Staff

Renee Bowers

Executive Director

As the Executive Director of the Fair Trade Federation, Renee manages the strategic, administrative, and programmatic aspects of Federation. Prior to joining the Fair Trade Federation, Renee built long term, sustainable fair trade relationships with artisan groups around the world.  As a buyer at Ten Thousand Villages, she worked directly with producer groups in India, Indonesia, and Sri Lanka to develop fairly traded product, build artisan capacity, and explore the impact of fair trade.   

Renee has diverse experience within the non-profit and crafts sectors, both in the United States and abroad.   She served as the Child Care Resource and Referral Director at the Pender County Partnership for Children, where she helped small business owners achieve their professional development goals.   As a Senior Performing Arts Fellow with the American Institute of Indian Studies, Bowers worked closely with traditional puppeteers and puppet carvers in Karnataka, South India. She also has lived and worked in Latin America, where she conducted workshops on the use of low-cost, locally available arts materials.

Renee has a BA from Earlham College in Richmond, Indiana.  She also holds a graduate certificate in Socially Responsible and Sustainable Apparel Business from the University of Delaware. 

Madeline Kreider Carlson
Membership and Program Manager

Madeline Kreider Carlson has served as the Membership and Program Manager of the Fair Trade Federation since October 2011. Her duties include processing applicants for membership in the Federation, liaising with applicants and members, and overseeing events and outreach efforts. 

Before coming to the Fair Trade Federation, Madeline completed a year-long independent study of the art and socio-economic significance of crafts and women’s craft organizations, funded by a Thomas J. Watson Fellowship. She spent time with craftswomen and gaining an understanding of the challenges they face as well as the promise that lies in communities of artisans. As well as evaluating the efficacy of craft production as a means of grassroots development for women with little formal education and few employment opportunities, Madeline studied weaving, embroidery, basketry, batik, and felt-craft.

Madeline has studied, volunteered, and worked with fair trade companies and organizations in the U.S., Guatemala, Nicaragua, Egypt, Uganda, Indonesia, and Mongolia. Raised in a Mennonite family, Madeline has been acquainted with the fair trade movement her entire life. A native of St. Paul, Minnesota, Madeline studied Latin American history, U.S. imperial history, and fine arts at Haverford College, and spent one semester studying North African history and sustainable development at Al Akhawayn University in Morocco. She has worked at the Gallery of Heroes and Martyrs Museum in Esteli, Nicaragua; the Library Company of Philadelphia; and the Haverford College Office of Admissions.

Kathryn Schramm

Small Business Development Fellow

Kathryn Schramm is a junior at American University, studying business administration, entrepreneurship and international relations. She is interested in developing countries and would like to work in French speaking Africa in the future. Raised outside of Chicago, she enjoys traveling and spent the summer in Montréal, Québec studying French, as well as visiting her 50^th state, North Dakota!