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Staff

Executive Director

Carmen K. Iezzi has served as the Executive Director of the Fair Trade Federation since October 2006. Among her responsibilities, Carmen manages the strategic, administrative, and programmatic aspects of Federation.

Previously, she oversaw the education and outreach programs for the Atlantic Council of the United States and directed the alumni relations program for the School of International Service (SIS) at American University (AU). While at the Atlantic Council, she acted as primary point of contact for the 2004 Pan-Atlantic Student Summit, held in conjunction with the NATO summit in Istanbul, and represented the Council before prime ministers, presidents, government officials, non-governmental organization representatives, educators, students, and many others. During her time at AU, she managed events on five continents and participated in the launch of the largest fundraising campaign in the University's history.

Graduating Phi Beta Kappa from SIS, Carmen stayed to complete her master's degree in International Politics with a focus on the impact of regional integration on good governance. In the course of her studies, Carmen provided analyses for NATO's Partnership for Peace in Mons, Belgium and worked in the United Nations Development Program Washington Office.

Presently, she writes and conducts research on a freelance basis, acts as Vice Chair of the Board of Directors for Ten Thousand Villages of Alexandria, and chairs the Millennium Development Goals Task Force for the UN Association of the National Capital Area. Born and raised outside of Pittsburgh, PA, Carmen has lived and studied in Brussels, Belgium, Havana, Cuba, and Washington DC.

Allison Bystrom

Program Assistant, Spring 2008

Allison Bystrom is a Canadian student from the University of Calgary studying international business and marketing. Her previous work experience has been with Calgary Technologies Inc, an economic development firm focusing on growing the information technologies sector in Calgary, and with Heritage Park Historical Village, where she was a member of the marketing team.

Allison got her first taste of international travel at the age of fourteen when she participated in a school exchange to Yokohama, Japan. A year later she traveled to Purdue University to attend an international youth conference. Both of these shorter trips instilled in her a love of traveling and experiencing other cultures resulting in the desire to actually live abroad. This goal was reached in the winter semester 2007 when she studied at the University of Maastricht, The Netherlands. She hopes the future will bring more opportunities for travel and she wants to continue studying and learning French and German.

While in DC, Allison will be a part of the NAFTA leaders program with the Washington Center for Internships. She hopes to gain a deeper understanding of the fair vs. free trade debate and to once again have the opportunity to apply classroom lessons in an environment that is very different from her previous experience. Allison would like to spend her next couple years gaining experience in international development or a related field, then continue her studies, either in a graduate program or law school.

Magogodi Makhene

Program Assistant, Spring 2008

Magogodi Makhene is an international business student in her senior year at Neumann College. Her interest in fair trade stems from a life-long interest in economic development. Magogodi is a South African native from Soweto, who grew up during anti-apartheid economic sanctions and political unrest. This period was formative and still informs her passion for social justice and democracy. She comes to FTF after considerable work with the Bright Lights Initiative, a Philadelphia based youth development nonprofit program. As part of this organization, Magogodi oversaw programming and fund-raising, and played a key role in spearheading the initiative's expansion to a third satellite school in North Philadelphia.

Magogodi is intrigued by the impact non-government organizations have on empowering marginalized communities, but her long term career plans are ultimately concerned with the role of business and market efficiencies in spurring social entrepreneurship and sustainable economic development. She brings her passion for business social responsibility to FTF, where she hopes to expand her understanding of how fair trade companies remain competitive in a global market while delivering higher returns to producers and upholding fair trade ethos.

Magogodi is a 2008 Soros Fellowship for New Americans finalist and hopes to pursue graduate work studying international development and financial economics this fall. She is also a keen writer, with several awards including first prize for the 2007 Elie Wiesel Prize in Ethics Essay Contest.