Chanchanit Martorell

Born in Thailand and raised in Los Angeles, Martorell studied political science and public law at UCLA where she received her B.A. and her M.A. in Urban Planning with a specialization in Urban Regional Development/Third World Development. She also studied Humanities at Chiang Mai University in Northern Thailand in 1988. 

Engaged in social activism for the past 35 years, Martorell is currently the Executive Director of the Thai Community Development Center, a non-profit organization she founded in 1994 in an effort to improve the lives of Thai immigrants through services that promote cultural adjustment and economic self-sufficiency. Her experiences leading to the founding of Thai CDC include work as a planner, as an aide to Congressman Mel Levine and work with other local and state legislative offices. She also created and taught the first Thai American Experience course offered as part of UCLA’s Asian-American Studies curriculum in 1992.

Martorell has written on the topics of ethnic competency, the Thai immigrant community, Asian poverty, community economic development, urban revitalization strategies, human trafficking, and global capitalism. 

She is known most notably for her work on over a half dozen major human rights cases involving over 2,000 Thai victims of human trafficking who were discovered working in conditions of slavery in the United States. Her tireless advocacy on behalf of the victims and the success of each case has made her a leading expert and sought after spokesperson on the serious issue of modern-day slavery.