Contact Ricardo at [email protected]

Ricardo Samir Nuñez is a worker cooperative ecosystem development specialist supporting cultural practices, policies, organizations, and systemic changes that allow communities to build beyond the interlocking systems of imperialist white supremacist capitalist patriarchy. He is currently the Director of Economic Democracy and a Staff Attorney at the Sustainable Economies Law Center where he collaborates on educational programs, legal services, policy advocacy, and regional and national ecosystem development to restore human labor to right relationship with people and the planet. He is board president of the US Federation of Worker Cooperatives and an at-large board member at the California Center for Cooperative Development and the Southern California Focus on Cooperation. He also became a lawyer without going to law school through California’s Law Office Study Program! Check out Ricardo's Favorite Cooperative Resources here! 

Past Law Center Work (2013 - 2021)

• A National Legal Landscape to Support Worker Cooperatives (Co-coordinator) 

• Co-opLaw.org (Developer & Coordinator)

• Legal Course for Economic Democracy (Developer & Coordinator)

• California Cooperative Landscape Analysis Report (Researcher & Co-Author)

• Network of Bay Area Worker Cooperatives’ Conflict Engagement Team (Mediator)

• Worker-Owned Recovery California Coalition (Policy Campaign Support Staff)

• Grassroots Finance (Trainer)

• Repaired Nations - Black Co-op Development (Advisor)

• Resilient Communities Legal Cafe (Director)

• Legal Education Coordinator

• Think Outside the Boss (Facilitator & Coordinator)

• California Worker Cooperative Act, AB 816  (Campaign Co-Coordinator)

• Oakland City Advocacy Campaign Supporting Worker Cooperatives (Campaign Staff)

• Berkeley City Advocacy Campaign Supporting Worker Cooperatives (Campaign Staff)

• Worker Co-op Academy (Facilitator & Coordinator)

• Communications Circle (Co-Coordinator)

• Worker Self-Directed Nonprofit (Workshop Facilitator)

• Conflict Engagement Team

• Bay Area Cooperative Ecosystem Coalition (Coordinator)

• Lots of other stuff. You get the picture. 

Education & Training

Law & Social Change Jam (2019, 2023)
Democracy at Work Institute Cooperative Development Fellow (2015)
California State University Long Beach:  BA in Political Science (International Relations) and International Studies (Western Europe), minor in Anthropology (Cultural). 
St. John Bosco High School (Bellflower, CA)

Presentations, Publications, & Interviews

• Cooperators without Borders by Genç İşi Kooperatif (Istanbul, Turkey)  

• THE DIRTIEST WORD (documentary)

• Webinar: Coop Entity Formation for Entrepreneurs

• The Economics of Sustainability by Praxis Peace Institute 

• 'Workplaces are commons': Q&A with Sustainable Economies Law Center's Ricardo Nuñez and Chris Tittle

• Episode 7: The Plague of Worker Expendability with Sabiha Basrai and Ricardo Nuñez from The Plague

• “Co-ops Transforming Rural Communities” Theme Explored at 2018 Montana Cooperative Summit

• The Search for a Business Model – Three Stone Hearth, Co-ops and Holacracy

• Worker-Owner Co-op Model Thrives at Alvarado Street Bakery

• NEW BILL COULD SPUR GROWTH OF WORKER COOPERATIVES IN CALIFORNIA 

• A Legal Overview of Business Ownership for Immigrant Entrepreneurs in Massachusetts 

• TACKLING THE LAW, TOGETHER: A Legal Guide to Worker Cooperatives Generally and in Massachusetts

• Cooperative Education and Cooperative/Solidarity Economics

Life Before the Law Center

Ricardo is from Long Beach, California, and he doesn't mind if you know it. #StrongBeach! 

Ricardo began working domestically with cooperatives at the Los Angeles Eco-Village with the Los Angeles Worker Ownership Resources and Cooperative Services (LAWORCS) Committee. LAWORCS was an initiative to start a worker cooperative incubator and resource center for the greater L.A. area. Prior to LAWORCS, Ricardo was a Homeless Prevention and Rapid Re-Housing Case Manager working with low-income families to stop pending evictions and re-house homeless neighbors in southern LA County, primarily in Bellflower and Paramount. 

Prior to his housing work, Ricardo was a Rural Education Development (RED) Specialist in Zambia with the U.S. Peace Corps. Ricardo led efforts in capacity building with 15 rural, up-country schools. His focus as a RED Specialist was teacher training, teacher monitoring, and strengthening administrative management systems. His heart, though, belonged to the two village based Women’s Cooperatives that he supported and helped co-found. Working with the Women's Cooperatives displayed the transformative power of the cooperative model in action. Ricardo also worked in concert with multiple Farmer’s Cooperatives providing training on sustainable farming practices and connections to resources. 

Ricardo was voted Orange County Weekly's 2007 Best Bartender of the Year. 

Other Interesting Tidbits

Ricardo enjoys bodyboarding, cycling, traveling, and the ocean breeze. He is deeply committed to family, friends, and community. 

“Worker cooperatives are my jam.”

Updated July 2020