PUEBLO's Staff

Irene Ross, Interim Director

Irene Ross was born and raised in Oakland, Ca. She began her work in social justice as a young adult organizing student opposition to the No Child Left Behind Act. In 2001, Ms. Ross became the Assistant Outreach Director of a nationally recognized grassroots organization working to enact systemic change on issues of U.S foreign policy. In that position, Ms. Ross trained hundreds of organizers, facilitated strategic planning and campaign development trainings and coordinated with grassroots organizations nation-wide to advocate for a foreign policy based on democracy and human rights.

In 2003, Ms. Ross went on to become the Program Director of Literacy for Environmental Justice, a non-profit organization serving the Hunters Point/Bayview district of San Francisco. There, she trained and led youth organizers in assessing environmental hazards, developing strategies to eliminate those hazards and launched a unique program aimed at increasing access to healthy and fresh foods in inner city neighborhoods.

In 2004, Ms. Ross was employed as an External Labor Organizer with the Service Employees International Union (SEIU). There she coordinated labor campaigns throughout the Northwest region of the United States including Justice for Janitors and United Health Care Workers West.

Since 2005 Irene Ross has served as the Director of Development & Communications for Centro Legal de La Raza, a bi-lingual legal aid and advocacy organization based in the Fruitvale District of Oakland.

In 2007, Irene Ross was appointed as the Interim Director of People United for a Better Life in Oakland where she is working to strengthen the infrastructure of the organization and to build the capacity of Oakland’s low-income communities and communities of color to affect lasting change within the institutions most directly impacting their lives.