Marissa Nuncio

Director

Marissa Nuncio has been building power with garment workers since 2001 when she joined Sweatshop Watch, a co-founding organization of the GWC, where her role was to support the newly established Center and its first campaigns. Inspired by work at the intersection of law and organizing, Marissa went on to earn her Juris Doctorate at Loyola Law School and is a member of the National Lawyers Guild. She has represented unions, car wash workers, day laborers, and farmworkers and is proud to have returned to the GWC in 2013 to help frame its strategic organizing direction with its members and amazing staff. Marissa holds a Bachelor of Arts in Women’s Studies from Mount Holyoke College.

Daisy Gonzalez

Lead Organizer (2018-2021), Organizing Director (2021-2022), Campaign Director (2023)

Daisy Gonzalez has over 10 years of experience in community organizing around issues of responsible development, union jobs, local hiring, and affordable housing. She is deeply committed to building power alongside low-income communities of color. She co-led the effort in 2021 to pass garment worker led legislation — the Garment Worker Protection Act —  in California. Daisy is proud to be a part of the GWC team and to work with garment workers everyday to fight exploitation in the industry.

Ana Cisneros Alvarez

Legal Director

Ana has over a decade of experience in workers’ rights. From organizing, to zealously advocating for the rights of low-income communities of color, Ana has experience in various facets of the struggle for justice. She has worked at worker centers, non-profit legal service providers, and government agencies. Ana feels privileged to be able to play a role in the mission of GWC and work with a phenomenal team and dedicated members.

Liz Limeta 

Leadership Development Organizer

Liz is an organizer with over 6 years of community organizing experience. Her passion for organizing in the labor movement began after she interned at the Garment Worker Center in 2016 where she learned about brand campaigns through her work on the Ross Exploits Campaign. Her organizing is influenced by her experience having grown up on unceded Tongva land, Pico-Union, and witnessing the exploitation her parents experienced as garment workers. She is excited to build popular and political education approaches into the leadership development of garment workers.

Nayantara Banerjee

Industry Researcher & Strategist 

Nayantara Banerjee is a former small business owner with over a decade of experience in custom garment tailoring & alterations. She studied Fashion Design as an undergraduate, and pursued graduate studies researching Labor & Responsibility in the Apparel Industry. After several years of volunteering with Los Angeles’ Garment Worker Center, including facilitating creative sewing and pattern-making classes to upskill members, Nayantara is honored to work alongside garment workers in campaigns and research that help to transform the garment industry.

Santa Puac

Member since 2015 | Organizer 2022

Santa has been a seamstress since she came to this country. Now that she is an Organizer, she is proud to work and help the community and also to help her family. She feels she is a great support for her children and husband.

Rebecca Rivera

Operations Manager & Bookkeeper

As a designer of her own sustainable fashion brand, Rebecca has advocated for a change in the industry since 2014. She learned about GWC in 2020 while giving an interview about the intersection of injustices between people and planet, and quickly reached out to volunteer with the organization. Volunteering led her to apply for a position on staff, and she continues to be awed by the work of the team at GWC.

Jonathan Coleman

Communications Manager

Jonathan comes to GWC with a background in organizing, campaigning, journalism, communications and research around critical sites of struggle in LA: the 2028 Olympics, Echo Park Lake, hotels as housing, police expansion, and fareless transit. He moved to Los Angeles the same year GWC opened its doors and is proud to be a part of the fight for garment workers rights and to work alongside garment workers to build power.

Gloria Miguel

Organizer

Gloria Miguel has worked in the garment industry for 16 years and has been a GWC member for 4 years. And now she is a part of the GWC staff as an organizer. She is so excited to be part of the staff because she knows firsthand the problems that a garment worker goes through in the factories. Gloria is proud to help inform and empower garment workers.

Rebecca Betancourt 

Member Support Coordinator 

Rebecca has over 10 years of experience working with asylum seekers, refugees, and undocumented immigrants. They graduated magna cum laude with a bachelor’s degree in Gender, Ethnicity, Multicultural Studies from Cal Poly Pomona in 2018 and is currently pursuing a master’s degree in Latin American Studies at Cal State LA.

Kathy Sorto

Case Manager

Kathy is a case manager with experience advocating for housing rights for communities most impacted by the pandemic. She is deeply passionate about sustainable fashion and working towards creating an ethical supply chain at all levels. Kathy is excited to be working alongside garment workers and a dedicated team of staff in an effort to transform the garment industry.

Anahí Cruz

Coalition Coordinator 

Anahi was the first in her family to attend college and received her Bachelor’s Degree in Psychology Law and Society from the University of California, Riverside in 2019. In June of 2022, she graduated with a Master of Public Policy from UCLA Luskin School of Public Affairs with an emphasis in Immigration and Latinx Social Policy. As a first-generation woman of color from a mixed-status family, advocating for low-income immigrant communities is her passion. With strong policy research and analytical skills as well as interpersonal communication skills that have allowed her to successfully advocate for workers, BIPOC, and immigrants in her community, Anahí is dedicated to spearheading and maintaining GWC’s coalition building efforts.

Salma Rojas

Youth Organizer

Originally from a working class immigrant family in Phoenix Arizona, Salma Rojas has always been drawn to issues at the intersection of immigration, race, class, and labor. In 2017, she moved to Los Angeles to study Urban and Environmental Policy at Occidental College, where she organized on-campus  workers to combat exploitative work practices. Once she graduated in 2021, she started working as a tenant organizer at the Coalition for Economic Survival and transitioned into the Youth Organizer position at GWC in December 2022. She is honored and excited to work with youth and garment workers to continue instilling radical social change.

Ana Fabian

Organizer

Ana is an organizer with community and labor organizing experience. She began organizing as a youth in her community in Escondido and later organized alongside workers and students at UC Santa Barbara. Through conferences, she was introduced to GWC and the local anti sweatshop efforts. She is excited to continue building relationships, leaders, and a movement alongside garment workers to transform the garment industry.

Isaias Soto

Data Coordinator

Isaias has been working in data since 2016. They graduated from Cal Poly Pomona in 2018 with a B.S. in Mathematics with an emphasis in Statistics. They previously worked at The Bail Project as a Research Scientist, helping to empower others by making data accessible. Their goal is to continue to make data accessible and empower others to use data to effect change.

Amy Rodriguez

Office Assistant

A Boyle Heights native who comes from a working class family of former garment industry workers, Amy attributes her eagerness to learn about social institutions and their roles within labour, gender, race, family to her own intersecting identities. As a class of ’22 CSUN graduate who was once an apparel design major, she saw firsthand the exploitative and unsustainable practices that the fashion industry partakes in, and this experience in turn stoked her passion for sociology and chicano studies. At CSUN she dedicated herself to strengthening the bonds between her and the valley community where she advocated for underrepresented communities within various organizations — most notably the Invest in Youth Coalition — which works towards eliminating systemic barriers. Amy is honored to work alongside a team that is creating lasting, radical change within the garment industry. 

Valeria Coronado

Paralegal

Valeria joins GWC with a holistic experience in the apparel industry, community partnerships, and workers’ rights advocacy. Before joining GWC, Valeria facilitated partnerships with community organizations to increase student engagement throughout Los Angeles. As a student researcher for the UCLA Community Scholars program, Valeria worked with formerly incarcerated youth and formerly employed workers seeking to transform the juvenile justice system. Additionally, she has worked with organizations providing holistic legal and humanitarian support to asylum seekers at the U.S.-MX border. Valeria received her B.A. in Labor Studies and Chicanx/Central American Studies from UCLA and looks forward to continuing her commitment to workers’ rights!

Maggie Valenzuela

Organizing Director

Maggie comes to GWC with a wealth of experience in organizing working class communities, having worked with UNITE HERE — one of the nation’s strongest and largest unions — for 18 years, served as the Interim Executive Director for OCCORD, and most recently organized at LAANE for almost three years. As an immigrant, a devoted daughter to immigrant parents as and a single mother, Maggie has been organizing her whole life and has had the privilege of being a part of intense campaigns, led groups of workers and staff, and built strong teams to fight for economic justice that puts community and workers first. She hopes her son values where he comes from and is proud of the work his mom does.

Derek Richardson

Development Director

Derek Richardson has over 10 years of development experience spanning environmental advocacy, international policy, and historic preservation. Derek started his career in journalism and politics, including positions at the Democratic Party of Oregon and Oregon League of Conservation Voters in Portland, where he also held elected office as a Precinct Committee Person in HD 46. Derek moved to Los Angeles in 2015 to work at the Pacific Council on International Policy. Prior to joining GWC, he was Development Manager at the Los Angeles Conservancy. An Ohio native, Derek first became interested in workers’ rights inspired by the factory workers in his family, especially his grandmother who was a union meatpacker for over 25 years.

Maria Badillo

Staff Attorney

Maria has over 10 years experience working with indigent communities in Los Angeles. As a child of parents who worked in the garment industry for decades, she is passionate to fight for equitable treatment of all workers. Maria obtained her J.D. from Loyola Law School, and her undergraduate degree from UCLA. 

Eduardo Gonzalez

Organizer

Eddie is an organizer with extensive experience in community and labor organizing. He graduated from Cal State Dominguez Hills University with a bachelor’s degree in Sociology. Eddie is excited to join the GWC team and contribute to building worker power.