Co-Founder and President
Randy Parraz is a community organizer, social entrepreneur, author, and founder of various organizations. From church-based organizing in East Dallas to national coalition-building on behalf of 20,000 strawberry workers in the fields of California, to working in different roles with the National AFL-CIO and other International Unions, Randy has experience with many methods of social change.

Randy has taught social change at UC Berkeley, UCLA, UC Irvine, Arizona State University, and California State University Fullerton. Randy’s role in organizing actions and protests to expose the racist and abusive practices and policies of Sheriff Arpaio caused him to be labeled “high profile” and eventually targeted and arrested by Sheriff deputies.

In 2011, Randy spearheaded a grassroots campaign to recall the author of SB 1070 and one of the most powerful politicians in the state of Arizona, Senate President Russell Pearce.

Following the recall, Randy launched a major campaign, “Joe’s Gotta Go” to oust the infamous Sheriff Joe Arpaio from office. The campaign resulted in a record-setting collection of vote-by-mail ballots and the largest paid Latino-focused canvassing operation in the state.

In 2014, Randy returned to the National AFL-CIO to serve as the Governance and Organizational Leadership Development Coordinator for the western region of the country where he worked with central labor councils, state federations, and affiliates to identify, train and develop leaders to take on the work of building power for workers and their families.

Randy also served as the national director for the United Food and Commercial Workers Making Change at Walmart campaign and national organizing director for and special advisor to the president of the League of United Latin American Citizens. 

Randy’s first book titled, “A Certain Kind of Fire,” where he writes extensively about the historic campaign to recall and remove Senate President Russell Pearce from office, will be published later this year. 

Randy is a graduate of U.C. Berkeley, the John F. Kennedy School of Government at Harvard University, and Berkeley Law.