Advisory Council

Sergeant Alan Wilkett

Alan Wilkett recently retired from the Pasco Sheriff’s Office where he served for almost 15 years with a total law enforcement experience of over 25 years. Alan has hundreds of hours of advanced law enforcement training in areas such as Human Trafficking investigations and awareness, advanced interview and interrogation, homicide investigations, terrorism, active threat, as well as many others. He holds certificates in Human Trafficking Investigation, Cryptocurrencies, Dark Web Investigations, Social Media Investigations, Basic Cyber Investigations and others. Alan is engaged as a SME (Subject Matter Expert) in Human Trafficking and has presented at The Florida Senate, numerous conferences, civic organizations, Task Forces, panel discussions and others. He has appeared on multiple television, print, digital, and radio mediums as well as The Weekend Report with Jon Scott on the Fox News Network. Alan was privileged to appear in the recent documentary “Blind Eyes Opened”.

Dotti Groover-Skipper

Dotti Groover–Skipper believes in dynamic living through servant leadership! Since graduating from the University of South Florida, she has facilitated expert programming to impact positive policy change in substance abuse and sex trade, as well as help develop numerous sustainable coalitions. Holding prominent positions in employment and on government boards during her forty plus years serving survivors and communities in the anti-human trafficking arena, she has received countless recognition for her tireless efforts. She is Founder of HeartDance Foundation, Inc., established in 2008, which serves men, women and children engaged in sexual exploitation and the sex industry. Groover-Skipper is married to her high school sweetheart, Roger, and together they have seven grown children and are grandparents of three.

Liana Dean, MSW

Liana Dean is the Chair of the Pasco County Commission on Human Trafficking and the Team Lead for BayCare Behavioral Health’s Community Health Activation Team. In these roles she leads outreach, prevention, education, and advocacy efforts aimed at addressing human trafficking in Pasco County and across the Tampa Bay Region.  With over twenty years of experience working with at risk children and inspired by the tragic death of a trafficked youth with whom she worked, Liana is passionate about enhancing access to services for victims and survivors that offer them the opportunity to rebuild their lives in a manner that is empowering, trauma competent, and respectful of their personal journey.  Liana is considered a subject matter expert in the field of human trafficking and has had work published on how county government can be involved in anti-trafficking efforts.

Marianne Thomas, Ph.D.

Marianne Thomas, PhD is a survivor leader in the anti-trafficking movement.  She brings her lived experience of trafficking, her years of advanced education, and over a decade of providing direct care to survivors of trafficking to every project she undertakes.  Marianne understands the necessity of having a referral service like BRIGHT to provide vetted, current service partners available 24 hours/day.  It is an honor for her to bring the collective voices of survivors to the table to ensure exemplary service provision. 

Theresa Prichard, Esq.

Tomas Lares

Tomas comes from the perspective of a victim advocate for the last 34 years working with multiple victims of child abuse, domestic violence, sexual assault and human trafficking. After working for 14 years with individuals both minors and adults of child abuse, domestic violence and sexual assault it was a natural transition as an advocate to come along side those victimized by human trafficking.  BRIGHT is special to Tomas because of the amazing Team they represent with experience in academia but also as practitioners’ in the field. In his experience this is a “unique combination of skill sets”. He also supports the vision of creating a statewide unified repository and resource network.