FIBERcast is a 45-minute audio program broadcast live from the University of Delaware, sharing the insights and knowledge of leaders in business, academia, and government on timely issues of importance to the international fashion and apparel industry. FIBERcasts use simple, audiocast technology to ensure easy access during the live program and easy download afterward as a podcast. Listeners to the live FIBERcast can e-mail their questions to add to the discussion.

For our first FIBERcast, join Dr. Hye-Shin Kim of the University of Delaware in examining social responsibility's role in transforming production and sourcing practices in the global apparel trade. Her guests include Marsha Dickson, University of Delaware professor and chairperson of the Department of Fashion and Apparel Studies, board member of the Fair Labor Association, and co-author of the new book Social Responsibility in the Global Apparel Industry, and Doug Cahn, of the Cahn Group, LLC, who has been a corporate responsibility and public policy executive for the past 30 years, including vice president of human rights programs at Reebok International. Learn why social responsibility is still needed in the apparel industry and how industry practitioners can align social responsibility initiatives with core business, bottom-line goals.

Doug Cahn, principal of The Cahn Group, is a leader in designing and implementing labor standards programs in supply chains. During his 15-year tenure at Reebok, he developed and managed the Reebok Human Rights Production Standards, the first in the athletic footwear industry. He developed a code of conduct and a set of compliance benchmarks to guide implementation, acquired knowledge of labor laws in key producing countries, monitored factories on three continents, and then trained professionals to undertake those tasks. He is responsible for numerous best practices including creating a child-labor free soccer ball factory in Sialkot, Pakistan. He is chairman of the board of the Fair Factories Clearinghouse, a non-profit initiative of global retail companies and retail trade associations dedicated to creating a system for managing and sharing information about workplace conditions. He is also a member of the board of Verite, a nonprofit research and advocacy organization dedicated to humanizing the global workplace.

Marsha Dickson is professor and chairperson in the Department of Fashion and Apparel Studies at the University of Delaware. She has published in such journals as the Clothing and Textiles Research Journal, Journal of Business Ethics, and Business & Society and is internationally known for her research and teaching on social responsibility. Dr. Dickson is president of Educators for Socially Responsible Apparel Business. She is also a member of the board of directors of the Fair Labor Association, a non-governmental organization originally formed by President Clinton to improve working conditions in factories around the world. In 2008, she received the University Continuing Education Association's Award for Outstanding Programming, Mid-Atlantic Region, for the University of Delaware's new certificate program in Socially Responsible and Sustainable Apparel Business. For more information on the latest book Dr. Dickson has co-authored, Social Responsibility in the Global Apparel Industry, please visit the Fairchild Books Web site.

Hye-Shin Kim is an associate professor of fashion and apparel studies at the University of Delaware. Dr. Kim teaches courses in fashion merchandising. Her primary research interests include consumer product involvement, brand perceptions, shopping motivations, and social influences in consumer behavior. She has published in numerous international journals including the Journal of Brand Management, International Journal of Retail & Distribution Management, Journal of Fashion Marketing and Management, Clothing and Textiles Research Journal, and the Journal of International Shopping Center Research. She is the project director of the Fashion International Business Education Response (FIBER) project, funded by the U.S. Department of Education, and also serves as the editor of the FIBER journal.

FIBERcast Registration

Registration is now closed.