MMC Recognizes Rachel Lloyd ‘02 for Her Distinguished Service to the Community

Rachel Lloyd ’02 is the founder and Executive Director of Girls Educational and Mentoring Services (GEMS). She was recently featured in the 2009-2010 Marymount Manhattan College President’s Report in the article titled, “Advocate for Youth Rights Leads Policy Change in Sex Trafficking Locally and Nationally.” 

A Reebok Human Rights Award and Ashoka Fellowship winner, Lloyd is a leading advocate for sexually exploited and domestically trafficked girls and young women. In 1998, with only a second-hand computer and $30, Lloyd started GEMS to support girls and young women victimized by the commercial sex industry. 

GEMS has grown steadily under Lloyd’s leadership, building its services and programs and garnering increased visibility and recognition. GEMS offers direct services to domestic victims of commercial sexual exploitation and trafficking. GEMS serves more than 300 girls each year through its clinical recovery, housing and youth leadership programs, and 1,000 youth through education and outreach. As a survivor-led organization, GEMS is well-known for its empowering approach to youth leadership and activism.

Lloyd spearheaded the first U.S. Summit on Commercially Sexually Exploited Youth, the first youth survivor-led Congressional briefing in Washington, D.C., the first youth survivor-led legislative briefing in Albany, N.Y., and the first youth survivor produced short documentary Breaking the Silence about commercial sexual exploitation and domestic trafficking. Lloyd is a nationally recognized expert on the issue of commercial sexual exploitation of children, and played a key role in the successful passage of New York State’s groundbreaking Safe Harbor Act for Sexually Exploited Youth, the first law in the country to end the prosecution of child victims of trafficking. Her trailblazing advocacy is the subject of the critically-acclaimed Showtime documentary Very Young Girls, for which she was also the co-executive producer. The film, which premiered at the Toronto Film Festival in 2007, has been seen by more than three million people and has been a powerful tool in changing public perception. Lloyd is also the author of the memoir Girls Like Us, published in April by Harper Collins. 

Lloyd received her bachelor’s degree in psychology from Marymount Manhattan and her master’s degree in applied urban anthropology from the City College of New York. 

The Sr. Raymunde McKay Award is named in honor of Sister Raymunde McKay, RSHM, the founder and president of Marymount Manhattan College in 1961. Sr. Raymunde was also the former president of Marymount College who helped complete the merger with Loyola University that formed Loyola Marymount University. 

Marymount Manhattan College is an urban, independent, liberal arts college. The mission of the College is to educate a socially and economically diverse student body by fostering intellectual achievement and personal growth and by providing opportunities for career development.

Published: May 17, 2011