Staff
ILRF is an advocacy organization dedicated to achieving just and humane treatment for workers worldwide.
ILRF staff are all based in the US though there is a long tradition of working in solidarity with labor allied NGOs and trade unions around the world.
Staff
- Bama Athreya, Executive Director
- Brian Campbell, Director of Policy and Legal Programs
- Bjorn Claeson, Director of SweatFree Communities
- Manfred Elfstrom, Program Officer
- Liana Foxvog, National Organizer
- Jessica Jones, Administrative Assistant
- Timothy Newman, Campaigns Director
- Michelle Petrotta, Program Officer
- Trina Tocco, Deputy Director
Consultants
Bama Athreya, Executive Director
Bama Athreya is the Executive Director of the International Labor Rights Forum. Dr. Athreya 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]
Brian Campbell, Director of Policy and Legal Programs
Brian Campbell serves as a staff attorney, working to promote enforcement of existing laws to protect worker rights, and the development of new legal instruments. Brian is also working with local partners in China developing and implementing labor law training programs for Chinese labor law practitioners. Brian began working with ILRF as a law clerk in 2001 and was hired as a full time attorney upon graduation from law school in 2004. While in law school, he worked at the Global March Against Child Labor in New Delhi, India for six months in 2002 as a project officer. He is a graduate from the George Washington University Law School and the George Washington University Elliott School of International Affairs where he received a Masters of Arts in International Development Studies. Brian is licensed to practice law in the state of Maryland and the District of Columbia.
Manfred Elfstrom, Program Officer
Since joining the organization in May 2007, Manfred has been active on labor issues in China and Pakistan. Before coming to the ILRF, he was Campaign Coordinator for China Labor Watch and Program Assistant at the Weatherhead East Asian Institute. From 2004-2005, Manfred interned with The Carter Center’s China Elections Project (now China Program) in Atlanta, where he followed the progress of village-level democracy and traveled to observe local elections and decision-making in Southwestern China. Before that, he lived in rural Shanxi Province for two years, teaching and studying. Manfred holds a Bachelor’s degree from Oberlin College and a Master of International Affairs from Columbia University’s School of International and Public Affairs (SIPA).
Jessica Jones, Administrative Assistant
Jessica Jones began at ILRF in November 2009. Prior to ILRF, Jessica gained experience in labor rights at a law firm where she assisted victims of employment discrimination throughout the United States. Jessica graduated from Northwestern University with a degree in International Studies and Psychology. She has interned for the Leadership Council for Human Rights the Anti-Defamation League, and Global Village of Beijing. She is conversant in Mandarin Chinese, and is currently learning Portuguese.
Timothy Newman, Campaigns Director
Tim Newman began at ILRF in September 2006 and works on ILRF advocacy campaigns, particularly the Trade Union Violence, Firestone and Cocoa campaigns. Tim graduated in May 2006 from Clark University in Worcester, Massachusetts where he majored in Sociology and International Development. In addition to anti-war organizing, he helped found the Clark chapter of the Student Global AIDS Campaign, and helped launch the CAN Coke campaign, which is working to get Coke products off Clark’s campus. He has done internships with Food & Water Watch, Africa Action, Facing History and Ourselves and the National Society for Human Rights in Namibia. [interested in Mr. Newman speaking in your community? see the ILRF Speakers' Bureau]
Michelle Petrotta, Program Officer
Michelle Petrotta joined ILRF in December 2009 to lead work relating to labor rights in Latin America and the Rights for Working Women campaign. From 2007-2009, Michelle worked with the Washington Office on Latin America (WOLA) and the Share Foundation, as a Mickey Leland International Hunger Fellow, where she conducted research and policy advocacy on trade, labor, development and human rights issues throughout Latin America. For the first year of the fellowship, she lived in El Salvador, and worked alongside organized rural communities to develop advocacy strategies to incorporate human rights into development. She is a graduate of the University of Denver Sturm College of Law, and is licensed to practice law in the state of New York.
Trina Tocco, Deputy Director
Trina Tocco 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]
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.
Robin Romano, Photography Consultant
As a writer/director/cameraman, Robin Romano has worked in Canadian news programming and international documentary television. His most recent projects have been Death of a Slave Boy, a two-hour special shot in Pakistan for European broadcast and Globalization and Human Rights, hosted by Charlayne Hunter Gault for PBS. As a still photographer, Mr. Romano is represented by Alan Kaplan Studios. He has taught Advanced Cinematography at the Graduate Film Institute of NYU, was visiting instructor at Columbia Graduate Film School and has lectured at Rhode Island School of Design and the Oak Institute for International Human Rights at Colby College.
