Kimberly Hogan, PhD, LMSW, MA

Affiliation: The University of Southern Mississippi

Dr. Kimberly Hogan’s scholarship centers on human trafficking prevention, identification, and survivor-centered recovery. She partners with health, justice, and community systems to translate research into practice and build trauma-informed continuums of care. Dr. Hogan is Principal Investigator for SOARing in Mississippi (2022–2027), a $2.5 million U.S. Department of Health and Human Services initiative that strengthens trafficking response protocols across healthcare and behavioral health settings in high-risk regions. She also leads evaluations with Domestic Abuse Family Shelter, Gulfport’s Family Justice Center, and Metanoia Manor, advancing evidence on youth and adult shelters, education, and coordinated services. Her teaching and community engagement have been recognized with MSW Faculty Member of the Year (2022, 2023) and Outstanding Community Engagement awards (2023, 2024). In 2025, she was awarded the Influential Scholar Award by the International Human Trafficking & Social Justice Conference and the Global Association of Human Trafficking Scholars, and was a national finalist for the Linda Saltzman New Investigator Award (CDC Foundation, RALIANCE, and Futures Without Violence). A certified expert witness and subject-matter expert for the U.S. Department of Justice, Dr. Hogan has collaborated with the Office on Trafficking in Persons, the National Criminal Justice Training Center, AMBER Alert, state and tribal partners, and service providers nationwide. Her peer-reviewed work appears in Public Health Reports, Journal of Social Service Research, Social Sciences, and Journal of Human Trafficking. A former high school educator, she helped launch Phoenix Starfish Place—the first HUD Section 8 residential program for trafficking survivors and their children—and co-founded CleanUp HT, a survivor-support social enterprise. Dr. Hogan earned both her MSW and PhD from Arizona State University.

Research Interests:

  • Human Trafficking

  • Sex Trafficking

  • Labor Trafficking

  • LGBTQ+ Issues

  • Crime Mapping