Ethan Frey is a former political and labor organizer who has worked for the past nine years in philanthropy.

Currently, he is a Program Officer on the Ford Foundation’s Civic Engagement & Government team where he supports local and state-based organizations building People of Color and working class power. His work is concentrated in six states: NY, MI, MN, TX, LA, and FL.

Ethan joined the Foundation in 2013 as a program associate where, until 2017, he worked on a range of issues including voting rights, community organizing, civic engagement, and tax justice. The Foundation launched its state power-building project in 2017.

Previously, Ethan served as a regional field director in Columbus, Ohio, for the 2012 presidential campaign and before that as a field organizer in Toledo during the 2008 general election campaign. He also worked to unionize low-wage workers in Miami, Florida, as an organizer for the international trade union Unite Here, which represents food service, hotel, and gaming employees; and at Project Renewal, a nonprofit social service provider, where he worked to protect public benefits for low-income houseless New Yorkers as a non-attorney civil legal advocate.

Ethan grew up in Wilkes-Barre, Pennsylvania. He graduated from Westminster College in New Wilmington, Pennsylvania. He currently splits time between Gainesville, Florida and Brooklyn, New York with his partner, James.