Kara Huls, MD, and Ashley Hodges, PhD, CRNP, both with Children’s of Alabama, received the inaugural “Outstanding Victim Protection in Countering Human Trafficking” award from the Center for Countering Human Trafficking (CCHT) within the U.S. Department of Homeland Security. 

CCHT recognized Huls, Hodges and other members of Birmingham’s Multidisciplinary Team. The group includes law enforcement officers, judicial officials and other service providers working together to improve the detection and care of trafficking survivors. It also works to increase accountability for perpetrators.

Huls and Hodges provide medical care to survivors of childhood sex trafficking at the Sunrise Clinic at Children’s. The clinic, founded in partnership with UAB, offers medical care to survivors of child trafficking. The Sunrise Clinic is held within Children’s Hospital Intervention and Prevention Services Center. It comprises nurses, case managers, therapists and medical staff who are devoted to the care of survivors of child abuse.