Who We Are - YouCanFreeUs Foundation

Our Story

YouCanFreeUs Foundation is an international human rights organization that is fighting modern slavery around the world through advocacy, rescue, and rehabilitation.

Our fight against modern slavery began in 2010. Since then, we have rescued and successfully rehabilitated hundreds of women and children through our strategic intervention hubs, safe houses, and training centers in different parts of the world.

Our prevention strategies include awareness campaigns through fashion, art and sports, and educational workshops in schools, corporations, and prisons. We have also developed LIBERTAS, a catalytic educational tool delivering innovative ways to fight modern slavery.

YouCanFreeUs is a non-profit organization registered in the United States, Canada, India, and the United Kingdom.

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Our Vision

A world without slavery where every human is entitled to freedom and dignity

Our Team

Sujo John, Founder

Sujo moved from India to the United States in February of 2001 seeking a new life of adventure and prosperity. He began his career in the North Tower of New York’s World Trade Center. Just six months later, the unthinkable happened when a terrorist attack brought both towers crashing to the ground. Sujo’s survival that fateful day proved to be a turning point in his life. He began to share his story of hope and resilience, hoping to inspire people to live out their full potential and to be a catalyst for change. He has been featured in national and international media including the National Geographic, BBC, CBC, Associated Press, The New York Times, Hindustan Times, Huffington Post, The Times-London, and The National Post.

Sujo is the founder of YouCanFreeUs and his fight against modern slavery has encouraged a network of global leaders to raise its voice against this evil of our times. Sujo’s most recent initiative has been to mobilize the global financial investment community to create a slavery-free world.

Visit – www.sujojohn.com for more info.

Clarissa Drysdale-Anderson, Director

Clarissa is an Electrical Engineer with a Masters degree in Business Strategy and Information Systems from the London School of Economics (LSE). She specializes in Sustainability and Impact Investment and holds diplomas from the Corporate Social Responsibility Executive Program at Harvard Business School and the Social Entrepreneurship Program at INSEAD. Clarissa has a wide professional experience, having lived in the USA, Brazil, South Korea, UK, India and Qatar. Clarissa is passionate about fighting human trafficking and raising awareness about modern slavery through fashion and art. She and her husband, Don, currently live in London with their three wonderful children.

Chris Potter, Director

Chris Potter is the president and founder of Northern Border Investments L. P., a Canadian focused investment firm. He was formerly an analyst and then co-portfolio manager at Ten Squared, a Connecticut based hedge fund. Before working in the investment field, he managed the New York office of Preferred Utilities, a combustion equipment design firm. He is the founder of All The Little Ones Foundation whose mission is to combat the exploitation of women and children by provisioning grants and administering direct services to those in need. He served as an advisor to TheGoldStandardNow.org, and has authored numerous articles about monetary policy and gold-related issues. He received an M.B.A. from Columbia University Business School and a B.A. from Hamilton College.

Cathy Huff, Director

Cathy Huff is the president and owner of Fetch – a consulting firm she started in 2013 that focuses on building and implementing sales, marketing and project strategies for the public and private sector. Cathy brings 20 years of experience in managing teams and helping them adopt change. With her experience in the public space and politics, Cathy has managed and assisted with political campaigns and previously worked for a think tank in Washington, DC. A political appointment in Governor Mitch Daniels’ Administration for the State of Indiana Department of Administration brought her back to Indiana. Cathy then worked for a consulting company leading their state & local business development efforts as well as effectively managing over 35 state & local projects. In three years, Cathy has grown her own firm to include marketing and sales consulting services along with lobbying, proposal development, and helping organizations best prepare their government proposals and oral presentations to win contracts. She still lives in Indianapolis where she’s enjoying the adventure of being an entrepreneur, wife, running with two dogs, and serving the boards of the STEM Connection and Rachael’s First Week.

Tracy Bouwens, Director

Tracy Bouwens grew up in Nebraska and graduated from Nebraska Wesleyan University. After being a stay at home mom for 12 years, Tracy and her husband, Shawn opened their first Scooter’s Coffee location in Omaha, Nebraska in 2004. In 2005, they moved their family to Kansas City to expand the Scooter’s Coffee brand as Area Developers. In 2010, Tracy joined the Scooter’s corporate team where she directly oversaw the operations of 29 corporately owned locations and was over the development of operational and training systems to support the Scooter’s franchise system. For the past several years, Tracy has led the team at Freedom Enterprises to become the largest franchisee in the Scooter’s Coffee system, with over 50 operating locations and 500+ employees. Additionally, along with her husband and daughter, Tracy founded Culaccino Coffee Company, where they operate Scooter’s Coffee franchises with the goal of donating proceeds from those stores to help with the fight against human trafficking. Tracy and Shawn continue to reside in the Kansas City area and have three children and four grandchildren.

Keith Dunkin, Director

Keith Dunkin is a nationally renowned multifamily real estate and technology expert. He is the co-founder of WayMaker; a value add multifamily real estate fund dedicated to transforming communities by leveraging innovative technology, and community enabled value add strategies to increase asset values with limited to no execution risk. Prior to Waymaker, Keith served as Senior Vice President Asset Optimization at Real Page. RealPage is a global leader in software and data analytics for rental real estate, leveraged across 18M units globally with $1B+ in revenue.

Keith is a frequent presenter at industry events and client investor conferences and leading teams of hundreds of colleagues to design, develop and implement innovative solutions proven to have provided hundreds of basis points in revenue outperformance to the multifamily owners and investors. Keith believes in giving back to the community and serves on boards of multiple non-profits that are making a difference nationally and internationally.