Board of Directors

Towards the end of a 10 years career developing IT systems in the pharmaceutical industry and getting burnt out from corporate politics, Marcie and her life partner David spent a weekend “discovering” their passions.  Celebrating differences, respecting others & their culture, exotic travel, fairness, justice, living life to the fullest - sense of purpose, a meaningful existencewere top of their list!

Four years ago and with this list in hand, they started a new adventure with a fair trade retail store.  Since then, Marcie has grown her business from a part-time venture selling at festivals & markets to a regionally-known fair trade store.  They have also forged partnerships with local schools, universities, and other community organizations by speaking about fair trade as invited guests, sponsoring student events, working with research students on global issues, as well as assisting the development of a 4 year program on social entrepreneurship.  Through her work, Marcie has also sponsored an interscholastic fair trade conference, hosted the Peace & Justice film series, helped to start a food co-op and supported community gardening/farming projects. As they grow, Marcie will continue to promote an awareness of history and an appreciation of culture through the provision of art, crafts, food, and music.
 
Alessandra Bravo
President, Lucuma Designs, Sarasota, FL

Alessandra Bravo has been creating opportunities for artists while raising awareness for Peru’s beautiful folk art and traditions since 1998. With her husband, she founded Lucuma Designs as an online retailer and wholesaler joining a passion for original crafts with her desire to give back to her country. Today, over 200 families inPeru benefit from the collaborative design, superior quality and mutual trust those six to nine years of continual partnership has made possible.

Since joining the FTF in 1999, she has been a strong advocate for collaboration among fair traders. She created and runs the WFTF email list where over 90 FTF wholesalers exchange ideas and develop cooperative marketing projects. Serving in the FTF board since 2002, she envisions that FTF will support and guide members in their fair trade work by creating an environment of openness and trust where collaboration can flourish.  Alessandra believes that members’ shared values and their commitment to people and trust-based relationships are what distinguishes and sets the FTF apart.

Robert Chase - Secretary
President, SERRV International, Madison, WI

Since 1989, Bob Chase has served as President and CEO of SERRV International, a 55 year old non-profit alternative trade and International Development Organization importing crafts, clothing, coffee and other products from co-operatives in 35 developing nations and marketing them through a wholesale network of 3,500 churches, stores, and direct-mail catalogs. In previous careers, Bob managed a bank, owned an import store and an alternative trade shop, taught course at the taught at the University of Wisconsin Center, coordinated activities in Recife, Brazil for Church World Service, served as a Peace Corps volunteer in Northeast Brazil (Alagoas) doing community development and education work.  He earned a Bachelor of Arts from the University of Wisconsin and has taken MBA level courses at Frostburg State University and M. Div. courses at the Garrett Theological Seminary. Presently, Bob serves on a number of boards, including KenyaConnect, Wisconsin Governors’ Commission on the United Nations, and Chocolate Matters, Inc. He is a previous treasurer and member of the Executive Committee of the International Fair Trade Association. He lives inMadison, WI with his wife and is the father of two children.

Doug Dirks
Director of Public Relations, Ten Thousand Villages USA, Akron, PA

While working for Mennonite Central Committee (MCC) in Bangladesh as a Job Creation Administrator, Doug helped to start several small businesses to employ very poor women who were otherwise considered unemployable. It was obvious that these sales made a tremendous difference in the women’s lives and Doug returned from Bangladesh in 1985 eager to promote the sale of the products these women make. Since that time, Doug has held a variety of positions with Ten Thousand Villages, serving as Marketing Director and Producer Relations Director for Ten Thousand Villages USA and Executive Director of Ten Thousand Villages Canada. In 2002, he returned to Ten Thousand Villages USA as Marketing Director. Doug has traveled to most of the 35 countries where Ten Thousand Villages buys products and has met many of the artisans who handcraft the products featured at Ten Thousand Villages. This travel has enabled Doug to collect many personal artisan stories showing how sales through Ten Thousand Villages has positively affected the lives of artisans, their families and communities. A native of Native of Abbotsford, BC, Canada, Doug holds a degree in Commerce from the University of British Columbia.

Tex Dworkin
Manager, Global Exchange Fair Trade Online Store, Berkeley, CA

Tex Dworkin is an independent fair trade consultant and manager of the Global Exchange Fair Trade Online Store, and active participant in the fair trade movement. She has a BA in Social Thought and Political Economy, a background in cooperatively structured business, and years of buying experience with Whole Foods Market. Believing in the power of business enterprise as a tool for social change, Tex's passion for socially conscious business drew her to the fair trade movement, where she has traveled to various parts of the world on direct buying trips, delegations, and educational speaking tours. Tex's work in fair trade, e-commerce, and cause-based marketing continues to inspire her to act on behalf of the expanding fair trade movement.

Dana Geffner
Founder, Pacha World, Occidental CA

In 2002, Dana Geffner started Pacha World, a fair trade organization that educates consumers about fair trade and sells handicrafts from around the world.  At Pacha events around the country, Dana discusses fair trade in length, the coffee crisis, free trade agreements, and often gains support from guest speakers, such as representatives of TransFairUSA, the Mexico Solidarity Network, and people from developing nations working in cooperatives.  Dana spends several months out of each year doing consultant work in developing countries with artisan cooperatives to help them increase their sales as well help them understand how to continue to market their crafts without being exploited.

Dana started Pacha World after traveling extensively through Central America and volunteering in Nicaragua.  Upon her return to the United States she vowed to work towards economic justice in developing nations and started by gathering friends at their homes to talk about issues that face people today while selling beautiful handicrafts from cooperatives.  Today, Pacha works with over 15 producer groups in several countries worldwide and coordinates Fair Trade home parties and special events throughout the country.   Pacha also has a consultant program so that more and more people can learn about the importance of fair trade.

Prior to starting Pacha World, Dana co-owned and operated an event planning firm that specialized in producing large conferences and trade shows for high tech and entertainment companies.  She holds a BS in Marketing and a Single Subject Teaching Credential.

Erin Gorman - Vice-Chair
CEO, Divine Chocolate USA, Washington DC

Erin Gorman is Chief Executive Officer of Divine Chocolate in the USA. Previously she served as the Program Director for Co-op America, expanding consumer activism to grow the green and fair trade marketplace. Erin has been a consultant for several fair trade nonprofit organizations and commercial companies. Erin lives in Washington, D.C.

Priya Haji
CEO, World of Good, Berkeley, CA

Priya Haji built the concept for World of Good while completing her MBA at UC Berkeley. After studying the fair trade movement in the US, Priya realized that the lives of thousands of women artisans the world over could be improved by extending the growing power of conscious consumerism from agricultural products to handcrafts. Her year's travel and interaction with craftsmen across Asia and South America led her to understand that the most important challenge faced by artisans was access to volume markets. She has led the company from inception to its current stage with a focus on using the engine of enterprise to create social impact. She also serves as the Board Chair for the World of Good: Development Organization, the 501(c)3 non-profit sister organization of World of Good, Inc.

An experienced social entrepreneur, Priya started creating social enterprises in high school. Her first endeavor was helping establish a free health clinic called Health for All founded by her father in her Texas hometown. During her senior year at Stanford University, she co-founded Free at Last, a broad based substance abuse and social services organization in East Palo Alto. As the Executive Director she grew the program to become a national model program serving 3,000 people per year, with 10 facilities, an annual budget of $2.5 million, and a staff of 60. She was recognized in 1998 as one of America's 10 Most Outstanding Young Leaders (Brick Award) by the Do Something Foundation, MTV and Mademoiselle Magazine.

Seth Petchers – Chair
Program Manager, Oxfam America, Boston, MA

Seth Petchers is the Coffee Program Manager for Oxfam America.  In this role, Seth integrates Oxfam's policy, corporate engagement, public education, and development work as it pertains to coffee.  Prior to joining Oxfam America, Seth's most recent work was a joint project with the non-profit organization Chocolate Matters and the World Bank.  This project focused on market assessment and development of business models that add value to cocoa produced by small farmers.  Prior to his work at Chocolate Matters, Seth worked with the International Task Force on Commodity Risk Management, housed at the World Bank.  His contributions included curriculum development for trainers and farmers and implementation of training programs in Nicaragua and Tanzania.  Seth also worked as a Certification Manager at TransFair USA, the fair trade certification agency for the U.S. market.  At TransFair, Seth's responsibilities included working with US importers and farmer cooperatives to remove obstacles in product sourcing, as well as facilitating new business relationships between importers and cooperatives. In addition, Seth has worked in India where he conducted impact assessments of development projects sponsored by a small-farmer mango cooperative.  

Seth holds a Master of Business Administration and a Master of Public Policy from Georgetown University and a Bachelor of Arts in South Asian Studies and Religion from Oberlin College.

Kevin Ward
President, Global Crafts, Edgewater, FL

Kevin is currently the president of Global Crafts, a fair trade import and wholesale company. Kevin's interest in fair trade took on a practical application when he was placed in Kisumu, Kenya as a Computer Science Lecturer at Kisumu National Polytechnic in 1999. As a VSO Volunteer from 1999 - 2002. Kevin used his interest in e-commerce and Fair Trade to co-founded Global Crafts as an online project to support the local artisans in the community he was placed.