Beth Rayfield, Ph.D.

Beth Rayfield joined CHIRLA as the Director of Development in 2008.  Previously, she served as the Director of Fund Development and Communications at the East LA Community Corporation (ELACC), and prior to this was a Development Associate at Strategic Actions for a Just Economy (SAJE).  Beth has a doctorate from the University of California, Irvine, where she taught Women’s and Asian American Studies, and received recognition for her scholarship on feminist theory and the representation of race, class and gender.  As UC teaching staff, Beth was an organizer for and the first President of UAW Local 2865, an 11,000 member statewide union at the University of California.  As the President of this diverse labor union, Beth fought for the working conditions and contractual rights of international students and other academic student employees, and lobbied on a state and federal level on behalf of the UAW International’s working families in the US, Canada, and Puerto Rico.  Beth lives in Long Beach, where she is the former Board Chair of the Sexual Assault Crisis Agency (SACA).