This is a free event, but a ticket is required. Please call (574) 535- 7566 to reserve your seat. For more information about this event, read this press release: Social responsibility advocate, Ruth Rosenbaum, to speak May 3 at Goshen College .

Dr. Rosenbaum will speak on her recent work with Fortune 500 companies to implement socially responsible policies. She was instrumental in Procter & Gamble's introduction of the first, mass-marketed fair trade coffee product.

Ruth Rosenbaum, TC, Ph.D., is the founder and executive director of CREA: Center for Reflection, Education and Action, Inc., located in Hartford, Conn., a social-economic research and education organization, unique in that it starts its analysis of social and economic systems from the perspective of their effect on the lives of persons and communities who are economically poor. CREA also provides a multi-faceted service for individual and organizational investors and investment managers who are committed to socially responsible investment.

Ruth is Associate Professor for Research at the Labor Education Center at the University of Connecticut. She served as co-chair of the Global Corporate Accountability Issue Group of the Interfaith Center on Corporate Responsibility for nine years. At ICCR, Ruth was a member of the tri-national faith based task force that produced the Principles for Global Corporate Responsibility: Bench Marks for Measuring Business Performance.. Ruth is a member of the Global Reporting Initiative (GRI) Stakeholder Council and was recently elected Vice Chair of the Council. She has addressed the Congressional Executive Commission on China on the issue of Codes of Conduct. Ruth has traveled to many countries including Mexico, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras, Costa Rica, India, Indonesia, Thailand, Vietnam, China and Kenya while working on issues related to the contract supplier system and sustainable economic development. She writes and speaks internationally on related issues. In 2003, Ruth was honored as an Outstanding Woman of Connecticut by the United Nations Association.

Ruth Rosenbaum holds a bachelor's degree in biology and chemistry (Hunter College), master's degrees in molecular biology (Hunter College) and theology (Manhattan College) and a doctorate in social economics and social justice from Boston College. She is the creator of the Purchasing Power Index (PPI), a transcultural measurement of the purchasing power of wages used to determine what constitutes a sustainable living wage. Under her direction, CREA has completed purchasing power studies in Mexico (1994, 1998, 2001), Haiti (1996), MetroHartford, CT (1999), Eastern Connecticut (2000) and Mombasa, Kenya (2003) and El Salvador (2003). 2004 projects will include Guangdong, China and Guatemala.

CREAs project in El Salvador extends the PPI to include three economic sectors: the maquilas, coffee, and crafts. For the first time, the use of the Purchasing Power Index is being extended to measure a Sustainable Living Income for agricultural workers.

Ruth is recognized internationally for her dedicated work for economic justice.