The Yellowstone Human Trafficking Task Force was created in 2016 to help coordinate the efforts of law enforcement, service providers, and community groups and volunteers in Yellowstone County, Montana and the surrounding areas in their work to investigate and prosecute traffickers and buyers, to assist victims of labor and sex trafficking, to increase community awareness, and prevent future trafficking. The Task Force has been registered with the state of Montana as a nonprofit since 2020.
The Task Force has grown to over 800 members, representing individuals and over 100 partner organizations and agencies. It is led by co-founders Penny Ronning and Stephanie Baucus, and a steering committee, which includes law enforcement, service providers, and volunteers. The Task Force has been instrumental in increasing public understanding and awareness of sex trafficking and forced labor, including the illicit massage industry, in urban, rural, and tribal areas.
The Task Force has conducted over 300 trainings, hosted Montana’s largest trafficking conference, distributed over 70,000 signs of trafficking cards, co-authored legislation, coordinated public awareness campaigns, helped launch other regional task forces, and coordinated with members to save resources and fill gaps in services.
The mission of the Task Force is to eliminate human trafficking in Yellowstone County, in Montana, and nationally, by:
The Task Force’s volunteer co-chairs founded the Task Force, along with the FBI and U.S. Attorney’s Office. The Task Force’s Steering Committee (SC) consists of the co-chairs, coordinators, committee chairs, and other leaders.
(Daughter of trafficking survivor)
Co-Founder, Co-Chair, Board President, Steering Committee Member
(Moulton Bellingham PC)
Co-Founder, Co-Chair, Board Vice President, Steering Committee Member
(Project STAND)
Board Member, Steering Committee Member
(Whitewood Transport)
Board Secretary and Treasurer, Steering Committee Member, Prevention and Community Awareness Co-Chair
(Comtech, Zonta Club of Billings)
Board Member, Steering Committee Member, Prevention and Community Awareness Co-Chair
(Federal Bureau of Investigation “FBI”)
Steering Committee Member, Prosecution and Law Enforcement Co-Chair
(U.S. Attorney’s Office “USAO”)
Steering Committee Member, Prosecution and Law Enforcement Co-Chair
(Montana Department of Justice)
Steering Committee Member, Prosecution and Law Enforcement Co-Chair
(FBI)
Steering Committee Member, Protection and Victim Services Co-Chair
(USAO)
Steering Committee Member, Protection and Victim Services Co-Chair
(Tumbleweed)
Steering Committee Member, Protection and Victim Services Co-Chair
(YWCA)
Steering Committee Member, Protection and Victim Services Co-Chair
(Veterans Administration)
Steering Committee Member, Protection and Victim Services Co-Chair
(Bureau of Indian Affairs)
Steering Committee Member, Protection and Victim Services Co-Chair
(FBI)
Steering Committee Member, Data Analytics Coordinator
(Admin Coordinator)
Steering Committee Member
Members of Prosecution and Law Enforcement are professionals representing various jurisdictions of law enforcement and prosecuting offices. The work of this committee is to:
Co-Chair: Brandon Walter, FBI
Co-Chair: Zeno Baucus, USAO
Co-Chair: Andrew Yedinak, MT DOJ
Members of Protection and Victim Services are professionals representing government agencies, healthcare facilities, non-profit organizations, educational systems, and businesses that provide professional services to victims of human trafficking. The work of this committee is to:
Co-Chair: Michele Stewart, FBI
Co-Chair: Rhonda Busenitz, USAO
Co-Chair: Georgia Cady, Tumbleweed
Co-Chair: Erin Lambert, YWCA
Co-Chair: Dr. Cynthia Brewer, Veterans Administration
Co-Chair: Erin Harris, BIA
Members of Prevention and Community Awareness are volunteers from all walks of life, professions, faith-based organizations, businesses, educational backgrounds, and the community at large. This is the Task Force committee that is open to volunteers and serves as the base of the non-profit. The work of this committee is to:
Co-Chair: Melanie Tripp, Comtech, Zonta Club of Billings
Co-Chair: Scott Koch, Whitewood Transport
Co-Founder/Co-Chair
The daughter of a trafficking survivor, Penny learned early in life how trauma impacts families and how victims of childhood abuse live with the painful effects throughout their lives. During her years as a Court Appointed Special Advocate for abused and neglected children (CASA), Penny again saw firsthand the impacts of sexual exploitation and violence on children. In 2016, Penny approached the FBI with the idea of creating a community and law enforcement task force to fight human trafficking. Shortly thereafter, with the support of the FBI and the United States Attorney’s Office, Penny Ronning and Stephanie Baucus partnered to co-found the Yellowstone Human Trafficking Task Force, now the largest such task force in Montana.
Penny speaks throughout the country on anti-trafficking work at the local, state, and federal levels of government, and has trained thousands of people throughout Montana and the country on how to fight human trafficking. She has initiated and co-authored state and municipal legislation strengthening laws against crimes of sexual violence and has successfully increased funding for law enforcement at the state and local levels directly impacting law enforcement’s ability to investigate crimes of sexual violence and exploitation. As an elected member of Billings City Council, Penny successfully led the creation and passage of a city ordinance that has effectively shut down the most illicit massage businesses within the state of Montana. In 2020, she was invited to participate in and attended the White House Summit on Human Trafficking. In 2022, the Yellowstone Human Trafficking Task Force was recognized nationally as a recipient of the prestigious FBI Director’s Community Leadership Award.
Penny volunteers her time overseeing the Task Force and helps communities build their resources to fight crimes of sexual violence, support victims, and strengthen laws to protect vulnerable populations and prosecute violent offenders. She is known nationally as a leader in the fight against human trafficking and works with the National Center on Sexual Exploitation, Shared Hope International, DeliverFund, and other national organizations in championing state and federal legislation to protect children from online predators and sexual exploitation.
Penny was a 2022 candidate for the U.S. House of Representatives in Montana’s Second Congressional District. In her years of professional and public service, she has led on issues of public safety, economic development, energy conservation, infrastructure, equality, mental health, and homelessness. She is a small business owner and throughout her career has lived, worked, and traveled around the world. She holds a BA in Film from Montana State University and an MBA from the University of Mary.
(Moulton Bellingham PC)
Co-Founder, Co-Chair, Board Vice President, Steering Committee Member
Stephanie Baucus co-founded the Yellowstone County Area Human Trafficking Task Force with Penny Ronning in 2016. The two still serve as volunteer co-chairs for the nonprofit.
A fulltime attorney, Ms. Baucus has donated hundreds of volunteer hours each year to the Task Force—from helping to manage the organization to special projects. She initiated, helped draft, and advocated for legislation that strengthened Montana’s trafficking and pimping laws, added these crimes to the definition of crimes of violence, closed loopholes in existing statutes, increased penalties, and changed the definition of prostitution to include all commercial sexual activity. Ms. Baucus advised on and advocated for an ordinance that is helping the City of Billings close local IMBs. She was asked by the American Bar Association to write an article on how the global problem of sex trafficking affected local communities and how lawyers could help fight the crime. That feature piece was published in the Summer 2020 edition of the ABA’s Young Lawyer Magazine and distributed to over 250,000 print subscribers and more ABA members online.
In addition to her work on human trafficking, Ms. Baucus has been a lifelong advocate for victims, at risk youth, smart criminal justice laws, and civil rights, through her work, education, and service to numerous nonprofits. After spending several years at global law firms in Washington, DC, she served as an Associate Director at the U.S. Department of Justice, where she worked with anti-trafficking groups, among other issue groups, and sat on a law enforcement and community trafficking task force like the one she would later co-found in Montana.
Ms. Baucus graduated from Harvard Law School and earned her B.A., summa cum laude, from Emory University with majors in Political Science and Religious Studies. She was born on Lackland Air Force Base in San Antonio, Texas to two U.S. Air Force Officer parents, and grew up mostly in East Tennessee. She now lives in Billings and has two young daughters, who help to inspire her nonprofit service.
Project STAND
Board Member, Steering Committee Member, Partnerships Coordinator
Erin Walker has been active in anti-trafficking efforts in Montana since 2016. She co-founded Project STAND in 2019, a nonprofit dedicated to preventing all forms of exploitation by empowering youth, parents and school communities to use media in healthy ways. She also serves as the nonprofit liaison and a Board Member with the Yellowstone Human Trafficking Task Force, as well as a Community Specialist for the online volunteer platform, JustServe.org.
As the Director of Public Policy with Project STAND, Mrs. Walker participates in a national public policy coalition comprised of nonprofits across the country who work together to support victim-centered anti-exploitation legislation at the federal and state level. As part of this coalition, she has been instrumental in uniting invested Montana organizations in support of critical legislation that addresses online exploitation of children.
After spending 10 years moving around various states for her husband’s postgraduate work, Erin and her husband of 20 years returned home to Montana and plan to settle here permanently. They are the parents of five incredible children, ages 9 to 18. Erin credits her family for providing her with the motivation and heart to continue working to protect kids and empower parents.
(Whitewood Transport)
Board Secretary and Treasurer, Steering Committee Member, Prevention and Community Awareness Co-Chair
Scott Koch began his career, after attending college in Washington state, at The Waggoners Trucking in Billings, Montana. Since that time, he has spent forty years in the transportation industry—working, managing, and owing companies that support the industry in multiple roles. After joining a transportation company, Mr. Koch moved into a finance role lending money to trucking companies, and then he began building specialized semi-trailers for moving bulk products, such as dirt, rock, water, gasoline, and diesel, which he has done for the bulk of his career. Mr. Koch has even built a few wine trailers and one oak lined bourbon trailer for Jack Daniels. Mr. Koch is currently General Manager of Whitewood Transport, Inc. of Billings.
Mr. Koch has always had a soft spot for vulnerable and special needs populations, especially youth. He served on the board of Eagle Mount, which provides adaptive recreational activities for children and adults with disabilities, for six years, including serving as board president, before moving to Portland, Oregon. While living in Oregon, Mr. Koch served on the board of the First Tee of Willamette Valley working with at risk youth. He also did hours of volunteer work with No More Suffering, a heroin addiction outreach group.
Currently, Mr. Koch serves on the board of the Yellowstone County Area Human Trafficking Task Force where he is the co-chair of the Prevention and Awareness Committee and the Treasurer. Mr. Koch has worked with the Task Force for approximately five years. He is also a local Ambassador for Truckers Against Trafficking. He assists Truckers Against Trafficking with projects as needed, and he has been instrumental in helping trucking companies in Montana to train drivers and help prevent human trafficking. Mr. Koch and his wife Terry have been married 39 years. They have two grown children, Reed and Kinzey, who both live in the Portland area.
(Comtech, Zonta Club of Billings)
Board Member, Steering Committee Member, Prevention and Community Awareness Co-Chair
Melanie Tripp’s commitment to fighting human trafficking began with a 400-mile relay race to raise money for a human trafficking non-profit. Shortly after the race, Ms. Tripp joined the Yellowstone County Area Human Trafficking Task Force in 2018.
Ms. Tripp serves as co-chair of the Prevention and Community Awareness Committee, where she helps to bring education and awareness projects like the Red Sand Project to Billings. Ms. Tripp has coordinated multiple city-wide human trafficking awareness
campaigns and film screenings, a COVID donation drive for local service orgs, and filling Project Hope backpacks for state and federal agents in the field working with victims and others at risk.
Ms. Tripp is also active in the Zonta Club of Billings, serving as Board Director, past President, current Service Committee co-chair, and Advocacy and Fundraising Committee members. She is currently President of the Zonta Club of Billings Foundation. With Zonta, Ms.Tripp has worked on the “SayNo to Violence Against Women” campaign, which has appeared on local buses, billboards, and banners.
Ms. Tripp is part of the MMIP committee partnering with the Montana Native Women’s Coalition and working on MMIP efforts in Billings including the Red Dress Project at Billings Skypoint and Zonta’s annual MMIP March and Event downtown.
Ms. Tripp is a 3rd Degree Black Belt. She and her husband Oli own Comtech Audio Theater Security, Billings Private Gym, and Koenigstein Eis in Billings. The two have three daughters, Mikaela, Zoee, and Ayva. They have two grandchildren, Nora and Henry.
(Federal Bureau of Investigation “FBI”)
Steering Committee Member, Prosecution and Law Enforcement Co-Chair
Brandon Walter has been employed as an FBI Special Agent since 2007. Agent Walter’s assigned investigations have focused on domestic terrorism, foreign counterintelligence, and violent crime. Agent Walter was first assigned to the Portland, Oregon Division of the FBI where a majority of his investigations concentrated on the significant bank robbery and organized crime problems of Portland. In 2011, Walter received a transfer home, to Billings, Montana, and was initially assigned to investigate violent crime matters, including homicide, child physical abuse, child sexual abuse, sexual assault, and assault, on the Crow and Northern Cheyenne Indian Reservations in southeastern Montana. Currently, Agent Walter’s investigations focus on the increasingly significant problem of human trafficking in Montana and Agent Walter participates as a member of the Yellowstone County Area Human Trafficking Task Force. In addition to his criminal investigative work, Agent Walter is a member of the FBI Child Abduction Rapid Deployment (CARD) Team and the FBI Hazardous Materials Evidence Response Team (HERT). Prior to becoming a Special Agent, Walter earned a Ph.D. in Molecular Virology from the University of California at Irvine focusing on the study of picornaviruses. Following his Ph.D. work, Agent Walter was employed as a post-doctoral fellow at the Rocky Mountain Laboratories in Hamilton, Montana, where his studies focused on prion diseases and Human Immunodeficiency Virus.
(U.S. Attorney’s Office “USAO”)
Steering Committee Member, Prosecution and Law Enforcement Co-Chair
Assistant United States Attorney Zeno Baucus serves as Deputy Criminal Chief for the United States Attorney’s Office for the District of Montana. He is also the Human Trafficking Task Force Coordinator for the District. That Task Force includes law enforcement and prosecutors from across the State.
Mr. Baucus’s prosecutions primarily focus on the online sexual exploitation of children, sex trafficking, and child pornography. Mr. Baucus also devotes significant time to white collar and corporate criminal cases, and he has prosecuted other cases involving child abuse, murder on public lands, crime on the Hi Line and the Northern Border, drug trafficking, other narcotics-related offenses, and other violent crime. He has conducted numerous jury trials in various federal courthouses around the state.
Since 2015, Mr. Baucus has been based in Billings, Montana. Before that, he was also with the U.S. Attorney’s Office, but was based in Helena, Montana. Prior to joining the U.S. Attorney’s Office in January 2013, Mr. Baucus was based in Washington, DC, where he worked for two international law firms for almost a decade, focusing primarily on corporate compliance, government investigations, securities litigation, and other civil and criminal cases. While in private practice, Mr. Baucus was also active in pro bono work, including successfully representing the ACLU in federal litigation and representing a migrant worker in civil court.
Mr. Baucus graduated from Stanford University in 1999 with a Bachelor of Arts in Political Science and from Georgetown University Law Center in 2004 with a Juris Doctorate. He lives in Billings with his wife and two young daughters.
(Montana Department of Justice)
Steering Committee Member, Prosecution and Law Enforcement Co-Chair
Andrew Yedinak is a Supervisory Agent in Charge with the Montana Department of Justice, Division of Criminal Investigations. Yedinak oversees the Human Trafficking Task Force for DCI as well as the Computer Forensic Unit and the Sexual and Violent Offender Registry Unit. Yedinak started with DCI in 2017 after moving from the State of Illinois where he worked in Law Enforcement since 2004. Throughout his career, Yedinak has done an array of police work to include Patrol, SWAT Operator, Major Case investigator, and spent the vast majority of his career doing undercover narcotics work for nearly 10 years. Yedinak now focusses on Human Trafficking investigations at both the State and Federal level and seeks to bring closure and healing to victims in this terrible life of modern-day slavery.
(FBI)
Steering Committee Member, Protection and Victim Services Co-Chair
Michele L. Stewart, MSW, LCSW has been an FBI Victim Specialist assigned to the Salt Lake City Division—/Billings, Montana Resident Agency since 1999. Much of her work is on the Crow and Northern Cheyenne Reservations where she provides direct services for crime victims. Stewart holds Bachelor of Arts degrees in psychology and sociology/anthropology from Rocky Mountain College and a Master of Social Work degree from Eastern Washington University. She is a Licensed Clinical Social Worker. Stewart has been a therapist, school social worker, and adjunct college faculty. She published articles as a co-author on cross-cultural perspectives on outpatient sexual abuse treatment for both victims and offenders in tribal communities, culturally modified personal safety education program for American Indian children, and victim services in missing person investigations. Stewart has served on the FBI Victim Services Response Team since 2012 and has been deployed to provide victim assistance in terrorism and mass casualty cases across the country. Stewart has provided training on topics related to mass casualty response, child abuse, domestic violence, human trafficking, Indian Country, Missing and Murdered Indigenous Persons and victim assistance at regional, national, and international conferences. Stewart received 2020 and 2018 Attorney General’s Award for Exceptional Service in Indian Country; a 2020 Distinguished Alumni award from Rocky Mountain College, a 2018 Montana Attorney General’s Award for outstanding assistance and advocacy for victims of crime; a 2013 FBI Director’s Award for Victim Assistance; and United States Attorney’s Office-District of Montana Compassionate Service Awards in 2018, 2011, and 2000.
(Tumbleweed)
Steering Committee Member, Protection and Victim Services Co-Chair
Georgia Cady is currently the Executive Director at Tumbleweed. She has been involved in intensive youth case management for over 28 years. She spent the first 16 years of her life growing up on the Northern Cheyenne Indian Reservation where she learned a deep respect for the Native culture. She is at her best when working with youth to problem solve through whatever they are experiencing at the moment. Building strong relationships with youth and young adults is her passion. She prides herself in a strong work ethic that comes with a fun spirit.
During her career she has worked as a Transition Counselor and Chemical Dependency teacher at Dull Knife Memorial College in Lame Deer Montana, for DPHHS as a Child Protective worker in Carbon County Montana, hospital social worker in Columbus Montana, Program Manager and Chemical Dependency Counselor at Yellowstone Boys and Girls Ranch in Billings, Montana and has served many rolls at Tumbleweed in the past 7 years to include starting the Human Trafficking Program.
Georgia has served on the Governors Child Abuse and Neglect Review Commission and currently serves on the Montana Board of Crime Control, and the Governors Missing and Murdered Indigenous People Commission.
Family is everything to Georgia and when she is not at work she is enjoying many great adventures with her family at her country home. Georgia is most at home in her greenhouse, and in the outdoors. Both bring her peace and great joy not to mention the thrill of sharing in the harvest of vegetables with friends.
(YWCA)
Steering Committee Member, Protection and Victim Services Co-Chair
Erin Lambert is the Interim CEO at YWCA Billings. She holds Bachelor of Science in Liberal Studies and Master of Science in Rehabilitation and Mental Health Counseling from Montana State University-Billings.
Erin began her career in domestic and sexual violence advocacy in 2005 as a volunteer advocate. In the 17 years since, she has coordinated YWCA Billings’ sexual assault response, managed the Gateway Shelter, served as Director of Programs overseeing all YWCA programs, and provided oversight of all grants, contracts, and financials as Chief Operating Officer. She is skilled in program design and implementation focusing on trauma informed practices to support survivors of gender-based violence. In addition to direct services expertise, Erin is experienced in non-profit accounting and private and government grant management.
Erin has been qualified as an expert witness on domestic and sexual violence in Billings Municipal Court, Yellowstone County Justice Court, and the 13th Judicial District Court. She testifies about the dynamics of domestic violence, impacts of trauma on victims, counterintuitive victim behaviors, and other related topics.
Erin is a wife and mom of three. She was born and raised in Montana and enjoys reading, cooking, and collecting office supplies.
(Billings Clinic)
Steering Committee Member, Protection and Victim Services Co-Chair
Dr. Cynthia Brewer is a physician at Billings Clinic. She has been seeing patients after physical or sexual assault in her clinic for the past 8 years. She has helped to coordinate meetings with several healthcare organizations in Billings and surrounding communities to create medical human trafficking protocols for our county. Dr. Brewer enjoys working with all members of the task force in seeking justice for those survivors of these atrocious acts.
