Key Staff Profiles
Dr. Lois Lee, Founder
Dr. Lois Lee is the world’s leading expert in rescuing child sex trafficking victims. As founder and president of Children of the Night — the only comprehensive program in North America devoted to saving children forced into prostitution — she has blazed a trail for social service providers, law enforcement, legislators and researchers across the globe since 1979.
Maribel Becerra, Director of Case Management
Maribel serves as Children of the Night’s Director of Operations. Since 2008 she has implemented programs designed by Dr. Lois Lee including programs for children who lived in the shelter and children who were receiving case management in their communities where they resided with their parents. She came to Children of the Night after a 10-year career in finance and has excelled in social service management and administration. She identifies sex trafficking victims living on the fringes and helps them access successful adult lives with a team of case managers. Maribel holds a bachelor’s degree in Sociology from UCLA.
SONIA VENTURA, Director of Online Education
Before working at Children of the Night, Sonia worked for Robert Redford’s production company and attended UCLA’s film school for Screenwriting. She came to Children of the Night looking for a story to write. Instead, she has worked at Children of the Night 26 years because Sonia realized she could help rewrite the lives of these amazing children. She has taught over 3,000 prostituted children—placed hundreds of them in college. Children of the Night changes lives. “To know even one life has breathed easier because you have lived. This is to have succeeded.” – Ralph Waldo Emerson
2019 Board of Directors
CHAIRMAN OF THE BOARD
Janet C. Jones
Elkins-Jones
VICE CHAIRMAN OF THE BOARD
Patti Massman Neuwirth
Novelist
SECRETARY
Dr. Robert M. Christie, Professor Emeritus
California State University
TREASURER
Francis Shelley, CPA
Alvarez & Shelley
DIRECTORS
David L. Boyd, Chancellor
The Taft University System
Trustee, Orange County Board of Education
Cooper Hefner
CCO Playboy Enterprises
Dr. Lois Lee, Founder
Children of the Night