Drew Hempel completed high school in Minneapolis, Minnesota. After a year at Hampshire College in the five college valley of Amherst, Massachusetts, Hempel transferred to Madison, WI where he achieved a B.A. in International Relations with an emphasis on environmental studies. Drew has a certificate in conservation biology and sustainable development from the School for Field Studies in Costa Rica, as well as work and travel experience in Alaska, Morocco, Venezuela and other countries. With a childhood focused on music studies, for the past ten years Hempel has worked on applied social research and theory in ecological justice. Work areas have included Citizens for a Better Environment, Lothlorien Housing Cooperative, Natural Harvest Farm, University of Wisconsin-Madison Greens, the Minnesota Free Burma Coalition, Clean Water Action Alliance, AFSCME local 3896, and the Resource Center of Americas. Hempel recently completely a stint as a columnist for the University of Minnesota Daily, chalked up eight arrests for civil disobedience and helped lead several successful sustainability projects for monitoring sweatshops, divesting from corporations collaborating in slave-labor projects and passing a selective purchasing resolution at the Minneapolis City Council. Hempel currently maintains a daily ecological justice email list for Minnesota and, beyond theory and truth-seeking, is planning on applied research in corporate charter revocation and corporate personhood, a subversion of citizen sovereignty exposed by the Program on Corporations, Law and Democracy (www.poclad.org).
 While University Coalition for Labor Rights members look on, Political Ecology graduate student Drew Hempel throws paint at Coffman Union's front terrace to protest the University's alleged support of sweat shops. "(The paint) is symbolic of the blood spilled by the high murder rates, forced abortions and high injury rates in sweatshops," Hempel said. -- The Minnesota Daily
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