In the late eighties when the Mexican government tried to privatize the National Autonomous University of Mexico (UNAM), the biggest University of Latin America, Ricardo actively participated in the one month student’s strike. Thank to that struggle and others UNAM is still a free and public university. Ricardo has been supporting the Zapatista’s movement since 1994. He was one of the three founders members of the Committee for General “Amnesty” and Social Justice and organized the first May day march in 1999. Most recently, Ricardo with LELO and other community members participated in documenting the impacts of NAFTA in Mexico for the Permanent Peoples’ Tribunal, Chapter Mexico. In September 2014 Ricardo, with LELO, held one of 2 hearings on immigration in USA and NAFTA. Ricardo is LELO executive director.

Corliss is a native Seattleite. She has two grown children and 3 grandsons. Also, her extended family is here in Seattle. Corliss provides support to her clients assisting them to gain or regain their suspended driver’s license. This experience has given her a deep appreciation for how nonprofits seek to improve the quality of life for our region; one program at a time. In her spare time, she enjoys long outdoor walks, spending quality time playing with her grandsons and enjoying a meal with her beloved children, nieces, nephews, and friends.

Amy Leong is the community organizer on staff with the APALA Seattle Chapter. Her organizing background stems from her mother being a Unite Here member for over 30 years. Amy is a long-time member of the chapter, joining after graduation from high school, working as a summer organizer for Unite Here Local 8 in Seattle as a student, and as a worker organizer and customer outreach coordinator for the Culinary Workers Union Local 226 in Las Vegas, NV.

Amy graduated from the University of Washington with a B.A. in American Ethnic Studies and minors in Labor and Diversity. After moving back to Seattle, she joined the Seattle Chapter as staff to build the bridge between the labor movement and the broader community. She hopes to continue to develop more space for AANHPI workers in local and national labor movements and help leaders step into their power.

Cindy Domingo has been an activist for almost 50 years using her skills as an organizer, writer, political strategist, mentor, public servant, and speaker to create social change in the world. She first became involved with LELO through the Alaska Cannery Workers Association where she worked compiling information and statistics for the landmark class action lawsuits where the cannery workers sued the Alaska canning industry.

Cindy’s political involvement began when she joined the Union of Democratic Filipinos (KDP), the only radical Filipino organization in the 1970s, and began organizing in the Filipino community.  Today, Cindy continues to build international solidarity with the Philippines as a member of Akbayan North America.

Cindy has also spent over 20 years working to lift the 60+ year-old US blockade against Cuba and normalize US-Cuba relations through her work with US Women and Cuba Collaboration and Women’s International League for Peace and Freedom’s Cuba and the Bolivarian Alliance Issues Committee.  Cindy now serves on the Campaign to End the Occupation of Western Sahara, a new fiscally sponsored LELO project.

Mary Adelina Keefe started as an activist working with young adults to promote sexual and reproductive health and autonomy. She joined LELO in 2001, helping workers navigate through the court and licensing systems to eliminate barriers to employment. Mary has participated in various Worker to Worker delegations to Mexico, Venezuela and Cuba which has shaped her political and humanist understanding of the world. Mary worked as a public employee in Seattle for 10 years before joining her Union as a full-time staffer. She is currently on the board of the MLK Labor Council and a LELO board member.

Romy Garcia has been a long time supporter of LELO’s work and three years ago he joined LELO’s Board.  His political activism began in his last year of high school in San Francisco, organizing students against Proposition 13 and for the support of national liberation movements in Central America and struggle against Apartheid in South Africa.

In 1980 he joined the Union of Democratic Filipinos (KDP) opposing the US-Marcos dictatorship and fighting against racial and national discrimination.  He continues his efforts to bring about human rights, dignity and respect for all people, here and abroad, and is currently active with Asian Pacific Labor Alliance (APALA) Seattle, WFSE Local 843 and with his lay Buddhist faith community. He works with youth and families as a DSHS Social Worker.

Garry Owens is a worker/intellectual who joined the LELO board in 1991 and served as a facilitator for internal affairs for many years.  He is a Seattleite from birth and a recent retiree from 30 years of public service.  He credits his family for teaching him to read; empathy for all people regardless of color, creed or national origin; appreciation and respect for non-human species, and the courage to travel to borders beyond.  He came to LELO with a portfolio of progressive and radical thought and deed. As a Vietnam era US Army veteran in 1967 he became acutely aware of US government hegemony. He was a founding member of the UW Black Student Union and Seattle Chapter of the Black Panther Party in 1968.  As a student at Hampshire College in the 1970’s he taught 5 year olds at the iconic Che-Lumumba School for Truth at UMass in Amherst, MA, During his long sojourn with LELO he has traveled to serve as agent of solidarity in Cuba, Canada, Brazil, Mexico, South Africa and throughout the United States. Comrades alive and past continue to inspire and support his regimen for study and critical thinking.  He also credits the leaders and thinkers of the global national liberation struggles of the 60’s and 70’s as key to understanding the role of the common worker to study and build solidarity without borders. He carries a discreet list of revolutionary heroes and heroines who defer popularity for the sake of an analysis that demands liberation on all fronts, especially the Global South. He is currently working on a project that would help to eliminate the reality of 5000 children dying every day from drinking dirty water.