Associate Clinical Professor, Bowling Green State University
lwilken@bgsu.edu
Lara Wilken is a proud graduate of Bowling Green State University, an Associate Clinical Professor of Nursing and Coordinator of the BGSU online RN to BSN program. She earned her Doctor of Nursing Practice (DNP) in 2020 with a focus on healthcare and human trafficking. Her background in nursing is primarily medical-surgical oncology, with experience in public school nursing and SANE nursing (Sexual Assault Nurse Examiner). Lara has spent well over a decade traveling the northwest region of Ohio raising awareness in a variety of health care and community settings. Lara created the human trafficking policy for Firelands Health and is chair of the Ohio Attorney General’s HTI Human Trafficking Public Awareness Subcommittee. She is President of Eyes Open International and serves on the Erie County Safe Harbour Domestic Violence Shelter board. Lara is co-founder of the Erie County Jail Women’s Empowerment Group, Seeds of Empowerment, where she educates incarcerated women bi-weekly on a variety of topics in her efforts to prevent human trafficking. Lara’s mission is to ensure health care providers of all disciplines receive education that is not only evidence-based, but also survivor and trauma-informed. She has also most recently co-founded the BGSU Labor Trafficking Education and Research Initiative in her continued commitment to public good.