Eyes On Trade Author Biographies

Kate Alexander is Global Trade Watch’s Legislative Assistant and Scheduler. Previously, she was a Junior Jurisprudence Researcher at the War Crimes Chamber of Bosnia and Herzegovina, where she conducted original sentencing policy research and contributed to the final brief and closing statement of a genocide case. As an undergraduate, she served on the core committee of an inaugural festival of social justice at Brandeis University, won national recognition as a lead organizer of Portland’s 2009 Stand Up for the Millennium Development Goals event, and was a recipient of the David Alexander Memorial Award for Social Consciousness and Activism. She earned a B.A. in International and Global Studies and a Minor in Legal Studies from Brandeis University.

Ben Beachy is Research Director with Public Citizen's Global Trade Watch, where he investigates the impacts and implications of US trade policy on jobs, public interest regulation, development, and sovereignty. Before joining Global Trade Watch, Ben analyzed the impacts of US trade, aid, and lending policies in Latin America for six years as a Nicaragua-based policy analyst and as D.C.-based National Organizer for Witness for Peace. He has also worked as a visiting research fellow with Tufts University's Global Development and Environment Institute, investment analyst for the Tellus Institute in Boston, agriculture researcher for ActionAid in India, and labor rights investigator for the Worker Rights Consortium in Central America. Ben’s published articles have focused on post-food crisis trade policy, the impacts of US and IMF policies in Latin America, and new economic indicators to supplement GDP. Ben received a Master in Public Policy from Harvard's Kennedy School of Government.

Jessa Boehner is Global Trade Watch’s International Program Associate. Previously, she coordinated a bilingual educational enrichment program in her hometown of Gettysburg, Pennsylvania. As an undergraduate intern at Global Trade Watch, she had the opportunity to star in a video highlighting the issue of tax havens in Panama that was featured on the front page of the Huffington Post. Jessa has also volunteered with Fundacion Origen, an organization working in solidarity with the indigenous population in Puebla, Mexico. She earned a B.A. in International Studies and a minor in the Spanish language from American University.

Peter Maybarduk is Access to Medicines Program Director at Public Citizen. In this role he advises governments and civil society groups around the world on their rights to promote universal access to medicines under intellectual property rules. This year Peter's work with partners yielded major HIV/AIDS drug price reductions in Colombia and new state access to medicines policies in Ecuador. Peter's current work focuses in part on protecting competition and access under trade agreements and intellectual property enforcement policies, and on appropriate policy responses to criminally adulterated or falsified medicines. Peter has co-founded and coordinated several volunteer-run advocacy and assistance groups, including International Professional Partnerships for Sierra Leone (IPPSL), dedicated to supporting public sector development in one of the world's least developed countries. Peter studied law at the University of California at Berkeley and anthropology at the College of William and Mary.

Melinda St. Louis is International Campaigns Director with Public Citizen’s Global Trade Watch, where she works with international allies to roll-back WTO financial deregulation and to stop expansion of harmful trade agreements. Before joining Global Trade Watch, Ms. St. Louis was director of policy and campaigns for Jubilee USA Network, an alliance of 75 organizations dedicated to ending the cycle of crippling debts Africa, Asia, and Latin America. She is the former executive director of Witness for Peace, a national grassroots organization that supports peace, justice and sustainable economies in Latin America and the Caribbean by challenging harmful U.S. military and economic policies in the region. As mid-Atlantic organizer for the Campaign for Labor Rights, she mobilized consumer campaigns in support of workers’ struggles in sweatshops across the globe. Ms. St. Louis has lived and worked in Nicaragua and El Salvador, and currently serves on the boards of the Latin America Working Group and Witness for Peace. She received a M.P.P. in International Policy and Development from Georgetown University.

Lori Wallach is the director of Public Citizen's Global Trade Watch. A Harvard-trained lawyer, Wallach has promoted the public interest regarding globalization and international commercial agreements in every forum: Congress and foreign parliaments, the courts, government agencies, and the media. Described as "Ralph Nader with a sense of humor" in a Wall Street Journal profile, "the Trade Debate's Guerrilla Warrior" in the National Journal, and "Madame Defarge of Seattle" by the Institute for International Economics, Wallach has testified on NAFTA, GATT-WTO, and other trade issues before over 30 U.S. congressional committees, numerous other countries’ legislatures, the U.S. International Trade Commission and the Office of the U.S. Trade Representative. Wallach’s work in "translating" arcane trade legalese – indeed, entire proposed international commercial agreements – into relevant, accessible prose has had significant national and international impact.

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