Gerardo Reyes Chavez is a key leader of the Coalition of Immokalee Workers’ (CIW), mobilizing communities across the world to advocate for the rights of exploited workers. Through CIW’s Fair Food Program, Gerardo has facilitated unique partnerships among farmers, farmworkers, and retail food companies to ensure humane wages and working conditions for the workers on the participating farms. Gerardo leads workers’ rights education programs, as well as managing the complexities of complaints of abuses in the fields, wage theft claims, and investigating cases of modern-day slavery. He has spoken publicly about the Fair Food Program at events such as Harvard Law School’s Labor and Worklife Program Convening on Farm Labor Challenges and the Interfaith Council on Corporate Responsibility’s Multi-stakeholder Roundtable on Ethical Recruitment. Gerardo is a 2018 Aspen Institute Ricardo Salinas Scholar.

About Greg Asbed

A fierce advocate fighting against forced labor, sexual violence, and other gross human rights violations, Greg Asbed was awarded the 2015 Presidential Award for Extraordinary Efforts in Combating Human Trafficking at the White House on behalf of the Fair Food Program (FFP). As a co-founder, Greg leads the development of innovative market-based enforcement mechanisms, rights standards, and worker education processes. Through this program he coordinates relations among many agriculture stakeholders, including corporate buyers, industry suppliers, and farm workers. He has consulted both nationally and internationally on the adaption of the FFP to other contexts. He is the co-founder of the Worker-driven Social Responsibility (WSR) model, which has been recognized for its unique effectiveness in combating the above-mentioned human rights violations in agriculture. Greg has won numerous awards, including the 2014 Clinton Global Citizen Award and the 2016 James Beard Leadership Award. He was also named a 2017 MacArthur Fellow. He is an advisory board member of the EU’s Horizon 2020 project to end forced labor in supply chains.