Global Exchange is proud to welcome our new Executive Director, Jeff Ordower!
Jeff Ordower comes to us from St Louis with 25 years of experience in community organizing for economic and environmental justice. Prior to joining the Global Exchange team, Jeff held multiple leadership positions for ACORN, then the largest community organization in the country. He eventually rose to the position of Midwest Director, working to raise the minimum wage and take on predatory lenders on Wall Street. Until ACORN ceased operations in 2009, Jeff worked tirelessly to push for social justice, as well as helping to spark the ACORN International department.
In 2010, Jeff helped found Missourians Organizing for Reform and Empowerment, a group that works at the intersection of economic, climate and racial justice. Under Jeff’s leadership, MORE ran a 6 year campaign against Peabody Coal, at one time the largest coal company in the world. MORE also provided movement support, both to Occupy St. Louis and the Ferguson Uprising.
As a member of the #NODAPL Solidarity Network and Rising Tide, Jeff is keeping Global Exchange in the loop on ways GX can be in solidarity with Sioux at Standing Rock against the pipeline. Jeff is excited about combining his community organizer’s mentality with the sophistication and history of Global Exchange, and hopes to attract new participants from the organized labor community into our amazing Reality Tours.
When not organizing, Jeff can be found reading food blogs, checking the Cardinals’ box scores, or keeping up with a plethora of nieces and nephews. Now in the Bay, he is embarrassed that he has failed to keep up with his Japanese, but is proficient in Spanish and German.
We’re excited to welcome a new leader to the Global Exchange team with a track record of standing up for economic and environmental justice. Now, as we confront an era of challenge and crisis – an era where we must both Resist the attempted rollbacks in the gains we’ve made, and also present a credible progressive alternative, we need people like Jeff in our corner.