Charles Kernaghan

Kathie Lee Gifford changed everything. Whether she understood what was happening or not, her role in the 1995 Wal-Mart clothing sweatshop scandal was invaluable. “She was dragged into this thing kicking and screaming. But she really helped start the anti-sweatshop campaign. [In doing so,] she educated a country of 300 million people,” explained Charles Kernaghan, executive director of the National Labor Committee, a nonprofit watchdog group with a mission to protect the rights of workers around the world. Kernaghan’s group exposed the abuses occurring within the factory walls, and later would initiate an almost-obligatory United States corporate behavioral shift from simple, bottom-line profit and