About me
Michelle DeLaune is the President and Chief Executive Officer of the National Center for Missing & Exploited Children.
Since she began her career at NCMEC two decades ago, DeLaune has held numerous positions, most recently serving 8 years as its Chief Operating Officer. During her tenure at NCMEC, she witnessed first-hand the evolving threats that face our children and has expanded NCMEC's programmatic response to both missing and exploited children.
NCMEC continues to see an explosion in cases of children going missing from the child welfare system as well as children being sexually trafficked. In addition, incidents of child sexual exploitation online continue to grow exponentially.
Under her leadership, new programs have been implemented to better serve these vulnerable populations including a child sex trafficking recovery-planning team and NCMEC's Child Victim Identification Program which has contributed to the identification and rescue of thousands of children from sexually abusive situations. Emphasizing the human element, DeLaune has championed a reignited focus on the importance of survivor informed responses where those with lived experience provide valuable input into NCMEC programs.
She's helped establish multiple survivor expert working groups to amplify the voices of those impacted by these crimes and inspire change in the world.Embracing new technology has transformed NCMEC and its impact. DeLaune created the first-ever data science program as a discipline at NCMEC. Data mining allows NCMEC to provide timely, meaningful information to better protect children.
DeLaune is the first woman to lead the non-profit organization since it opened its doors in 1984.
On numerous occasions, DeLaune has testified before the U.S. Congress about matters pertaining to the sexual exploitation of children and has represented NCMEC at high-level events around the world.
She has written articles regarding the importance of identifying child victims depicted in sexually abusive material. She received a B.A. with a major in psychology from George Mason University and an M.A. in Criminology from the University of Maryland at College Park. She lives with her husband and daughter in Northern Virginia.
