BOARD OF DIRECTORS:

Debra Chaplan is a member of the Teamsters Union and has been on the staff of the State Building Trades Council since 1998 as Director of Special Programs. She was Executive Director of The Working Group for four years, a non-profit media production group that produced a public television series and documentaries about working people. Previously she was Development Director for the New York Committee for Occupational Safety and Health. She has a Master of Science degree in Non-Profit Management.

Vicki Hamlin is a member of Operating Engineers Local 3, has worked for Alameda County Public Works for twelve years, and was a Sheet Metal worker before that. She became active in the Tradeswomen movement shortly after coming into the trades.

Joyce Harris has been an Iron Worker for 15 years and is active with Iron Workers Local 378 in Benicia. She is currently works for the Alameda County Building Trades Council in Oakland, California, helping people find work.
    She has a degree from Laney College in Oakland and is presently pursuing further study in the area of labor law. She is very proud of her son, who is a professional athlete, a pitcher for the Florida Marlins.

Meri K. Issel, a fourth-generation native of San Francisco, has been an advocate for women in non-traditional jobs ever since she attended that city's John O'Connell vocational school in the early 80s. Her goal then was to pursue a career in the construction trades. The Pacific Gas &
Electric Company hired her onto an overhead line crew and she's been working for the utility for over 20 years. Her career has spanned a variety of positions from electric construction to Superintendent to her current position as a Human Resources supervisor. Meri has worked with a number of agencies, organizations and schools to recruit, train, place and mentor women in construction at PG&E and elsewhere. Her passion is matching women with the right aptitudes, inclinations and abilities to the right jobs and watching them thrive. She lives in Berkeley with her partner and their son and spends most of her free time working on her home.

Robert Jolly, Secretary of the Board of Tradeswomen, is a retired teacher of English. Much of his work was in the Oakland Public Schools where he specialized in English as a Second Language, teaching Asian students at Westlake Junior High School. During his career, he took leaves of absence from Oakland (six years) and taught English to Greek students in the University of Athens and Turkish boys in American schools in Istanbul and Izmir.
    He became an advocate for Tradeswomen in 1985 when he worked as a writer/proof-reader assisting Molly Martin, editor of Tradeswomen Magazine. During his association with the Magazine, he wrote several articles for the magazine; one of these was about his daughter, Margarett, who worked as a printer for ten years in New York City. He has also written an Index of the articles of Tradeswomen Magazine.
    His wife, Connie, is now working as bookkeeper for Tradeswomen, Inc., and most recently he has been the manager of the listserv and editor of the Tradeswomen Bulletins, our electronic newsletters. He thinks tradeswomen are a marvelous group of women.

Molly Martin has 17 years experience as an electrician and 15 years experience as an electrical inspector for the City and County of San Francisco. She also taught electrical wiring at STEP-UP for Women in New England. Molly is a co-founder of Seattle Women in Trades (1979), San Francisco Women in the Trades (1984) and Tradeswomen Inc. (1979). She helped organize the first two National Tradeswomen Conferences in 1983 and 1989.
    Molly founded and was editor of the quarterly magazine Tradeswomen, and the author of Hard-Hatted Women: Stories of Struggle and Success in the Trades.

Amy Reynolds recently retired from the San Francisco Water Department, where she was a member of U.A. Local 238 for over 20 years. She is a long-time Tradeswomen, Inc. activist.

Elizabeth Youhn, Executive Director of Tradeswomen, Inc. since 2002, has been a member of Operating Engineers Local #3 for more than 20 years when she worked as a crane and heavy equipment operator. She has extensive experience with pre-apprenticeship and apprenticeship programs, and worked with dozens of employers on the City and Port of Oakland's Local Hire Outreach program.

A FEW TRADESWOMEN ACTIVISTS:

Amy Durfee is an attorney with the National Economic Development and Law Center. She first became active with Tradeswomen, Inc. while working as an intern for Equal Rights Advocates

Juanita Douglas, a former Tradeswomen Inc. board member, worked as a union carpenter and foreman for 17 years and is currently a surveyor and member of the Operating Engineers. She has volunteered as a job foreman building low-income housing for Habitat for Humanity for many years.

Bonnie Henriquez, a glazier for 24 years, has been coordinator of the San Francisco Glaziers Joint Apprenticeship Training Center for six years and has just retired from her job as a Business Representative for the Alameda County Building Trades Council.

Jeanne Park is an Iron Worker with Iron Workers Local 377 in San Francisco. She has been very active in her union, on behalf of women and all union members.

Jennifer Stafford, a former Tradeswomen, Inc. board member, currently works as an elevator inspector for the State of California. For eight years she was an elevator constructor. Along with a group of eight other "Elevator Women," she was instrumental in pressuring her union to establish an elevator apprenticeship program.

Carol Tolliver is a journey-level electrician with IBEW Local 595 in Dublin. She has been an invaluable coordinator of Tradeswomen, Inc. events.

Jennifer Wedel is an attorney with Equal Rights Advocates. Along with other projects, she is currently working on a resource manual for tradeswomen and tradeswomen advocates.

ABOUT TRADESWOMEN

TRADESWOMEN FACTS

ORGANIZATION OVERVIEW (PDF)

Here is the Board of Directors (minus Meri Issel) and some     Tradeswomen activists at our 2004 planning retreat.     Back row: Barbara Cox, Jane Humes, Molly Martin, Vicki Hamlin.     Middle row: Joyce Harris, Bonnie Henriquez, Carol Tolliver, Amy Reynolds.     Front row: Bob Jolly, Jeanne Park, Elizabeth Youhn, Debra Chaplan.