What NCMEC Can Do for You: The National Center for Missing & Exploited Children’s Free Resources to Help Law Enforcement and Families

Leemie Kahng-Sofer has been with the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children (NCMEC) since 2009. She currently serves as the Director of Case Management within the Missing Children Division (MCD) where she oversees staff members who provide assistance to law enforcement, families and child welfare officials. In 2020, her division provided assistance in almost 30,000 new reports of missing children. Her duties include management responsibilities at NCMEC headquarters in Alexandria, VA, as well as NCMEC’s regional offices located in Lake Park, FL, Rochester, NY and Austin, TX. She is also responsible for major MCD initiatives such as the development of the Division’s enterprise application and other specialty topics related to children missing from care, child sex trafficking, online enticement, and children on the autism spectrum. In addition, she has presented to law enforcement and other agencies all over the United States on issues related to missing children and NCMEC’s programs and capabilities.

Prior to joining NCMEC, Ms. Kahng-Sofer served as a prosecutor with the Manhattan District Attorney's Office in New York City where she investigated and prosecuted cases ranging from white-collar to violent crimes. She specialized in Asian gang extortion and kidnapping cases, and adult sex crimes cases. She later served as the Deputy Director of Legal Training as well as Deputy Chief of the Sex Crimes Prosecution Unit. She has authored two chapters of a judicial bench book for the State of Pennsylvania covering Pennsylvania criminal statutes designed to protect children and protect the public from sexual offenders. Leemie Kahng-Sofer graduated cum laude with a Bachelor of Arts in Political Science from Wellesley College and received her Juris Doctor from Cornell University Law School.

Joy Paluska joined the National Center for Missing & Exploited Children in 2019 as a Program Manager in the Missing Children Division. In this role, she supports the Disaster Preparedness and Response Program and other special projects related to children on the autism spectrum, children of color, and Indigenous children. Between 2010-2018, Joy served as a civil servant within the Executive Office of the President. Prior to that, she worked in disaster recovery with both FEMA and the American Red Cross. Joy began her career at the Leadership Conference on Civil and Human Rights and following that worked as an attorney for Legal Aid and in private practice in her home state of Illinois. Joy is a graduate of the University of Iowa and the City University of New York School of Law at Queens College.

Dana Bonnell is a Project Manager for the Programs Division of the International Association of Chiefs of Police (IACP). At the IACP she has worked on projects related to enhancing police response to mental health and/or intellectual and developmental disabilities and gender-based voice and.

Prior to joining the IACP, Dana served as an Investigative and Social Work Intern for the Washington DC Public Defender Service Mental Health Division. Prior to that, Dana worked as an Assertive Community Treatment team manager for Pathways to Housing DC. There Dana coordinated a clinical team providing intensive and holistic community care for individuals with severe mental illness and a history of chronic homelessness.

Dana has completed her Master’s Degree in Justice and Public Policy from American University and previously earned her Bachelor’s Degree in Forensic Psychology with a minor in Criminal Justice from the University of New Haven in West Haven, CT.