Shawna Bader-Blau, Executive Director

Shawna Bader-Blau leads the Solidarity Center, the largest global worker rights organization based in the United States. Since October 2011, she has served as executive director of an organization of more than 220 staff in Washington, D.C., and some 30 field offices, implementing programs in about 60 countries. She has been with the organization for 15 years.

Shawna is an advocate and activist for safe, dignified and family-supporting livelihoods—where workers can exercise their fundamental labor rights and have a voice in shaping work conditions and public policies that impact their lives. She is a leading advocate helping link the human rights community with the labor movement’s struggle to protect worker rights. She works to ensure that worker rights issues are part of policy discussions on international development and within the women’s movement and broader civil society.

Shawna regularly testifies as an expert on worker and human rights at U.S. congressional briefings and hearings. She organizes and co-convenes discussions on the protection of worker rights in times of closing space and increased impunity, bringing together rights defenders, workers, UN agencies, governments and labor unions to find common solutions. And she represents the Solidarity Center at conferences and policy discussions around the world, promoting social justice, gender equity, decent work and more inclusive economic development and democratic societies.

Shawna has worked in the field of international development and human rights for 17 years and has lived or worked in more than 25 countries. Prior to her appointment as executive director, Shawna served as the Solidarity Center’s regional program director for the Middle East and North Africa (MENA). She is an Arabic speaker and a recognized expert on authoritarian regimes and civil society. She holds a master’s degree from Georgetown University and a bachelor’s degree from the University of California, Berkeley.

Shawna also is on the board of the Business and Human Rights Resource Center and on the advisory board of Foreign Policy for America, and is former vice chair of the Board of Directors of InterAction, the largest alliance of U.S.-based international nongovernmental organizations (NGOs).

See testimony, speeches, and interviews and publications by Shawna Bader-Blau.

EXECUTIVE TEAM

Al Davidoff, Organizational and Leadership Development Director

Sarah McKenzie, Program Coordination Director

Mary Markowicz, Program Quality, Learning and Compliance Director

Quoc Nguyen, Finance Director

PROGRAM DIRECTORS

Hind Cherrouk, Regional Program Director, Middle East and North Africa

Kate Conradt, Communications Director

Tom Egan, Strategic Research and Campaigns Development Director

Christopher Johnson, Regional Program Director, Africa

Arina C. Lester, Lead Development Officer

Molly McCoy, Policy Director

Kelly Macías, Equality and Inclusion Co-Director

Neha Misra, Migration and Human Trafficking Senior Specialist

Hanad Mohamud, Program Coordination and Leadership Associate Director

Joell Molina, Trade Union Strengthening Director

Catherine Pajic, Organizational Development for Recruitment and Hiring Systems Deputy Director

Robin R. Runge, Equality and Inclusion Co-Director

Lauren Stewart, Regional Program Director, Americas

Rudy Porter, Regional Program Director, Europe and Central Asia

Tim Ryan, Regional Program Director, Asia

Jeff Vogt, Rule of Law Director

ADMINISTRATION AND FINANCE

Erika Fagan, Program Quality, Learning and Compliance Deputy Director

Michael Lawrence, Controller

Johannes Schaefer, Program Quality, Learning and Compliance Senior Adviser

Stoniek Staniszweski, Information Technology Senior Adviser

Darcy Wertz, Director of Operations