Resume

Melissa Hope Ditmore

P.O.Box 20853
New York, NY 10009 USA

Email: mhd at melissaditmore com
Homepage: http://www.melissaditmore.com

Profile

Ten years experience and advocacy on gender, sexuality and development
Three years leading a global network with members from over 50 states on six continents
Author and editor of numerous publications related to gender, sexuality, development and human rights
Skilled researcher, policy analyst, trainer, organizer, public speaker, advocate

Education

Ph.D., CUNY Graduate Center, Department of Sociology (1997 – 2002)

My thesis explored the consequences of the conflation of trafficking and prostitution in international and U.S. domestic policy.
- 2000-2001 co-recipient of the Helena Rubinstein Dissertation Proposal Award.
- 1999 research award recipient from The Jewish Foundation for the Education of Women.
- Presented policy analysis and research at various symposia, conferences and universities.
Universiteit van Amsterdam, Amsterdam, Netherlands Summer Institute on Sexuality, Culture, and Society, 1998
B.A. Linguistics, Cornell University, 1992

Experience

Post-doctoral Research Fellow in Behavioral Sciences Training, National Development and Research Institutes, Inc., July 2009 – June 2010
- Designed and implemented research project with drug users in Cambodia.
- Writing academic papers for publication in peer-reviewed journals – two have been accepted and one is under review.
Researcher, Good Participatory Practice Project, March 2008 – April 2009
- Developing protocol for Internet survey on good participatory practices in research with sex workers.
- Supervising French translation and coordinating and supervising Spanish and French interviewers.
- Co-authoring final report to be submitted to sex worker networks and AVAC.
- Fundraising and management of funds.
Researcher, Association for Progressive Communication Women’s Networking Support Programme, US Research Team, May – July 2010
- Investigating access to information in the US, including both availability of information for end-users as well as information collected and used by corporations;
- Use of online research tools and recruiting participants online;
- Analysis of data;
- Report writing; and
- Proposal writing
Consultant, AIDS Fonds Netherlands, January – March 2009
- Writing a strategic plan for advocacy and spending for effective HIV prevention among sex workers;
- Developing protocol and consulting with sex workers on five continents;
- Hiring and supervision of assistants and translators
Research Consultant, Urban Justice Center Sex Workers Project, September 2006 – January 2009
- Finalizing report on law enforcement raids conducted in the US, report, including but not limited to finalizing text; choosing illustrations; hiring and supervising proofreader, external reviewer, graphic designer, and printer; and coordinating media release and strategy.
- Writing and conducting a national report on the effects of anti-trafficking policy and implementation on outcomes for prosecution in the US.
- Analyzing data.
- Developing interview protocols for sex workers, trafficked persons, service providers and law enforcement.
- Conducting interviews. Some translation involved.
- Training interviewers and interview coders.
Gender Consultant, Asian Development Bank, September 2007 – December 2008
- Writing country reports from India and Tajikistan for gender mainstreaming and HIV-prevention efforts on ADB infrastructure projects.
- Research on HIV-prevention and gender mainstreaming needs and efforts related to ADB projects in India and Tajikistan. Conducting, coding and analyzing interviews.
- Hiring and supervising assistants and staff in India and Tajikistan.
- Recommending HIV-prevention methods for infrastructure projects in Tajikistan.
- Evaluating HIV-prevention efforts for infrastructure projects in India.
Interim Director, Sex Workers Project at the Urban Justice Center, August – November 2008
- All financial reporting and all contact with current and potential SWP funders.
- Supervising staff of six.
- Hiring and supervising assistants and staff in India and Tajikistan.
- Overseeing hiring procedures for the Director’s position.
- Updating and coordinating transition for ongoing policy projects and funding concerns with new Director, especially during the first month of the Director’s employment.
- Coordinating joint NGO advocacy letter to national media outlets.
Research Methods Trainer on Respondent-Driven Sampling, UNAIDS, November 20 – 25, 2007
- Teaching workshop on respondent-driven sampling (RDS) and analysis to researchers and program officers in Khartoum, Sudan.
Coordinator, Global Network of Sex Work Projects, January 2005 – September 2007
- Development and implementation of activist agenda and strategy, including focused campaigns, to promote the rights of sex workers around the world.
- Currently overseeing organizational consultation to develop democratic structure.
- Frequent public and media appearances and statements.
- Writing press releases related to campaigns.
- Developing guidelines about sex work projects for donors and grantmakers.
- Organized and coordinated presentations by sex workers at the 2006 International AIDS Conference, Toronto, Canada.
Senior Research Fellow, Center for the Study of Women and Society, Graduate Center of the City University of New York, October 2003 – May 2006
- Writing and editing policy analysis papers about migration, health, and HIV.
- Participating and presenting at CUNY events on research and methodological issues.

Publications

Editor (with A. Willman and A. Levy), Sex Work Matters: Exploring Money, Power and Intimacy (2010). London: Zed Books.
Sex Work and Development (2008). In Development with a Body: Making Connections between Sexuality, Human Rights and Development. Andrea Cornwall, Sonia Correa and Susie Jolly, editors. London: Zed Books.
Editor-in-chief, Research for Sex Work 8, 9 and 10 (2008, 2006, 2005). Thematic issues on sex work and money, law enforcement and sex worker rights.
Sex Work and Trafficking (2007). New Internationalist.
Review of Global Outlaws: Crime, Money, and Power in the Contemporary World by Carolyn Nordstrom and Sex at the Margins: Migration, Labour Markets and the Rescue Industry by Laura Maria Agustín. Theoretical Criminology.
Taking the Pledge (2007). Video
With Choun Neth, Unsafe Condoms (November 2006). Reproductive Health Matters 28: 171-173.
Editor, Encyclopedia of Prostitution and Sex Work (2006). Westport: Greenwood Press.
Sex Workers are Organizing in Kolkata (2007). In The Affective Turn: Theorizing the Social. Clough, Patricia with Jean Halley, editors. Chapel Hill, NC: Duke University Press.
With Bebe Loff, Carol Jenkins, Cheryl Overs and Rosanna Barbero. Unethical clinical trials in Thailand: a community response The Lancet 6 May 2005; 365: 1618-1619.
New U.S. Funding Policies on Trafficking Affect Sex Work HIV-Prevention Efforts World Wide (2005). SIECUS Report. 33 (2) 26-29.
With Thukral, Juhu and Murphy, Alexandra Behind Closed Doors (2005). New York: Urban Justice Center sexworkersproject.org/reports.
With Marjan Wijers Crime, sex, money and migration: The negotiations on the United Nations Protocol on Trafficking in Persons (2003). Nemesis 4 (Utrecht, Netherlands).
Contemporary Anti-trafficking Legislation in the United States Website of the Network of Sex Work Projects www.nswp.org/mobility/legislation.html.
Reaching Out to Sex Workers: Reaching the Hardly Reached (2002). Program for Appropriate Technology and Health. www.path.org/files/RHR-Article-3.pdf
How immigration status affects sex workers’ health and vulnerability to abuse: A comparison of two countries (2002). Research for Sex Work 5. www.med.vu.nl/hcc/artikelen/ditmore5.htm
Report from the USA: Do prohibitory laws promote risk? (2001). Research for Sex Work 4. www.med.vu.nl/hcc/artikelen/ditmore.htm
With Penelope Saunders. Sex work and sex trafficking (1998). Sexual Health Exchange number 1. www.kit.nl/information_services/exchange_content/html/1998_1_sex_work.asp