Staff
Bjorn Skorpen Claeson, Ph.D., Executive Director of SweatFree Communities, was lead organizer of PICA's Bangor Clean Clothes Campaign, a national model for community-based anti-sweatshop activism, from 1996 to 2005. The Campaign made Bangor the first city in North America to pass a resolution that urges area retailers to sell clothing made in accordance with international standards of ethical production. The Campaign also led organizing initiatives resulting in groundbreaking sweatfree purchasing ordinances in local cities, and a groundbreaking first-in-the-nation anti-sweatshop state purchasing law passed in June 2001. Under Mr. Claeson's leadership the Bangor Clean Clothes Campaign was a founding member of SweatFree Communities. Mr. Claeson became SweatFree Communities' first staff person in July 2003. Since March 2007, Mr. Claeson has served as a member on the interim steering committee of the State and Local Government Sweatfree Consortium. Mr. Claeson is the recipient of the Maine Initiatives Social Landscape Artist Award 2006 and the Dirigo Social Movement Leader Award in 2004.
Contact Bjorn at:
30 Blackstone St., Bangor ME 04401, USA
ph: 
207-262-7277
fax: 207-433-1600
bjorn [at] sweatfree [dot] org
Liana Foxvog is the National Organizer of SweatFree Communities. By conducting workshops and strategy sessions with activists around the U.S., she has played a critical role in helping launch new sweatfree campaigns. Her presentations have included venues such as Chicago Green Festival, the U.S Social Forum, and the international Fair Trade Action Network convening meeting. Ms. Foxvog is a member of the American Friends Service Committee National Peacebuilding Executive Committee. She earned a B.A. in political science from Reed College and is currently working toward an M.S. in labor studies at University of Massachusetts, Amherst. She was raised in Finland and the U.S., and speaks English, Finnish, and Spanish.
Contact Liana at:
140 Pine St., Suite 10, Florence MA 01062, USA
ph: 413-586-0974 fax: 413-584-8987
liana [at] sweatfree [dot] org
Victoria Kaplan is the Midwest Regional Organizer for SweatFree Communities, working to build membership in the State and Local Government Sweatfree Consortium and support sweatfree campaigns throughout the Midwest. Previously she served as Organizing Director of Food & Water Watch, the consumer advocacy group. During the 2006 midterm elections Ms. Kaplan worked as a field organizer with Citizens Trade Campaign PAC to elect a pivotal 37 fair trade advocates to Congress. She earned a B.A. in Cultural Anthropology from Duke University, where she was a leader in United Students Against Sweatshops' successful campaign with the Farm Labor Organizing Committee to secure North Carolina's first labor contract for farm workers. She is a graduate of Green Corps' organizing training program, and she speaks English and Spanish.
Contact Vicki at:
1631 ½ S. Main St., Goshen IN 46526, USA
ph: 574-975-6207 fax: 574-537-0582
vicki [at] sweatfree [dot] org
