Award-winning memoir

Jenna McKaye is the 2024 Notable Press Book Award-Winner for Debut Novel!

McKaye is a survivor of human trafficking with an incredible life story she now shares through advocacy groups throughout the US. Jenna's extraordinary journey offers hope that inspires others through education and training. She continues to train hospital staff, law enforcement and other first responders how to identify victims of sex trafficking and labor trafficking and respond with trauma informed care. Her personable keynote speaking engagements leave a notable impression among a variety of audience demographics including the United Nations.

In 2016, Jenna started the Jenna McKaye Foundation to engage in a broader advocacy training model and provided equine therapy to sex trafficking victims and high-risk youth. Jenna has been interviewed on countless podcasts across the county and internationally including by Elizabeth Smart. She has written various articles for blogs and newspapers. She consulted on the award-winning Documentary, Surviving Sex Trafficking. Jenna serves on the board for the Worthy Ranch in Montana, Cycling for Change in New York and served on Survivor Led Solutions in Florida. She is on the team with Global Strategic Operatives with the UN and continues to work with the Orange County Human Trafficking Task Force and the New Jersey Coalition Against Human Trafficking. She is also a graduate of Elevate Academy. Jenna worked with Senator Shannon Grove on legislation (SB-14) to make trafficking of a minor a serious felony and strike-able offense in the state of California. It passed in 2023. She also help pass SB-1414 which makes buying a minor 15 and under for sex a felony. In July of 2025 she worked with Assemblymember Maggy Krell and the CA Survivor Coalition to pass AB-379 to include 16- and 17-year-olds. Jenna's award-winning book, Grit and Grace, An Unforgettable Memoir of the Human Spirit was published in October of 2024.