2026 Plenary Speaker: Peter Dross

Peter (Pete) Dross retired at the end of 2025 after a 32-year career with the Center for Victims of Torture (CVT), a nongovernmental organization that is the largest organization of its kind in the world. He served as Vice President of External Relations, providing leadership to CVT's policy advocacy, fundraising and communications programs. Dross has led successful issue and legislative advocacy campaigns on both state and federal levels that have enjoyed broad and bipartisan support. Dross now facilitates the Government Relations Working Group for the $100 Million Committee, a volunteer group named for the annual cost of Minnesota's sex offense civil commitment program, the Minnesota Sex Offender Program (the actual cost is $126 million in 2026). The $100 Million Committee supports the central conclusion of a report issued 18 months ago by the Mitchell Hamline School of Law: MSOP is a failed program that has had no discernible impact on the incidence of sexual violence in Minnesota and should be carefully closed over a multi-year period with the funds reinvested in proven and promising approaches to preventing sexual violence.