Eyes On Trade Author Biographies
Vilas Pathikonda is the Research Director with Public Citizen's Global Trade Watch. He focuses on strategic research projects that strengthen GTW’s campaigns. Prior to joining GTW, he served as Director of Research and Strategy at GoodWeave International, a pioneering social enterprise combating child labor in the textiles and apparel industry. Prior to that, he was a consultant on international trade at The World Bank, focusing on global value chains, industrial policy and export development. Pathikonda started his career managing public opinion research for major political campaigns, advocacy groups and international brands at the strategic communications firm, Penn Schoen Berland. He holds a B.A. in Economics from Duke University and a Master’s in International Economic Policy from Columbia.
Melanie Foley is International Program Associate for Public Citizen's Global Trade Watch, where she assists the international campaigns director with GTW’s international program work. She joined the GTW team in the Summer of 2013 as a Legislative Assistant and Scheduler. Before that, as a Legislative Policy and Research Assistant for the environmental non-profit, Appalachian Voices, she educated congressional offices and wrote extensively on big coal's efforts to subvert regulatory measures against mountaintop removal coal mining. During college, she worked on Capitol Hill as a legislative intern, and on the Potomac River as an outdoor adventure sports instructor. She attended the University of Maryland, where she earned a B.A. in Government and Politics and a Master in Public Policy.
Melinda St. Louis is the former 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.