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Jim
Keady and Leslie
Kretzu are Co-Directors and founders of Educating
for Justice. Jim and Leslie have spoken across the United
States and at international venues to thousands of interested
audience members. They have been sought out by members
of the U.S. Congress, as well various university administrators,
religious and union leaders and student groups to offer
their personal and professional experience and critiques
on the issues of sweatshops and corporate sponsorship.
Jim and Leslie have spent significant time immersing
themselves in the lived reality of factory workers in
Tangerang, Indonesia. In August 2000, they lived for
one month in a factory workers' slum on $1.25 a day,
a typical wage paid to Nike's subcontracted workers.
They have also conducted follow-up research trips investigating
Nike's operations in Indonesia in 2001 and 2002.
As lead campaigners on Educating for Justice's Nike
Corporate Accountability Campaign, Jim and Leslie have
spoken at over 120 universities in the past 2 years,
educating over 20,000 college students about Nike's
operations in Indonesia and the industry-wide problem
of labor rights abuse. They also coordinate Nike shareholder
activism, political advocacy, international media advocacy,
worker education and empowerment programs, internet
activism, grassroots organizing, and immersion and research
trips, all focused on the ultimate goal of improving
conditions for the 130,000 workers currently producing
for Nike in Indonesia. Along with these activities,
Jim and Leslie are currently working with Rainlake Productions
to produce a full-length independent documentary, Sweat,
A Story of Solidarity that will tell the human story
behind the statistics about sweatshop workers.
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Jim Keady
the Mario Savio Foundation's 2001 Young Activist of
the Year, is a former professional soccer player with
the NJ Imperials and a former college coach with the
St. John's University Red Storm. Along with directing
Educating for Justice, he is currently playing for a
semi-pro team in New York City and he coaches a high
school boy's team in New Jersey.
Jim holds a masters degree with distinction in theology
from St. John's where he concentrated his studies in
social ethics and pastoral theology. Along with studying
theology, Jim also coached with St. John's Men's Soccer
team, at the time, the NCAA Division One National Champions.
He was eventually fired from his job because he refused
to wear and promote Nike's products as part of the school's
$3.5 million dollar endorsement deal with the sportswear
giant.
Prior to his work with EFJ, Jim taught high school religion
for five years at schools in New York and New Jersey.
He also played and coached soccer at the youth, high
school, college and professional levels. Along with
his graduate degree from St. John's, he holds a Bachelor
of Science degree in Psychology from St. Joseph's University.
He has spent time traveling the globe and doing volunteer
work in Asia and Europe with Mother Teresa's Missionaries
of Charity.
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Leslie Kretzu
is currently doing graduate work in Ethics at Union
Theological Seminary in New York City. Leslie had recently
returned from volunteering with Mother Teresa's Missionaries
of Charity in Calcutta, India and Katmandu, Nepal when
she was asked to join EFJ's immersion team in the summer
of 2000. Along with her general responsibilities on
the immersion team, Leslie served as the project's photographer
and her photos have been published in a number of articles
about the project as well as on EFJ's website, www.nikewages.org.
Previously, Leslie worked for two years as a Health
Care Legal Information Specialist with the California
Medical Association in San Francisco. Along with her
work at CMA, she taught English to Latino immigrants
with 24th Street ESL. Prior to her time in San Francisco,
she served a one-year commitment with the Jesuit Volunteer
Corps in Anaheim, CA where she worked as a substance
abuse counselor at Hope House, Inc.
Because of her dedicated activism, in December 2001,
Leslie was chosen as a Torchbearer for the 2002 Salt
Lake City Olympics. In 35 degree weather, she chose
to run barefoot through the streets of Philadelphia
as an act of solidarity with factory workers globally
whose cries for justice continue to go unrecognized.
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