Marisa Ugarte, an activist instituting structural change, is the founder and executive director of the nonprofit Bilateral Safety Corridor Coalition (BSCC), which combats human trafficking in San Diego County and Tijuana. As an expert on the subject, she works, as the BSCC Mission states, "to preserve the dignity and well being of commercially and sexually exploited women and children through prevention, intervention, and education." She has received grants from the U.S. Department of Justice and the U.S. State Department, and the International Foundation for Human Rights and Tolerance awarded her for bringing sanctuary to girls in illegal brothels in Southern California after being smuggled across the border. Ugarte convenes an annual anti-trafficking conference in San Diego and is an active speaker at conferences nationwide and internationally of human trafficking and the commercial sexual exploitation of women and children. Her public speaking engagements have included: The Artesana (Successful Coalition Building), Texas; the Millennium Conference, and the International Institute (Restructuring the Justice System in Mexico).