Board of Directors
The Board of Directors is comprised of ex-officio representatives of public members and individuals with significant labor rights expertise. The public members can be any state, city, county, local government agency, public school district, or federal government agency in the United States that procures apparel or other relevant products or services, pays the annual dues, and supports the mission an purpose of the Sweatfree Purchasing Consortium. Ex-officio representatives of public members constitute as closely as possible two-thirds of the Board, while labor rights experts constitute as closely as possible one-third of the Board. Directors are elected at the annual membership meeting by public members.
Ex-officio representatives of public members
Sam Dominguez is Material Control Manager for the City of Austin (TX.) Mr. Dominguez' responsibilities include managing the Uniform Services operation for the City. The operation provides uniforms to City of Austin employees. Mr. Dominguez has worked for the City of Austin for over 16 years and has more than 20 years of procurement experience. He holds a Masters and a Bachelors degree in Business Administration and is a Certified Public Accountant.
Monette McGuire, Buyer for the City of Madison, coordinates and implements the procurement and contracting functions of the organization. Ms. McGuire holds a Certified Public Purchasing Buyer (CPPB) designation, a B.S. in Psychology and is a lead resource to staff for compliance and best practices in purchasing and sustainability strategies. She served consecutive terms as Secretary and Treasurer and is now Vice-President of the Wisconsin Association of Public Purchasers (WAPP), a chapter of the National Institute of Government Purchasing (NIGP). Ms. McGuire provides leadership to the organization in its charge to advance the professional competency of its members and uphold the highest ethical, transparent and responsible standards of the public procurement profession.
Christine Moody is the Chief Procurement Officer for the City of Portland and has over 17 years of government purchasing and contracting experience. In her current position, Ms. Moody is responsible for managing, directing and integrating procurement and contractor development programs at the City. She also represents the City in a variety of multi-jurisdictional forums, outreach functions and professional groups and organizations. Ms. Moody has her CPPB and CPPO Certification and sits on various national committees related to public contracting.
Michele M. Reale, President, is an Associate Attorney at the New York State Office of General Services (“OGS”) where she is responsible for providing support to the Bureau of Real Property Management & Development and the Procurement Services Group. Ms. Reale also works on a number of special projects and provides assistance to the Advisory Council on Procurement Lobbying and the Sweatfree Purchasing Workgroup. Before joining OGS, Ms. Reale was a Senior Attorney at the New York State Insurance Department. She earned a J.D. from Boston University School of Law, where she was an editor of the Boston University Public Interest Law Journal; and a dual B.A. in English and Political Science from Canisius College.
Darlow "Lee" Tuneberg, Treasurer, is Administrative Services and Finance Director, City Of Ashland, Oregon. Mr. Tuneberg has been the Finance Director for Ashland for 10 years and has worked for other municipal governments in Oregon for the prior 21 years. He also performs duties in purchasing, budgeting and risk management. He is a Bachelor of Arts graduate of Portland State University in Oregon and a member of the Government Finance Officers Association of the U.S. and Canada.
Farshid Yazdi is a Management Analyst with the Supplier and Customer Relations Section of the City of Los Angeles. Mr. Yazdi works very closely with the City’s commodity procurement staff and interacts daily with a variety of City of Los Angeles vendors and local advocacy groups. He has served in this capacity since early 2008 with a main focus on monitoring and enforcement of the City’s Sweat-Free Purchasing Ordinance throughout its global supply chain. Mr. Yazdi holds two Masters degrees in Industrial Management and Communications/Journalism.
Labor rights experts
Rini Chakraborty is the Western Regional Director for Amnesty International USA. Previously, Ms. Chakraborty served as Executive Director of Sweatshop Watch, Senior Policy Analyst with the ACLU of Southern California, and Director of the California Immigrant Welfare Collaborative. She currently serves on the board of the International Labor Rights Forum and Health Access.
Eric Dirnbach, Vice President, is the Research Director for the Green Jobs campaign at the Laborers International Union of North America (LiUNA). Mr. Dirnbach has worked in the labor movement for over 10 years and has experience doing company and industry research in support of worker organizing and collective bargaining campaigns. He has also been a labor rights and anti-sweatshop activist, working on local and international campaigns, and contributing research and commentary on global sweatshop labor practices. He has served as the president of his graduate student instructor local union at the University of Michigan, as a board member of the Citizens Trade Campaign, and as a member of the advisory committee of the Worker Rights Consortium.
Judy Gearhart is the Executive Director of the International Labor Rights Forum. Ms. Gearhart 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, Ms. Gearhart 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, she 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). Ms. Gearhart holds a Master of International Affairs from Columbia University.
Ian Robinson, Ph.D., is a Lecturer and Research Scientist in the Department of Sociology and the Residential College of the University of Michigan-Ann Arbor. Mr. Robinson's research includes work on ethical consumer demand for sweatshop-free apparel and the impacts of neoliberal economic restructuring on labor unions and the rights, wages and conditions of workers.
Staff
Bjorn Skorpen Claeson, Ph.D., became the Interim Coordinator of the Sweatfree Purchasing Consortium in 2010. Mr. Claeson was a founder of SweatFree Communities, where he serves as Director. From 1996 to 2005, he was the lead organizer of PICA's Bangor Clean Clothes Campaign, a national model for community-based anti-sweatshop activism. He is the recipient of the Maine Initiatives Social Landscape Artist Award 2006 and the Dirigo Social Movement Leader Award in 2004.
