Francis Calpotura is the director of the Transnational Institute for Grassroots Research and Action. He was formerly the Co-Director of the Center for Third World Organizing (CTWO) from 1984 to 1999, founding innovative training and organizing projects such as the Movement Activist Apprenticeship Program (MAAP), and People United for a Better Oakland (PUEBLO). He is a founding member of numerous organizing initiatives including the National Organizers Alliance, Californians for Justice, and the Asian Pacific Environmental Network. Francis is a frequent contributor to ColorLines Magazine and has written numerous articles on challenges confronting the practice of organizing in the development of social movements. The article Square Pegs Find Their Groove: Re-Thinking the Organizing Circle, co-authored with Kim Fellner, has been widely circulated in the community organizing community and is used as text in university classrooms. In 2003, he authored the Ford Foundation-funded study, Bi-National Research Project on Social Change Initiatives in the Philippines and the United States. Francis is a native of the Philippines, and immigrated to the U.S. in 1977.
