Deborah James

Deborah James
James at the World Trade Organization's 2013 Public Forum.
Born	(1971-03-13) March 13, 1971 (age 46) Fort Sill, Oklahoma
Alma mater	University of California at San Diego George Washington University
Organization	Center for Economic and Policy Research
Board member of	Global Exchange

Deborah James is Director of International Programs at the Center for Economic and Policy Research (CEPR) and is on the Board of Directors of Global Exchange. Prior to her work for CEPR, James had been called "a top U.S. protest organizer" by the Center for Public Integrity. She was formerly the Director of the WTO Program at Public Citizen's Global Trade Watch, the Global Economy Director at Global Exchange, and the Executive Director of the Venezuela Information Office.

In 1993, James became the Global Economy Director for Global Exchange and since then, has continued to contribute by serving the organization by being on the Board of Directors of Global Exchange.

During her time at Global Exchange, James opposed the expansion of NAFTA during the 1990s. James also contributed to the opposition of the expansion of the World Trade Organization at the World Trade Organization Ministerial Conference of 1999 where Global Exchanged help organize the 1999 Seattle WTO protests, at the 2003 WTO meeting in Cancun and the 2005 WTO meeting in Hong Kong.

During the fall of 1999, James led a campaign called the "Roast Starbucks Campaign" with Global Exchange to persuade Starbucks to use Fair trade coffee in every one of their stores. In an interview, James explained how the Global Exchange campaign included several demonstrations in cities and mailed in letters to Starbucks demanding the use of Fair trade coffee, all organized by Global Exchange. In the spring of 2000, Global Exchange halted its campaign after Starbucks signed an agreement with TransFairUS to offer Fair trade coffee. James also persuaded Procter & Gamble to use Fair Trade Certified coffee as well.