Michael Velarde (he/him/él) is a Chicano organizer, strategist, and organizational consultant from El Paso, TX. He currently works at the Committee of Interns & Residents/SEIU Healthcare, the nation’s largest resident physician union. Before CIR, Michael spent over 10 years as a labor and community organizer in a range of community-led campaigns around housing, healthcare, racial justice, and immigrant rights issues. Alongside organizing, he has held roles leading fundraising, policy advocacy, and communications at a number of BIPOC-led organizations in NYC.
His approach is influenced by radical BIPOC movements in the US and Global South as well as years of solidarity organizing with the Landless Workers’ Movement (Movimento Sem Terra) of Brazil, South Africa’s Abahlali baseMjondolo (Shack Dwellers Movement), and the Zapatistas in Chiapas, Mexico.
Michael has a B.A. in Sociology from Vassar College and an M.A. in Labor Studies from the CUNY School of Labor & Urban Studies, where he was a Joseph S. Murphy Diversity in Labor Scholar.