable housing.
Former Board Assistant, Kellie Rose graduated from the Kent State University Honors Program with bachelor’s degrees in History and Applied Communication in 2024. During her undergraduate career, she served as Chair of the Kent State Stark Anti-Human Trafficking Committee, where she organized campus engagement initiatives and collaborated closely with advocates and survivors. Her senior honors thesis website, Human Trafficking: 20th Century Historical Roots & the Importance of Credible Research, along with its accompanying podcast Combating Shadows, received national recognition with the 2024 Portz Scholar Award from the National Collegiate Honors Council.
Kellie Rose is a certified NOVA victim advocate and serves on the board of Teleios, Inc. supporting male survivors of human trafficking. She also volunteers as a Court Appointed Special Advocate (CASA) with CASA of Portage County, supporting children who have experienced abuse and neglect both in and out of court. She is passionate about creative development and audience engagement, and frequently supports nonprofit organizations through marketing, communications, and outreach initiatives.
Finance Chair
Amanda Smith
asmith@asiaohio.org
Amanda Smith is the Manager of the AHIMSA department at Asian Services in Action, Inc. (“ASIA”). In her role as supervisor, Amanda encourages and emphasizes self-care and sees to it that the advocates practice self-care to lessen burnout and compassion fatigue. Amanda graduated from Kent State University with a degree in Criminal Justice and minors in Human Development/Family Studies and Non-profit Management.
Amanda is passionate about advocating for domestic violence, sexual violence, and human trafficking survivors. She has a wealth of experience helping survivors, including providing on-scene crisis intervention at the Victim Assistance Program, advocacy in hospitals and schools for the Rape Crisis Center of Summit and Medina Counties, and culturally specific services to survivors to help them with their trauma at her current position in the Ahimsa department at ASIA. Amanda strives to help eliminate barriers and advocate for culturally-specific survivors.
Amanda is a certified advocate through the National Organization of Victim Assistance (NOVA) and facilitates the monthly Immigrant and Refugee Ohio Coalition (IROC) to End Sexual Violence, educating and encouraging conversation around specific issues facing survivors from the immigrant and refugee communities.
Engagement Chair
Nikki Crawford
n.crawford.5454@gmail.com
Nikki Crawford (She/They) is a proud transgender woman who works as The Education and Outreach Manager at Hope and Healing Survivor Resource Center.
Nikki is a graduate of The University of Akron with a degree in Psychology and a Minor in Family Services. At U.A. Nikki began their advocacy journey volunteering at Hope and Healing and The RAINN National Sexual Assault Hotline during the lockdown period of Covid-19 in 2020. Nikki is an outspoken and passionate advocate for LGBTQ+ rights, survivor voices, and giving space to share the voices of people whose voices are often oppressed and suppressed.
Nikki spends her time in the community learned how to rebuild trust in communities with historical and systematic oppression, bring awareness to sexual education and sexual violence awareness, as well as aiming to prevent these crimes from happening in the first place to eradicate sexual and domestic violence entirely. Nikki believes in an intersectionality approach to ending human trafficking by providing outreach, education, and direct service to areas of people who have vulnerabilities to be targeted by traffickers before harm begins. By addressing people’s day to day needs and struggles in their individual lives we can remove the ability to exploit people who may have otherwise been exploited.
Currently Nikki sits on the boards for The Summit Sexual Assault Response Team and Summit County Collaborative Against Human Trafficking as well as an involved member of The Ohio LGBTQ+ Taskforce.
Board Member At-Large
Jennifer Knetig
knetigj@summahealth.org
Dr. Jenny Knetig is a clinical psychologist and is the Director of Summa Health’s Traumatic Stress Center, a specialty clinic that provides clinical care to prevent and respond to survivors of trauma related conditions.
Jenny began her career at the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA), where she served on a White House Workgroup to End Gender Based Violence. Jenny recently completed two congressionally mandated reports that examined best practices for serving Veterans impacted by intimate partner violence and sexual assault, with a focus on those in historically underserved communities. She led a pilot at six VA medical centers examining barriers and facilitators to accessing care for Veterans at risk for human trafficking.
Jenny is a lifelong learner who enjoys psychotherapy, teaching, and collaborating with her colleagues to promote health and safety in our community.