Meet our Team 

Elisha Chan, Executive Director

Elisha Chan is the new executive director of Fair Trade LA and the founder of Elisha C., an ethical brand on a mission to end poverty through job creation. She found her passion while traveling on many Haiti trips as a student at UCLA and started her social enterprise six months after she graduated. She currently works with many artisans and producers throughout Haiti, while doing philanthropy work in a small village called Fond Doux, Haiti. She has since established a Scholarship Program, sending underprivileged youth to school, from preschool to university. A passionate advocator of establishing long-term solutions to break the cycle of poverty. 

Brittany Skiles, Board Chair

Brittany works at Mount Saint Mary's University in institutional advancement, and serves on a campus team working towards making MSMU a Fair Trade designated university. As a graduate of Vanguard University of Southern California, she first got involved with promoting Fair Trade practices as a way to combat labor trafficking and worked at the Global Center for Women and Justice before moving to Los Angeles. On a trip to Kenya, Brittany witnessed first hand how artisans employed by a company paying fair wages with high ethical standards has generational impact on poverty alleviation and she has been an advocate of supporting Fair Trade initiatives and organizations ever since.

Elena Alcerro, Secretary

Elena traveled to the Dominican Republic, where she saw the exploitation of Haitian sugarcane workers. After seeing the conditions in the Bateyes she decided that she would no longer be part of the system that makes their lives so difficult. Elena founded a nonprofit, HUMAIN, and hopes that through HUMAIN she will one day be able to improve the quality of life for sugarcane workers across the Dominican Republic. Elena is the representative of Loyola Marymount University Fair Trade and the Oxfam America Club co-president. She works to educate the LMU community about Fair Trade and to show them how the purchases they make each day, on and off campus, can have a profound impact on people and communities around the world. 

Erin Wallace, Treasurer

Erin works as a CPA and maintains bookkeeping clients from the business management company were she started her career. She has helped to run teacher trainings in LA with SCOE and UCLA and worked for SRA/McGraw-Hill selling products to LAUSD. Erin is passionate about equality of all kinds, climate issues, education, and ending homelessness and poverty. In her personal time, she pursues interests in photography, design, genealogy, and documentary films.

Joan Harper, Board of Directors 

Phil Churnside, Board of Directors

During Summer hiatuses from their teaching careers, Phil, and his wife, Rosemary, combined a fascination of foreign cultures, an entrepreneurial spirit,  and the lure of distant lands, to build their Balirose business. This endeavor has been dedicated to importing unique items of sterling silver jewelry and textiles that are designed and created by indigenous artisans of several countries in Southeast Asia. Phi’s recreation time is filled with cooking, swimming, and serving on the FTLA Board.

Laurel Averill, Board of Directors 

Laurel has been deeply involved with Fair Trade LA since 2010. She crafted her own position as "Boutique Coordinator" setting up Fair Trade boutiques all over L.A. county like gypsies in a caravan selling Fair Trade wares.  She is the L.A. representative for Gifts of Nature. 

Jasmine French, Board of Directors 

Jasmine graduated from Vanguard University in May 2018 with a BA in Business Administration and minors in Religion, Sociology, and Women’s Studies. She currently serves the Southwest Regional Coordinator for Fair Trade Campaigns. Before coming to FTLA, Jasmine was the president of Live2Free, an anti-human trafficking mobilization team, working toward educating community members on the issue of human trafficking, ethical consumerism, and Fair Trade. 

Juliette Roy, Board of Directors 

Juliette Roy is a creative social entrepreneur passionate about social impact, social change, diversity and inclusion, education, and women in media. She is the founder of Be Your Change media, a platform to amplify the impact of women worldwide. 
Born in France, she immigrated to the U.S eight years ago and now lives in Los Angeles with her family. She brings more than 20 years of international experience working in the music and podcasting industry. She lived in Australasia, Africa and the U.S. Her expertise is in business development, marketing, content production, and branded content. She has interviewed more than 100 leaders about impact investing, diversity and inclusion, social justice, and women empowerment. She previously served on the board of Women's Audio Mission, and Creative Arts Charter School. 

Amrita Thadani, Board of Directors 

Amrita Thadani started her career as a Fashion Stylist right out of college and worked her way up as an independent Costume Designer for films and advertising. She worked in India, where textile design and access to the cotton industry allowed her to totally immerse herself in the process. With over 10 years of work experience, she moved to New York and studied fashion at Parsons. After graduating, she continued to work as a fashion stylist while volunteering on weekends with local refugee groups. As she developed meaningful relationships with the women, she learned about some of the biggest challenges facing refugees including secure housing, adjusting to a difference culture, finding a job, surviving on food stamps, and learning a foreign language. This lead her to start NEOCOCO in the Fall of 2017, a mission-driven apparel company that creates jobs for women refugees and displaced women through the art of hand embroidery.