PRESS RELEASE: Workers Defense Announces Lizeth Chacón as Co-Executive Director

Contact: Juan Benitez, juan.benitez@workersdefense.org, (512) 466-9258

AUSTIN, TX — Workers Defense today announced that it has appointed Lizeth Chacón as its Co-Executive Director. In this new role, she will co-lead Worker Defense Project and Workers Defense Action Fund into its next phase of building power for low-wage construction workers in partnership with Emily Timm, the organization’s current Co-Founder and Co-Executive Director. 

Lizeth has over 16 years of organizing and power-building experience in Colorado for communities of color, immigrants and working families. Most recently, she has served as the Founding Executive Director of Colorado People’s Alliance (COPA). She also co-founded and serves on the Governing Council for the Transformative Leadership for Change, which nurtures the sustainability, solidarity and radical visions of BIPOC movement leaders in Colorado. 

“In our search for a leader to steward our family of organizations, we centered our members’ collective vision of fighting for and achieving workplace justice,” said Parisa Fatehi-Weeks, President of the Workers Defense Project Board. “With Lizeth and Emily at the helm of Workers Defense Project and Workers Defense Action Fund, we will continue to fight for—and win—workplace justice and immigrants’ rights by building power for those building our state.” 

“Our Co-Executive Director model reflects our values of shared leadership and we know Lizeth and Emily will be a powerhouse duo,” said Louis Malfaro, President of the Workers Defense Action Fund Board. “The next chapter of our work will require us to take on challenging economic and social conditions for immigrant workers, growing climate crises, and deepening corporate power in Texas, but we know this powerful leadership team is ready to take on the challenge.” 

Lizeth joins Workers Defense as the organization marks its 20 year anniversary this year as one of the leading advocacy organizations in Texas, with a membership of thousands and offices in Houston, Dallas and Austin. Lizeth’s lived-experience of the injustices immigrants face both informs her passion to fight for systemic change and her leadership style in fighting for and with our communities. For example, in 2016, Lizeth co-chaired the statewide ballot measure that successfully increased Colorado’s minimum wage to $12 an hour by 2020 and she co-created the Statewide Immigrant Resistance Table.

“I couldn’t be more excited to have Lizeth join the Workers Defense family,” said Emily Timm, Co-Founder and Co-Executive Director of Workers Defense. “Lizeth has an incredible track record of building power for working families and immigrants in Colorado, and I know she will bring her deep commitment to organizing and strategic campaigning to strengthen our movement here in Texas.”

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Workers Defense Project is a statewide member-based organization building power for low-wage, immigrant workers across Texas. Through education, organizing and direct services, we empower workers to win fair, safe jobs and become effective advocates for themselves and their communities. 

Workers Defense Action Fund is a statewide organization dedicated to building power for low-wage workers, people of color, and immigrants across Texas to win fair employment conditions and a better quality of life for working families through legislative advocacy, voter education, and voter engagement.