Joan Suarez, Director Emeritus, serves as Co-Chair of Bread and Roses’ Council of Advisors. A life-long activist and organizer, Joan retired as founding  Founding Executive Director of Bread and Roses Missouri in March 2021. In addition to her advisory roles, Joan is Executive Producer of Mrs. Palmer’s Honey, our latest original play. Joan began working as an Education Director for the Amalgamated Clothing Workers in 1962, and later an International Vice-President of Amalgamated Clothing & Textile Workers Union. As a leader in Missouri JWJ, she helped to form the Bread and Roses project and lead its establishment as an independent non-profit in 2015. Joan is also Founding Chair (now Emeritus) of the Missouri Immigrant and Refugee Advocates (MIRA), a post she held for 15 years.