Jamie Padilla

About Jamie Padilla

Since 2008, I’ve worked to make food supply chains more fair, transparent, and accountable. Beginning with the fight in California’s fields for farmworker rights and dignity, my 11+ years with the United Farm Workers revealed just how essential the women and men who produce our food truly are. They are the gatekeepers of quality, innovation, food safety, productivity, and environmental stewardship.That understanding led me to adopt a more systems-based, supply chain approach—one focused on aligning incentives, centering worker voice, and identifying where systems must be disrupted or built to drive continuous improvement. My work has since spanned coffee, produce, dairy, and seafood, with both smallholder and large-scale producers across the globe. I’ve co-developed tools and frameworks within collective bargaining, certification, continuous improvement, and responsible recruitment—all with a through line of centering worker voice and aligning incentives so that supply chain actors are equipped and motivated to implement best practices.At the core of my work is the belief that lasting progress comes from worker-centered, credible, and incentive-driven approaches—models that earn trust across workers, employers, buyers, and NGOs, while driving continuous improvement and resilient supply chains.

Experience

1. Director of Strategic Engagement

   Fishchoice

   Feb 2025 — Present · Los Angeles, CA, US

Education

• UCLA

  Political Science and Government

  2002

• UCLA Luskin School of Public Affairs

  Public Policy Analysis