Marti MacGibbon, CADC-II, ACRPS, CAPMS, is an internationally known author and an expert on trauma resolution and addiction. She’s a humorous inspirational speaker, and a mental health professional who holds five professional certifications in addiction treatment. Marti is a Human Trafficking Expert Consultant to the US Dept. of State’s Office to Monitor and Combat Trafficking in Persons, and is an Expert Consultant to the US Office for Victims of Crime. She’s co-author of the widely cited article published in the American Medical Association Journal of Ethics, Human Trafficking, Mental Illness, and Addiction: Avoiding Diagnostic Overshadowing (2017), and is a contributing author of the Springer Nature 2020 textbook, Medical Perspectives on Human Trafficking in Adolescents: A Case-Based Guide.

Few speakers have a personal comeback story as riveting and inspirational as Marti’s.  She has recovered from and triumphed over nightmare experiences such as being trafficked to Tokyo and held prisoner by Japanese organized crime, homelessness, domestic violence, childhood sexual assault/abuse, severe PTSD and hard-core drug addiction. Marti employed simple, effective strategies to transform her life, and shares them to motivate, encourage, and energize listeners to create positive changes in every area of their lives.

In addition to speaking to businesses, medical professionals and mental health professionals on overcoming adversity, empowerment, addiction recovery, and inspiration, Marti speaks on human trafficking, domestic violence, and other violence against women, and trains service providers. She has spoken at The 2023 United Nations World Day Against Trafficking Event, in the 2021 United Nations Commission on the Status of Women, The Museum of Tolerance, The National Underground Railroad Freedom Center, at colleges and universities, and even from the center of an MMA octagon at, “Fight Traffick,” an anti-human trafficking cage-fighting event. She’s been interviewed in Investor’s Business Daily, Entrepreneur, and Glamour, on ABC-TV, CBS-TV, FOX-TV and numerous radio stations, and articles she wrote have appeared in over 150 corporate and trade magazines.

As a member of a team of survivors, in the wake of her work on passing the historic Human Trafficking Survivor Empowerment Act in 2015,  Marti spoke at the White House, the State Department, the Department of Health and Human Services, and the Office for Victims of Crime, on mental health and policy advocacy. From 2012-2017, Ms. MacGibbon served on the Indiana Attorney General’s state-wide anti-trafficking task force IPATH, Indiana Protection for Abused and Trafficked Humans. From 2013-2017, she developed curriculum for and taught a life skills class for women with trauma history in Marion County Jail. In 2014, she spoke to California State Legislature in support of new and successful legislation aimed at eradicating child sex trafficking.

Ms. MacGibbon is an engaged leader who served for two years on the Board of Directors at HEAL Trafficking, Inc. She currently serves as President of MENTARI Human Trafficking Survivor Empowerment Program in NY, NY, and on the Advisory Board at Justice At Last in San Francisco. Marti is a Speaker Trainer Consultant at the National Human Trafficking Training and Technical Center. She’s the recipient of the 2025 Champion of Justice Award.

From 2011 to 2019, Marti founded, produced, and emceed Laff-Aholics Standup Comedy Benefit for Recovery, an annual charity fundraiser in Indianapolis featuring nationally headlining comedians. One hundred percent of the profits from the show went to transitional housing facilities in Indy that provide access to addiction treatment and mental health services for the recovery community’s most vulnerable. 

The Indiana Addictions Issues Coalition (IAIC) honored Marti with the 2015 Indiana Lifetime Recovery Advocate Award, and the 2014 Recovery Advocate of the Year Award, for outstanding accomplishments in support of recovery, and her work in breaking away the stigma surrounding addiction, mental illness, and human trafficking. 

Marti has performed at the world-famous Hollywood Improv and at the Comedy Store in Hollywood, and has traveled the U.S. as a professional standup comic. She is a member of the National Behavioral Health Association of Providers, the California Consortium of Addiction Programs and Professionals (CCAPP), and the Indiana Counselor’s Association on Alcohol and Drug Abuse.

Marti MacGibbon is author of two award-winning and critically acclaimed memoirs, Never Give in to Fear: Laughing All the Way Up from Rock Bottom and, Fierce, Funny, and Female. Fierce, Funny, and Female, Marti’s recent memoir, is winner of the Beverly Hills International Book Award, in Women’s Issues, and winner of the National Indie Excellence Awards, in Women’s Health. It is winner of the 2018 Independent Press Award, in Humor and Women’s Studies. In June 2018, the book was announced winner of the Foreword Book of the Year Awards, in both Humor and Women’s Studies.