Heather Dark serves as Chief Operating Officer for the NCPTF.
Heather Dark serves as the Chief Operating Officer of the National Child Protection Task Force, where she leads the execution of NCPTF’s mission at scale—aligning strategy, operations, and partnerships to better protect missing, exploited, and trafficked children across. A passionate advocate for youth experiencing homelessness and those impacted by online exploitation, Heather brings nearly two decades of experience in strategic communications and nonprofit leadership.
Heather joined NCPTF as a volunteer in 2022. In 2023, she became the organization’s first Chief of Communications, where she authored NCPTF’s first strategic plan and led a sweeping transformation of its programming, outreach, and mission alignment. Her leadership helped streamline operations, sunset legacy programs, and refocus the organization on high-impact interventions for vulnerable children.
In 2024, she was promoted to Chief of Strategy, where she helped launch and operationalize NCPTF’s inaugural Missing Child Rescue Operations—multi-jurisdictional collaborations that have already helped recovered over 100 missing endangered children and are now central to NCPTF’s national model.
Now as COO, Heather is focused on strengthening community response systems, scaling NCPTF’s Rescue Operations, and ensuring that every child located through the Task Force’s work has a real chance at long-term stability and safety. Her work is guided by the understanding that with the right team, tools, and heart, transformation is possible for the systems that serve our most vulnerable kids.
