Allison Fletcher Acosta – Communications & Technology Coordinator
In 1996, Allison interned at Boston JwJ through the AFL-CIO’s Union Summer program. The following year, Allison helped to start a Student-Labor Coalition which played an important role in organizing cafeteria workers with HERE at Bard College. After a year working retail in Boston and two years as office manager at Big Brothers Big Sisters of Metropolitan Chicago, Allison returned to her hometown of Washington, DC and joined the national JwJ staff as office manager in 2000. Since 2002, Allison has overseen national print, video, and online communications for the organization and works with local coalitions to develop their communications skills and mobilization capacity through technology.
Treston Davis-Faulkner – Field Director
Before becoming the National Field Director in 2008, Treston served as the Southern Region Organizer for Jobs with Justice for 6 years helping to develop JwJ Coalitions in Florida, Georgia, Tennessee, Texas, Kentucky, Virginia and Washington DC. Prior to that Treston helped to start the Student Labor Action Project as former local student, community, and labor organizer in Philadelphia and at Temple University, as well as organizing around student issues on the national level with the US Student Association.
Maria F. Escobar – Student Labor Action Project Coordinator
A graduate from Florida State University, Maria was active on campus and within the Latino community though her work as a radio dj and as president of the Colombian Student Association. Maria also served as treasurer of the Progressive Student Assembly, which mobilized more than 3,000 students and community members around juvenile detention centers and to demand justice in Florida’s “boot camps”. For the past year, Maria has been working with the Student Labor Action Project, and has helped students nationwide develop social and economic justice campaigns on their campuses and has trained students in grassroots organizing as a GROW trainer for the U.S. Student Association. Her views have been shaped by her own experience of coming to the U.S. with her family in 2000 as political refugees from Colombia.
Sarita Gupta –Executive Director
Sarita Gupta was appointed the Executive Director of Jobs with Justice (JwJ) in 2007. Sarita had served for five years as the national field director, overseeing the national field program and leading on strategic programs such as health care justice, organizing and collective bargaining rights campaigns, and immigrant workers’ rights. Prior to joining the national JwJ staff in 2002, Sarita served as the Executive Director of Chicago Jobs with Justice (JwJ) for four years, where she helped build the coalition to over 70 member organizations and unions. Sarita began organizing as a student on campus. She was elected President of the U.S. Student Association (USSA), the nation’s oldest and largest grassroots legislative student organization, in 1996. While working at USSA, she was instrumental in the development of the Student Labor Action Project, a project of JwJ and USSA.
Carlos Jimenez – Young Worker Project Coordinator
Raised in a working-class immigrant family in Los Angeles, Carlos first became politically active in high school when he joined MEChA. Access to higher education, immigrant rights, as well as fighting back constant budget cuts were some of the first issues around which he organized; subsequently he did various union organizing campaigns involving diverse workers including healthcare workers and hotel workers. He most recently ended his tenure as national coordinator for the Student Labor Action Project (SLAP), where he worked with local SLAP chapters and other students to develop and implement campus campaigns promoting worker’s rights by winning living wages, good contracts, and the right to form unions. Carlos is now overseeing the newly created Young Worker Project of Jobs with Justice which is creating a coalition of unions, worker centers, and other organizations to engage, promote, and increase young worker density and visibility in the union and worker’s rights movement.
Huy Ong – Field Organizer (West)
Prior to joining the JwJ network, Huy worked at the United States Student Association (USSA) where he led their state expansion efforts. He was charged with strengthening and developing local coalitions of student organizations and activists by building grassroots power while connecting them to the national student network. In addition, he organized national trainings and provided technical assistance for the staff of these local coalitions. Prior to his this work, Huy served as a field organizer for the USSA Foundation’s successful 2004 national electoral organizing project. Huy attended the University of Oregon where he studied Sociology and was actively involved in student labor and anti-racism campaigns.
Erica Smiley – Field Organizer (South)
Erica Smiley is the Southern Regional Field Organizer for Jobs with Justice. She has also held the position of National Workers’ Rights Board Coordinator and Media Organizer for the network. In the past, she was National Field Director of Choice USA, a pro-choice organization focusing primarily on youth access to reproductive healthcare. She is originally from Greensboro, North Carolina.
Francis Tobin – Field Organizer (Midwest)
Fran Tobin has 20 years experience in social justice organizing on issues such as affordable housing, living wages, fair trade & globalization, economic development, ecology and peace. Fran was the architect of Chicago’s most effective housing program, the Low Income Housing Trust Fund, and state coordinator of the national coalition to save subsidized housing. As Director of a community affiliate of Chicago Jobs with Justice, Fran was active in winning Chicago’s first Living Wage law, demanding the right to organize for workers of publicly subsidized employers and helped workers win fair contracts at multiple worksites.
Ricardo Valadez – Program & Communications Director
Prior to joining Jobs with Justice, Ricardo acted as Organizing Director for One Nation Enlightened, a youth organizing group based in Denver, CO. Prior to that, Ricardo worked for five years at SEIU Locals in Seattle and Denver, organizing janitors, nurses, and public and private sector workers. Ricardo brings both organizing and media/communications experience to this position.
