Our people

José is one of the longest-serving FCWA team members, getting his start as a dedicated intern and volunteer from 2013-2016. He worked with Alliance member UFCW Local 770 in Los Angeles as an El Super Boycott Lead, which put him front and center in food worker struggles on the ground. José also comes with communications experience as a volunteer leader of the Dream Team LA, an immigrant rights organization. He also runs trainings and other member recruitment and retention activities for Dream Team LA.

Fabiola is originally from Chihuahua, Mexico. She worked as an organizer in her home country supporting the work of Zapatista communities in Chiapas. Fabiola has worked with migrant farmworkers in the U.S. since 2009, first as a health case manager and researcher in the egg, dairy, apple, and blueberry industries in Maine. Later she worked as a researcher and labor organizer with dairy workers in New York at the Workers Center of CNY. She has also participated and led research projects with different immigrant communities across the country. Before joining FCWA, Fabiola was an organizer for the New York immigration coalition (NYIC), an organization that advocates for immigrants rights in your state. Fabiola currently lives in Syracuse, NY, she has a MA in Cultural Anthropology and is a Ph.D. candidate in Anthropology from Syracuse University.

Christina has over 20 years of experience in community organizing and advocating for food policy grounded in racial and worker justice. Her work began centering indigenous leaders in environmental justice initiatives in Southern Belize and led to organizing across the country in service to communities of color building power. At FCWA, Christina provides direct campaign support to members and grassroots coalitions in holding food suppliers accountable to fair labor practices and transforming our public supply chains to protect food worker organizing. She also serves on the boards of the HEAL Food Alliance and Food for the Spirit.

Elizabeth Walle has more than a decade of experience in nonprofit fundraising under her belt, coming to FCWA in 2018 from the world of the arts. In her time here, she has been thrilled to learn about the labor movement from many experienced organizers and worker-leaders across the Alliance’s membership, and now counts herself as a passionate advocate for all workers and the right to organize.

Mark is a longtime union organizer with a background in education & training on empowerment and collective bargaining for underprivileged communities. Originally from the Boyle Heights area of Los Angeles, Mark currently resides in Portland, Oregon. He is a founder of the Burgerville Workers Union, the first fast food union in the nation in over 40 years, bargaining their first contract and organizing nearly a dozen strikes. He continues to assist workers across the Pacific Northwest to organize independently.

Itzhel is a member of Dream Team LA, a grassroots organization that advocates for the rights of immigrants across the country. On top of that, she has been a volunteer for the City of Los Angeles for over two decades, helping with all types of community events. As a teenager, she helped with the growth of the Heart of Los Angeles Youth Program for four years and won a grant for college for all of her hard volunteer work.

Now as she continues advancing her career, she attends Paul Mitchell, the school for her cosmetology license and still manages to help her community by offering haircuts and makeovers for free. She often visits Skid Row, senior centers, and centers for battered woman to help organize haircut events along with the non-profit Fred Jordan Missions organization.

She came to Alliance through UFCW Local 770 in Los Angeles as a El Super Boycotter in the union’s campaign fighting the injustice that immigrant food workers endured at the grocery chain.