Staff

Bjorn Skorpen Claeson, Ph.D., Director of SweatFree Communities, was lead organizer of PICA's Bangor Clean Clothes Campaign, a national model for community-based anti-sweatshop activism, from 1996 to 2005. Claeson is 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. As of June 2010, he is the Interim Director of the Sweatfree Purchasing Consortium.

Contact Bjorn at:
30 Blackstone St., Bangor ME 04401, USA
ph: 207-262-7277    fax: 207-433-1600
bjorn [at] sweatfree [dot] org

Liana Foxvog joined SweatFree Communities as National Organizer in 2004. By leading workshops and strategy sessions, she has played a critical role in helping launch new grassroots campaigns for sweatshop-free purchasing. Her presentations have included venues such as the U.S. Social Forum, the international Fair Trade Action Network convening meeting, and dozens of colleges. In 2003-2004, she worked with American Friends Service Committee in New Hampshire, educating high school students about globalization and "bird-dogging" presidential candidates to support fairness in trade agreements; National Public Radio, among other media, featured a story about the creative youth-led actions. Liana has a B.A. in Political Science and an M.S. in Labor Studies. She is a part-time lecturer at University of Massachusetts on Labor and the Global Economy and volunteers as a Spanish interpreter for immigrant rights and social justice organizations.

Contact Liana at:
140 Pine St., Suite 10, Florence MA 01062, USA
ph: 413-586-0974    fax: 413-584-8987
liana [at] sweatfree [dot] org

International Labor Rights Forum contributing staff members:

Bama Athreya, Executive Director, joined ILRF in early 1998, just after returning from a two-year assignment in Cambodia as the AFL-CIO's Country Representative. While in Cambodia she directed worker education and labor law training programs and conducted extensive research on the problems of women workers and on child labor. She is a cultural anthropologist, and received her Ph.D. from the University of Michigan. She spent three years in Indonesia, first as a State Department official and later as an independent researcher, and wrote her thesis on Indonesia's labor movement. She has also lived and worked in China, Taiwan and India. [Interested in Ms. Athreya speaking in your community? See the ILRF Speakers' Bureau.]

Trina Tocco, Deputy Director, began at ILRF in February 2005 and focuses on ILRF's work in the garment and food industries. Directly after college, she spent a year organizing with the Service Employees International Union. Other labor movement experience includes working with American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees (AFSCME) and United Students Against Sweatshops (USAS). Tocco is currently pursuing a Masters degree from Michigan State University for Supply Chain Management.  She is a 2003 graduate of Western Michigan University, with degress in Environmental Studies and Nonprofit Administration. [Interested in Ms. Tocco speaking in your community? See the ILRF Speakers' Bureau.]

Get to know the rest of the International Labor Rights Forum staff here.