Cathleen Caron
Founder and Executive Director
Courtney Davies
Operations Manager
Yadira Huerta
Program Assistant
Ashwini Sukthankar
Consultant - Foreign Temporary Worker Scoping Study
Griselda Vega
Staff Attorney/Mexico Program Director
Cathleen Caron
Cathleen is an attorney with over a decade of human rights experience in the United States and abroad. Prior to launching Global Workers, she was in East Timor where she directed a national needs assessment of the human trafficking situation for the Alola Foundation, chaired by East Timor’s First Lady. Additionally, Cathleen worked in Florida as a staff attorney with the Migrant Farmworker Justice Project, successfully litigating class action employment cases on behalf of foreign migrant farmworkers. She has also consulted with Realizing Rights: The Ethical Globalization Initiative on labor migration issues.
Before entering law school, she worked in Guatemala for over three years where she assisted Guatemalan lawyers in domestic human rights litigation, researched the needs of internally displaced persons in urban squatter settlements, and directed a regional indigenous rights program for the United Nations.
Cathleen is a summa cum laude graduate of the American University Washington College of Law and Dartmouth College. Several institutions have lauded her lifetime commitment to human rights. From her law school she received the Outstanding Law Graduate Award and the Peter Cicchino Award for Outstanding Public Advocacy, as a student then again as an alumnus. Her undergraduate institution awarded her the Martin Luther King Jr. Social Justice Award for Ongoing Commitment. In 2010, the American Constitutional Society bestowed her the David Carliner Public Interest Award.
Courtney Davies
Courtney received a Bachelors in Business Administration from Pace University in the spring of 2009, with a minor in Latin American Studies and Spanish. While studying for her BBA, Courtney became actively involved with the Latino community through volunteer work and a summer spent studying Latin American Studies and Spanish in Buenos Aires, Argentina. During her stay, she had the opportunity to travel across South America, including the countries of Argentina, Brazil, Peru and Uruguay. Upon returning to the United States, Courtney obtained an internship with the non-profit organization, ACCION USA, as part of the Business Development and Financial Literacy team. She led grassroots efforts to educate global migrant entrepreneurs on the financial system in the United States, and created bilingual resource guides on obtaining credit in America.
Yadira Huerta
A graduate of the University of Notre Dame’s Film Television, and Theater department, Yadira Huerta has worked to bring awareness to social justice issues through Latino Arts and Culture throughout her career. While in school, she became active in M.E.Ch.A (Movimiento Estudiantil Chicano de Aztlán), and helped coordinate events and protests such as the “Beat the Bell” march to the Taco Bell headquarters with her peers in conjunction with the Coalition of Immokalee Workers. In the summer of 2006, she traveled to Oaxaca, Mexico, to examine socio-political issues facing this country through collaboration with NGO’s such as Educa, Las Razas, Huicholes y Plaguicidas, Eco Alebrijes, and the Rancho Nuevo indigenous community, among others. During that same summer, she interned at the legendary Chicano theater, El Teatro Campesino, where she merged her passion for the fair treatment of migrant workers with her passion for theater and the arts. Committed to advocating through her work, she returned to the University of Notre Dame, and continued to direct and produce Chicano theater that dealt with a variety social justice issues. Since then, Yadira has worked as Planning and Development Associate with the Havana Film Festival of New York, and as Director of Communications, Company Manager, and Director of Internship and Volunteer Programs at the Latino International Theater Festival of New York, Inc. (TeatroStageFest), two of New York’s most prominent non-profit entities showcasing Latino theater, film and arts.
Ashwini Sukthankar
Ashwini Sukthankar researches and advocates on international labor rights and transnational labor regulation; her work has included projects with the ILO, USAID, foundations, global union federations, and national unions. She has also been closely involved in a number of private voluntary initiatives on international labor rights, including impact assessments on the Fairtrade Labelling Organizations and aspects of the Better Work/ Better Factories program. Her prior experience includes serving as the director of the International Commission for Labor Rights, where from 2005 to 2009 she coordinated a network of labor lawyers and labor rights experts to provide pro bono assistance to workers' organizations worldwide, addressing corporate accountability and trade union rights. From 2002 to 2005, Ashwini was the Director of Investigations and Research at the Worker Rights Consortium, where she coordinated assessments of labor standards compliance, and wrote reports on issues in international and domestic law and policy with respect to labor. Ashwini is fluent in English, Marathi, and Hindi, conversant in French and has some knowledge of Spanish. She is a graduate of Harvard Law School.
Griselda Vega
Griselda is an attorney with seven years of experience representing low-income Latino clients in general civil litigation matters. For over five years, she represented farm worker clients primarily on employment, civil rights, class action litigation, as well as, consumer rights in state and federal court with Columbia Legal Services (CLS) in Washington State. While at CLS, Griselda also undertook legislative and administrative advocacy, working on the first ever Cholinesterase Medical Monitoring program in the country for pesticide workers; as well as conducted community education to migrants through one-on-one outreach, presentations, radio and other media outlets. Griselda also worked for the Legal Assistance Foundation of Chicago, focusing on family and housing law.
Prior to attending law school, she worked as an Assistant Development Director for The National Museum of Mexican Art in Chicago, IL. She has been actively involved in the American Bar Association and the Young Lawyer’s Division since 2002, holding a number of leadership positions.
Griselda graduated from the University of Iowa-College of Law, and her undergraduate degree from Briar Cliff University. She is licensed in both Illinois and Washington State.
Global Workers wishes to thank the following individuals for their work and support.
A special thank you goes out to Global Workers' past team members:
Dirk Ewers, Program Assistant, 2010; Kate D'Adamo, Program Assistant, 2007-2010; Elizabeth Rosemeyer, Managing Director 2005.
Law Firms - Blank Rome LLP, Pepper Hamilton LLC, and Stroock & Stroock & Lavan LLP.
Students from American University, Barnard College, Brooklyn Law School, Dartmouth College, Emory Law School, Fordham University, Harvard University, New York Law School, Villanova University, New York University, Rutgers School of Law, and University of North Carolina Chapel Hill.
And the countless other individuals who continue to provide advice and/or financial support.
Global Workers Justice Alliance. 789 Washington Ave. Brooklyn, NY 11238