Deepa Patel, CSOTP, LCSW, is the Executive Director and Co-Founder of Trauma and Hope in Springfield, Virginia. Trauma and Hope specifically focuses on victims of violence, sexual exploitation, gang prevention and intervention, and sex offender evaluations and treatment. Ms. Patel is a Licensed Clinical Social Worker, a Certified Sex Offender Treatment Provider, and a Gang Specialist through the National Gang Crime Research Center. She is a dynamic clinician who has developed an expertise in treating non-voluntary clients, specifically juvenile and adult gang members and sex offenders. Ms. Patel has a unique ability to relate to her clients that has resulted in her having significant success treating her clients. For well over a decade, Ms. Patel has developed a proficient style of work with youth who are gang involved. Through her understanding and clinical devotion to her clients, she has widened her competency to establish an Outpatient and Inpatient Sexual Exploitation Training and Treatment Services Model (SETTS). The SETTS Model is an established program at Trauma and Hope and within numerous outpatient, inpatient and human trafficking task force programs.

Ms. Patel is sought nationally and internationally to provide training and education regarding gang-involved youth, sexual exploitation, and sex offenders. Her passion and competency in her outpatient therapeutic program with gangs and with gang-controlled sexual exploitation victims led her to become a recipient of the 2017 Virginia National Association of Social Worker "Social Worker Of the Year Award," 2012 Frederick Milton Thrasher Award for Superior Service in Gang Prevention and the 2016 Frederick Milton Thrasher Award and Spirt of Excellence Award from the National Gang Crime Research Center. In addition, she was selected in 2013 for the CACIE (Central American Community Impact Exchange) an initiative formed by the FBI and the White House and the National Rapporteur on Trafficking in Human Beings and Sexual Violence against Children in Holland to share her success in treatment for gang-involved youth, victims of sex trafficking and sex offenders. Also, she is a member of the Northern Virginia Human Trafficking Task Force and a member of the Loudoun County ICOPE Project (Improving Children’s Outcomes for Positive Endings). Ms. Patel was also recognized in June 2019 for continued efforts and collaboration in the area of sexual exploitation and gangs by the Department of Homeland Security. Ms. Patel co-authored Working for the Crew: Understanding Gang Controlled Exploitation.