HEAL Food Alliance

2023 School of Political Leadership 

Idaho Justice for Farmworkers

Irene Ruiz

she/her/ella

Co-Director,
Idaho Organization of Resource Councils (IORC)

Farmworkers have not been visibly seen in the climate justice movement in Idaho. I feel that SoPL will help us learn and give us tools that will guarantee success in our Farmworker Justice Campaign that will help humanize farmworkers, shape policy, and provide protections from heat, smoke, and pesticides.

Meet Irene

Irene is a Co-Director of the Idaho Organization of Resource Councils. She also staffs Visión 2C Resource Council, Idaho’s only Latinx chapter in Canyon County working on environmental issues. Irene also co-founded and organizes a coalition of 11 non – profit organizations to support the Latinx, immigrant, and farm working community called the Idaho Immigrant Resource Alliance that is fiscally sponsored by IORC. She is on the Indigenous Idaho Alliance, ACLU of Idaho, and Stay at School Quince boards. Irene Ruiz is the daughter of Mexican Immigrants, she grew up in Hazelton, ID where she also worked in the fields with her family. She received her Master of Arts in Hispanic Studies at the University of Illinois at Chicago and her Bachelor of Arts in Spanish from Boise State University. Irene currently lives in Boise, ID.
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