"One of 50 Women Who Change the World" - Ms. Magazine

In 1998, with only a computer and $30, 23-year-old Rachel Lloyd, a survivor of commercial sexual exploitation established GEMS: Girls Educational and Mentoring Services to support girls and young women victimized by the commercial sex industry in the U.S.

Since its inception as a one-woman outreach program in 1998, GEMS has grown steadily, building its services and programs and garnering increased visibility and recognition under Lloyd's leadership. Now the nation's largest organization offering direct services to girls and young women, ages 12-24, who have experienced commercial sexual exploitation and domestic trafficking, GEMS empowers survivors to escape the sex industry and develop to their full potential.

Lloyd is a nationally recognized expert on the issue of commercial sexual exploitation and domestic trafficking and played a key role in the successful passage of New York State's groundbreaking Safe Harbor Act for Sexually Exploited Youth, the first law in the country to end the prosecution of child victims of sex trafficking. Her trailblazing advocacy is the subject of the critically acclaimed Showtime documentary "Very Young Girls" and a feature film currently in development at Participant Productions and Lifetime Networks. She is the author of "Girls Like Us" (Harper Collins, 2011), a brave memoir told with clarity and insight about her own experience escaping the "life" and founding and leading the groundbreaking non-profit organization, GEMS.

Rachel Lloyd is an Ashoka Fellow, a Prime Mover Fellow and a Reebok Human Rights Award winner and has also been honored with the Community Service Award from the New York State Association of Black and Puerto Rican Legislators, Frederick Douglass Award from the North Star Fund, Susan B. Anthony Award from the National Organization for Women, the Community Service Award from Soroptimist International NY and the Social Entrepreneurship Award from the Manhattan Institute for Policy Research. Rachel received her Bachelors degree in Psychology from Marymount Manhattan College and her Masters in Applied Urban Anthropology from the City College of New York.

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