Jeff Farmer has more than 40 years experience as an organizer and labor strategist. He most recently served as the Director of Organizing for the International Brotherhood of Teamsters, a union representing more than 1.4 million members throughout North America. Farmer attended Hampshire College and the University of Minnesota. As a young man, he gained valuable hands-on experience working a wide variety of jobs, including as a deckhand on the Mississippi River barges and a welder in a manufacturing plant. A 35-year veteran of the labor movement, Farmer had been a member and worked for several unions before being hired to work as Organizing Coordinator for the Teamsters in Minnesota. In 2002, General President Jim Hoffa asked Farmer to move to Washington, D.C. to create a new Teamsters Organizing Department, with the goal of making the Teamsters Union one of the largest, strongest and fastest-growing unions in North America.
A strong environmentalist, Farmer is a member of the Natural Resources Defense Council and the Sierra Club. He is an avid distance runner and cyclist, and enjoys live music and theater. Farmer is the father of two children—and now a very proud and happy grandfather!