7Nicole Strattman
Nicole has been employed with the County of Orange Social Services Agency (SSA) since 1999. She is a Licensed Clinical Social Worker who holds a Master’s degree in Social Work from the University of Southern California. She is currently the manager for the Resource Families: Recruitment, Development and Support program in Children and Family Services. Nicole has worked in a variety of programs at SSA which have included assignments investigating child abuse as well as representing SSA in Family Law Court. In 2014, Nicole began working alongside the Orange County Human Trafficking Task Force to create an enhanced collaborative response model, treating trafficked children as victims and ensuring the child welfare system had the services to meet the victim’s needs. She is a California Department of Social Services "Above and Beyond" award recipient and has received recognition from California State Senator Ling Ling Chang and California Congresswoman Katie Porter for her commitment to end Human Trafficking and the Commercial Sexual Exploitation of Children (CSEC). Nicole was a key advocate in bringing in a therapy dog into youth’s court hearings, which was profiled on local news station, KTLA in Los Angeles as well as the nationally syndicated show CW’s Dogs of the Year. As an expert in the field, she has traveled across the state as a presenter and trainer on CSEC and Human Trafficking as it relates to Child Welfare, where she has trained social workers, victim advocates, mental health practitioners, law enforcement and international delegations from countries, such as Egypt and Vietnam.