Jose Oliva is the Campaigns Director of the HEAL (Health, Environment, Agriculture & Labor) Food Alliance, Co-Chair of the Chicago Area Food System Fund and serves on the boards of Woods Fund of Chicago and the Growing Justice Fund. Jose Oliva was born in Xelaju, Guatemala.  In 1985 he and his family were forced to flee the civil war and come to the US.  Once in Chicago he was called to be Executive Director of Casa Guatemala where he began to organize day-laborers in Chicago’s street corners. He founded the Chicago Interfaith Workers’ Center and then became the Coordinator of Interfaith Worker Justice’s National Workers' Centers Network. Jose served in several leadership positions at the Restaurant Opportunities Centers United and was the Co-Founder and Co-Director of the Food Chain Workers Alliance, a national coalition of food-worker organizations that collectively represents over 350,000 workers. Jose is a 2017 James Beard Award recipient and a 2018 American Food Hero Awardee and a 2020 Castanea Fellow