Executive Committee

Adrian Acosta (Co-Secretary) is the Senior Campaign Lead with the Communications Workers of America — District 9. His focus is to do political boot camp trainings with CWA members and follow-up field work to bring politics to the worksites.  All of this base-building work leads to fighting on behalf of workers on many fronts, especially for fair trade. Previously Adrian has worked with as an internal organizer with SEIU 2015 and the Instituto de Educacion Popular del Sur de California (I.D.E.P.S.CA).  He has also worked as a Western Region Educator for Lambda Legal. He was born in Mexicali, Mexico, grew up in San Diego, and attended UCLA as a theater major.

Catherine Houston (Co-Secretary) has spent a career fighting for the men and women of the United Steel Workers (USW), where she works as the International Staff Rep, Rapid Response and Women of Steel Coordinator, District 12. She has a wide range of roles and responsibilities at the USW: negotiations and arbitrations, training and education, conflict resolution, defender of the middle class, and advocate on behalf of working families. She is passionately outspoken against the TPP, serving as a labor spokesperson on the Rock Against the TPP West Coast tour, where she highlights the proposed pact’s threats to working families and access to life-saving medicines.

Corrine Van Hook (Chair) serves as the co-director at Rooted in Resilience, which works to build socially just, climate-resilient communities. She co-leads organizational management and development, and also manages communications and outreach. As a former IDEAL Scholar, she witnessed and continues to witness the compelling impact of investing in youth and disenfranchised communities so that leadership can reflect the real diversity it seeks to serve. She has developed her talents working with the Rockwood Leadership Institute, Greater New Beginnings Youth Services, and through contracting with various organizations. Corrine holds a B.A. in Political Science from the University of California, Berkeley. She hopes to learn, educate, and urge communities to be more proactive in functioning within their environment so we can create and maintain sustainable futures.

Fabrizio Sasso is the Executive Director at the Sacramento Central Labor Council, and also serves on the California Workforce Development Board. He was lead organizer at the SEIU Western Workers Organizing Committee from 2011 to 2015, campaign coordinator at Reid and Associates from 2010 to 2011 and director of youth markets at the American Heart Association from 2008 to 2010. Sasso was an associate consultant at California Connections from 2007 to 2008 and chief of staff in the Office of Stockton Mayor Edward J. Chavez from 2004 to 2007. Sasso holds a Masters in Public Administration from the University of Southern California.