Staff
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ILRF is an advocacy organization dedicated to achieving just and humane treatment for workers worldwide.
Our staff are dedicated to supporting the rights of workers and to building power for workers through a variety of strategies. To reach us, fill out the form at our contact page.
- Emily Boitel, Program Officer, China Program
- Brian Campbell, Director of Policy and Legal Programs
- Bjorn Claeson, Senior Researcher
- Vonetta Faulkner, Director of Operations
- Liana Foxvog, National Organizer, SweatFree Communities
- Judy Gearhart, Executive Director
- Eric Gottwald, Senior Policy Analyst and Staff Attorney
- Sean Rudolph, Campaigns Director
- Jacqueline Starr, Development and Communications Associate
- Haley Wrinkle, Senior Researcher, Free2Work
Staff
Emily Boitel, Program Officer, China Program
Emily Boitel has been assisting the China Program in a research assistant capacity since January 2012, and started as Program Officer of the China Program in May 2012. She graduated in 2011 from the Hopkins-Nanjing Center for Chinese-American Studies where she studied Chinese Constitutional Law, International Investment Law, and Chinese Foreign Policy. Emily obtained her B.A. in 2010 from the Johns Hopkins University in International Relations and East Asian Studies, after which she completed an educational exchange internship in Inner Mongolia on a Fulbright scholarship. Emily is fluent in Mandarin and French.
Brian Campbell, Director of Policy and Legal Programs
[Interested in Mr. Campbell speaking in your community? See the ILRF Speakers' Bureau]
Bjorn Claeson, Senior Researcher
Bjorn Skorpen Claeson, Ph.D., part-time Senior Researcher of ILRF, was lead organizer of PICA's Bangor Clean Clothes Campaign, a national model for community-based anti-sweatshop activism, from 1996 to 2005. Bjorn was a cofounder of SweatFree Communities and became SweatFree Communities' first staff person in July 2003. He is the recipient of the Maine Initiatives Social Landscape Artist Award 2006 and the Dirigo Social Movement Leader Award in 2004. Bjorn also works part-time for the Sweatfree Purchasing Consortium as Executive Director.
Liana Foxvog, National Organizer, SweatFree Communities
Liana Foxvog joined SweatFree Communities as National Organizer in 2004. Following the merger of SweatFree Communities with ILRF in 2010, Liana serves as the coordinator of ILRF's campaigns for workers' rights in the apparel industry. By leading workshops and strategy sessions, she has played a critical role in helping launch new grassroots campaigns for sweatshop-free purchasing. Previously, she worked with the American Friends Service Committee, educating and mobilizing youth to take action against corporate globalization and for fairness in trade agreements. Liana has a B.A. in Political Science and an M.S. in Labor Studies. She has taught Labor and the Global Economy at the University of Massachusetts and serves as a Spanish interpreter for immigrant rights and social justice organizations. Liana represents ILRF on the board of the Food Chain Workers Alliance.
[Interested in Ms. Foxvog speaking in your community? See the ILRF Speakers' Bureau]
Judy Gearhart, Executive Director
Judy Gearhart is the Executive Director of ILRF since March 2011. Judy is also an adjunct professor at Columbia University's School for International and Public Affairs, teaching the course Human Rights and Development Policy since 2002. Previously, Judy served as the Program Director at Social Accountability International (SAI) where she led research on voluntary labor standards and coordinated training programs for workers and trade unions on how to use codes conduct to claim their rights at work. Prior to SAI, Judy worked on democratization, women’s rights and labor rights programs for Mexican NGOs, UNICEF-Honduras and the ILO’s International Program to Eradicate Child Labor (IPEC). Judy holds a Master of International Affairs from Columbia University.
Eric Gottwald, Senior Policy Analyst and Staff Attorney
Eric Gottwald joined the ILRF in the fall of 2011 and is responsible for its programs in Latin America, as well as supporting legal, policy, and legislative efforts. Prior to joining ILRF, Eric worked on union capacity building projects for the AFL-CIO's Solidarity Center in Lima, Peru. He graduated from the University of Minnesota Law School in 2005 and his work has appeared in the American University International Law Review. During law school, Eric worked as a Fellow for the International Labor Organization's Multinational Enterprises Programme. He is licensed to practice law in Wisconsin and the District of Columbia.
Sean Rudolph, Campaigns Director
Sean Rudolph is responsible for ILRF’s public and corporate advocacy campaigns. Sean joined the ILRF in December 2011. He has over ten years of experience coordinating corporate campaigns and advocacy initiatives. Prior to ILRF, Sean worked in the Strategic Campaigns Department at the International Brotherhood of Teamsters. Sean holds a Master of Arts in Law and Diplomacy from the Fletcher School at Tufts.
Jacqueline Starr, Development and Communications Associate
Jacqueline Starr graduated from Lake Forest College in 2010 with a B.A. in Economics and Communications. She joined ILRF as a Trade Finance Research intern in November of 2010, after coordinating with the organization to bring the midwest tour of "Sweatshop Workers Speak Out" to the Lake Forest campus. She then worked in a part-time fundraising and development role, and became a full-time Development and Communications Associate for ILRF in 2011.
Haley Wrinkle, Senior Researcher of Free2Work
Haley Wrinkle joined ILRF in January 2011 as the Senior Researcher at Free2Work, a joint project between ILRF and Not For Sale. Haley was originally at ILRF as a Trade Programs fellow, which augmented her masters work at the University of California, Santa Barbara in Global and International Studies. Her masters thesis focuses on the ILO's Better Factories Cambodia program, and the supply chains that connect to the garment industry in Phnom Penh. She also recently conducted climate change adaptation research for Conservation International, an environmental NGO based in Washington, DC. Haley's motivation to strive to improve global worker rights comes largely from her experiences living and working in Cambodia and other parts of the developing world.
Consultants
Pharis Harvey, Senior Consultant
Pharis Harvey, a founder of the International Labor Rights Forum, serves as Senior Consultant to ILRF. Mr. Harvey served as Executive Director from 1990 to 2001. Prior to joining the Fund, Harvey, spent twelve years with the North American Coalition for Human Rights in Korea, based in Washington, DC. This followed many years of work in Asia under the sponsorship of the United Methodist Church and various ecumenical bodies, to support the efforts of workers and community organizations to defend their human rights. His most recent post in Asia was as Consultant on Economic Justice to the Christian Conference in Asia, from 1975-79. Harvey is the author of Trading Away the Future: Child Labor in India's Export Industries (1994) and editor of several studies of labor and peoples movements in Asia, including People Toiling Under Pharaoh: MNCs in Asia (1976) and No Room in the Inn: Asia's Minorities (1978). He has also published many articles in the United States, Japanese, and Korean journals. In October 1996, Harvey received the prestigious Letelier-Moffitt Human Rights Award for "Lifetime Achievement" in developing labor rights law and defending labor rights internationally.
U Roberto (Robin) Romano, Photography Consultant
Award-Winning Producer, Director, Director of Photography, U Roberto (Robin) Romano is one of the most respected investigative filmmakers in the world. A short list of his credits: Producer, Director & Director of Photography - The Harvest: feature documentary, produced by Shine Global, on the life of migrant children and their families in America. Co-Director (with Miki Mistrati) and Director of Photography - Dark Side of Chocolate: feature documentary, produced Bastard Films - Denmark, on slavery in the West Africa cocoa trade. Director, Director of Photography and Still Photographer - Fields of Peril: upcoming report by Human Rights Watch. Director of Photography and Still Photographer - Freedom Awards: Special Broadcast, produced by Free the Slaves. Producer, Director & Director of Photography - Children in the Fields: Educational documentary produced by the Association of Farmworker Opportunity Programs. Producer, Director, Director of Photography - Stolen Childhoods: feature documentary on child labor for Galen Films and Romano Productions.
