| Speakers |
| Cristina Banks PhD Associate Director, California Labor Lab University of California, Berkeley Dr. Banks is the Director of the Interdisciplinary Center for Healthy Workplaces, a global research center at the University of California, Berkeley whose purpose is to gather together all known science across disciplines regarding employee health and well-being and to translate findings into a new organizational template for healthy workplaces. In collaboration with Dr. Sheldon Zedeck, Dr. Banks leads a team of 30 researchers spanning multiple disciplines and 20+ affiliates in collecting and integrating known scientific findings and creating new research programs to advance our knowledge in this area. Dr. Banks is also a Senior Lecturer at the Haas School of Business where she has taught Organizational Behavior and Human Resource Management for 30 years. | |
| Justin P. Boren Ph.D. Associate Professor Santa Clara University Dr. Justin Boren's scholarship focuses on the way that social support networks impact the experience of co-worker stress. He also studies work/life balance, organizational culture, psychological and physiological stress, and employee relationships. He developed a unique concept in organizational communication called "Communicatively Restricted Organizational Stress" (CROS), which is defined as an employee's perceived inability to communicate about a particular stressor. His work has linked CROS to specific health-related outcomes and he is currently developing an intervention technique to reduce employee stress in high CROS organizations. Dr. Boren is a member of the American Psychological Association, Society for Industrial/Organizational Psychologists, National Communication, and Western States Communication Association where he serves as the President-elect and the program planner for the 2025 annual convention with the theme of "Support." | |
| Alfredo Carlos PhD Assistant Professor of Labor Studies California State University, Dominguez Hills Dr. Alfredo Carlos is an Assistant Professor in the department of Labor Studies at California State University, Dominguez Hills. He is the Co-President and Membership and Organizing Chair of the California Faculty Association Dominguez Hills chapter. Before starting at CSUDH he served as the interim Director of Chicano Studies at Eastern Washington University and was a former faculty member in Political Science at California State University, Long Beach. He is also the Founder & Director of the Foundation for Economic Democracy an organization that promotes democratic worker ownership of businesses and community ownership of land and housing. He grew up in the Los Angeles Harbor area in an immigrant working class family and community, which has informed his education and research and given him purpose to struggle for economic and racial justice in solidarity with working people trying to live with dignity. He holds a Ph.D. in Political Science from the University of California, Irvine where he specialized in the fields of Political Economy, and American Racial and Urban Politics. He earned his M.A. in Political Science from California State University, Long Beach with a focus in Comparative Politics and International Relations and has a B.A. in History and Chicano Studies from the University of California, Santa Barbara, where he studied working class history, wealth and poverty and social movements. He is the co-author of The Latino Question (Pluto, 2018), which was named “Best Book in Latino Politics” in 2019 by the American Political Science Association. | |
| Marnie Dobson PhD Healthy Work Campaign Director Center for Social Epidemiology Marnie Dobson, Ph.D. is currently the Director of the Healthy Work Campaign and the Program Director of the Center for Social Epidemiology, a non-profit organization and sponsor of the HWC. The Healthy Work Campaign is a public health campaign focused on raising awareness about the impacts of work stress on worker mental and physical health. For almost 20 years she has been a researcher in occupational health focused on work stress and mental health, and was an Assistant Adjunct Professor at the University of California, Irvine, Center for Occupational and Environmental Health. In collaboration with a team of university researchers and the Center for Social Epidemiology, she developed the Healthy Work Survey and intervention tools and guides organizations in preventing occupational stress and designing healthier working conditions. | |
| Theodore F. Robles PhD Professor of Psychology University of California, Los Angeles Ted Robles is Professor and Vice Chair for Graduate Studies in the Department of Psychology at the University of California, Los Angeles. He studies the biological mechanisms that explain how social relationships influence health. Dr. Robles is uncovering how supportive parents and spouses shape how our immune system responds to threats in the environment. Lacking support may lead to an overactive, hypervigilant immune system that promotes premature aging and chronic diseases of aging like cardiovascular disease. On the other hand, having warm, secure relationships may downregulate overactive immune responses, protecting the health of children and adults. Dr. Robles and his students are also studying how support from friends, intimate partners, and co-workers may benefit our health. He also co-leads the Engage Well pod of the Semel Healthy Campus Initiative Center at UCLA, which focuses on fostering new social connections, improving the quality of existing social connections, and promoting positive and inclusive social interactions on the UCLA campus. | |
| Bianca Frogner PhD Professor and Director, Center for Health Workforce Studies University of Washington Bianca K. Frogner, PhD is a Professor in the Department of Family Medicine in the School of Medicine at University of Washington (UW) and the Director of the UW Center for Health Workforce Studies (CHWS). She is Adjunct Professor in the Department of Health Systems and Population Health in the School of Public Health. She is a Governor-appointed member of the Washington state Health Care Cost Transparency Board and is the Chair of the Data Issues Advisory Committee of the Board. Dr. Frogner has provided service to the National Academies of Science, Engineering, and Medicine. She has given state and federal testimony to inform health workforce policies. She is an Advisory Board Member of Milbank Quarterly and on the Editorial Board of Medical Care Research and Review. Dr. Frogner’s has produced over 150 publications including peer-reviewed articles, book chapters, and reports. She has received awards recognizing her scholarship as well as mentorship. She has delivered over 250 scholarly presentations and has appeared in media outlets including CNN, NPR, Wall Street Journal, Washington Post, Vox, and Politico. Dr. Frogner has received awards recognizing her excellence in research and mentorship. Dr. Frogner completed a post-doctoral fellow at the University of Illinois at Chicago School of Public Health. Dr. Frogner received her PhD in health economics at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, and BA at University of California, Berkeley in Molecular and Cell Biology. | |
| Deysi Gomez Crew Member McDonalds Deysi immigrated to the U.S. from Guatemala 2 years ago. Deysi first spoke up after being forced to work through a power outage at her McDonald's. She recalls using her iPhone flashlight to make food and take orders manually through the drive-thru. Deysi spoke about that experience in front of San Jose City Council members, leading to her strike. Deysi is struggling with management as they are pushing her to quit because she has filed a complaint against them. Deysi says she works to support herself and her family in Guatemala, where she has a six-year-old daughter. | |
| Lorena Gonzalez Fletcher Executive Secretary-Treasurer California Labor Federation The former Chief Officer of the San Diego & Imperial Counties Labor Council, Lorena was elected to the California State Assembly in 2013. Lorena was the first Latina to serve as Chairwoman of a legislative Appropriations Committee and was the longest serving Chair in history. Lorena now serves as the first woman and first person of color to serve as Chief Officer of the California Labor Federation, AFL-CIO. | |
| Alix Gould-Werth PhD Chief Evaluation Officer United States Department of Labor Alix Gould-Werth is the Chief Evaluation Officer for the United States Department of Labor. In this role, she leads the Chief Evaluation Office, an independent office responsible for coordinating, managing and implementing the department’s evaluation research. As Chief Evaluation Officer, Dr. Gould-Werth also serves as the department’s Scientific Integrity Official. Prior to her time at the Department of Labor, Dr. Gould-Werth worked at the Washington Center for Equitable Growth, Mathematica, and Fountain House. Dr. Gould-Werth is a nationally recognized expert on Unemployment Insurance, Paid Family and Medical Leave, schedule stability, and other issues affecting low-wage workers and their families. She has published in peer-reviewed journals and her expertise has been cited in outlets including the New York Times, Washington Post, and Wall Street Journal. She holds a B.A. in History and Sociology/Anthropology from Swarthmore College, M.S.W. from the University of Michigan, and Ph.D. in Social Work and Sociology also from the University of Michigan. | |
| Kristen Harknett PhD Professor University of California, San Francisco Kristen Harknett, PhD, is a Professor of Social and Behavioral Sciences and a faculty affiliate of the Institute for Health Policy Studies at the University of California, San Francisco. Kristen co-directs The Shift Project, a large-scale survey and research study of low-wage workers in the service sector, which maps the connections between schedule instability and other working conditions and worker health and wellbeing. Drawing on her research, she has provided invited testimony to inform federal, state, and local policymaking around fair workweek regulations, including the Federal Schedules That Work Act, and legislation in California, Washington State, Chicago, Philadelphia, and other localities. Her research also includes examinations of access to paid sick leave in service sector workplaces, gender and racial/ethnic inequalities in working conditions, and the use of technology and surveillance in the service sector. | |
| Robert Harrison MD, MPH Chief of the Occupational Health Surveillance and Evaluation Program; Clinical Professor of Medicine Occupational Health Branch, California Department of Public Health; University of California, San Francisco Robert Harrison, MD, MPH, is Chief of the Occupational Health Surveillance and Evaluation Program in the Occupational Health Branch, California Department of Public Health, and Clinical Professor of Medicine at the University of California, San Francisco. Dr. Harrison joined UCSF in 1984. He founded and directed UCSF Occupational Health Services for more than 15 years, and now is a senior attending physician. He has diagnosed and treated thousands of patients with work- and environmental-induced diseases and injuries. He also directs the worker tracking and investigation program for the California Department of Public Health. | |
| Monique Hosein DrPH, MPH Coordinator of Public Programs Labor Occupational Health Program, UC Berkeley Monique is a Coordinator of Public Programs at LOHP, one of the many partners in the CA Labor Lab collaborative. Monique is a graduate of the Doctor of Public Health program at UC Berkeley School of Public Health and the Master of Public Health program (Community Health Education) at San Francisco State University. Monique brings extensive experience in program management, health education and cross-sector collaborations in the areas of HIV/AIDS, youth development, and sexual and reproductive health. She has a background in mixed methods research through the lenses of health equity, the intersection of race and gender, and cultural humility. Joining the LOHP team in 2022 was a realization of a commitment to safe, healthy, just workplaces that began with LOHP's Social Justice and Worker Health seminar. As part of the community engagement team at the CA Labor Lab, one area of Monique's work as the Lab's Community Engagement Coordinator, focuses on the development of a research-to-practice toolkit to support research teams in engaging with communities throughout the research process to ensure that their research has an impact on improving community health. The Lab's community engagement efforts also includes strategic planning, convening a Community Engagement Board and ensuring that vulnerable worker communities are engaged in guiding the work and research of the collaborative. | |
| Catherine Hutchinson MS President CSU Employees Union Catherine Hutchinson, CSUEU Statewide President and Biology Technician at CSU Channel Islands, emerged as a catalyst for change in 2011 when she and her fellow ISTs faced layoffs. This pivotal moment sparked her involvement in the union, leading her to become Chapter President in 2013. Catherine's financial acumen saw her transition to VP for Finance in 2017, setting the stage for her election as Statewide President in June 2020. With a BS from CSUSB, an MS from CSUCI, and completing her MS in Legal Studies from Pepperdine Law School, Catherine embodies a harmonious blend of science, advocacy, and leadership. Her journey is a testament to resilience and a commitment to positive change. | |
| Rafael Jaime PhD Candidate Teaching Fellow UC Los Angeles Rafael Jaime is a PhD candidate and teaching fellow in the English department at UCLA and co-president of UAW 4811, the union representing 48,000 academic workers at the University of California. | |
| Jessica King MSW, PhD Research and Evaluation Associate PHI As a Research and Evaluation Associate, Dr. King supports PHI’s strategy for building the evidence base on state and national policies and workforce interventions that improve the quality of direct care jobs and the quality of long-term services and supports for older adults and people with disabilities. Prior to joining PHI, Dr. King worked in a variety of settings within the healthcare sector as a clinical social worker, including in residential care, community mental health, mental health crisis centers, and hospitals. Dr. King’s doctoral research focused on workplace policy and the experiences of working women who served as family caregivers to older adults during the COVID-19 pandemic. Dr. King earned her PhD in Social Work from the University of Denver, her MSW from Boston College, and her BA in Psychology from Emory University. | |
| Elmer Lizardi BA Legislative Advocate California Labor Federation Elmer Lizardi is a Mexican immigrant, who grew up in the California Delta among farmworking communities who farm mostly pears and grapes. After attending local public elementary and middle schools, and then attending Christian Brothers High School in Sacramento, he moved down to Los Angeles for college. He attended UCLA, where he earned a B.A. in Political Science, and a minor in Chicana/o/x studies. After graduating from UCLA in 2020, he was accepted into the California Senate Fellows program to work on government and policy in the State Capitol. He worked in the office of Senator Ben Hueso, and then Senator Nancy Skinner, mainly focusing on Energy, Environmental, and Natural Resources policy. After 3 years in the California State Senate as a legislative aid, he accepted an opportunity with the California Labor Federation to focus on his true passion: labor policy and advocating for workers. As a Legislative Advocate for the California Labor Federation, he helps advocate for over 2 million union members at the state level, with a special emphasis on labor law compliance and worker health and safety. As a son of immigrant farmworkers, he always grounds his work with personal experience, and he works daily to be able to advocate for better labor protections, better job quality, and better access to quality jobs for every Californian. | |
| Nicole Moore President Rideshare Drivers United Nicole Moore is a part-time app driver in Los Angeles and President of Rideshare Drivers United, an independent organization of drivers run by drivers, based in California. RDU, founded in 2018, has become a powerful force of drivers advocating for full labor rights for app-based drivers and dignity for all workers no matter how they are deployed – whether by human managers or AI. | |
| Costanza Nider Unit Secretary and Interpreter Emergency Department at Palomar Health Constanza Nider works as a unit secretary and interpreter for the Emergency Department at Palomar Health in San Diego County. She is a member of the Caregivers and Healthcare Employees Union (CHEU). She is a member of the 2024 negotiating team for her union. | |
| Liz Ortega Assemblymember, 20th district California State Assembly Liz Ortega proudly represents District 20, one of the most ethnically diverse districts in the state. It includes Hayward, San Leandro, most of Union City, portions of Dublin and Pleasanton, and several unincorporated communities. Liz Ortega is a longtime labor leader and activist from an immigrant family who has dedicated her career to fighting for the working-class people of Alameda County. Her undocumented mother brought three-year-old Liz and her family to California to build a better life. Her family’s struggles shaped the values that guide her work. As Statewide Political Director for AFSCME Local 3299, the University of California’s largest employee union, Liz secured the passage of state legislation to maintain and protect essential service jobs at every UC campus. The first Latina to be elected Executive Secretary-Treasurer of the Alameda Labor Council, Liz has been an East Bay leader in the fight for equitable wages, health care, and safe, secure jobs. Liz, her husband Jason (a former School Board Member), and daughter Yamara live in San Leandro, where Yamara attends local public schools. | |
| Jim Philliou Executive Director Cal State University Employees Union , SEIU Local 2579 Jim Philliou is Executive Director at CSUEU and has been organizing workers with SEIU and first Unite Here for 30+ years. He led SEIU's first Homecare California Homecare Campaign in San Mateo County in 1994 and served as SEIU's Western Region Organizing Director and National Organizing Director. He returned to California in 2010 and served as consultant to Unions on Organizing and Bargaining prior to working as CSUEU Executive Director. | |
| Victor Rubin MCP, PhD Policy Researcher and Consultant Victor Rubin is a consultant to the California Labor Laboratory on the opportunities for policy change arising from the activities of the Lab. He retired in 2022 as former Vice President for Research at PolicyLink, a national nonprofit institute advancing equitable policy change. He led engagements regarding strategies for inclusive economic growth in several cities and communities of practice with officials and advocates, including the Equitable Innovation Economies group with the Pratt Center for Community Development and the Southern Cities for Economic Inclusion with the Annie E. Casey Foundation. He was guest editor of the November 2019 special issue of the Community Development Innovation Review on “Transforming Community Development through Arts and Culture” and was guest editor of the special issue on “Regional Equity” of the Journal of the Community Development Society (2011 and 2018). Recent memberships include the American Planning Association’s Social Equity Task Force (2018-2020), the California Planning Roundtable, the Design and Health Leadership Group of the American Institute of Architects (2015-2018), the board of directors of the Association of Collegiate Schools of Architecture (2018-2021) and the Advisory Council for the UCSF Center for Community Engagement. In 1999-2000 he was Director of the Office of University Partnerships at the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development. He was formerly Adjunct Associate Professor in the Department of City and Regional Planning at the University of California, Berkeley, where he earned his MCP (1975) and PhD. (1986.) | |
| Daniel Schneider PhD Malcolm Wiener Professor of Social Policy Harvard Kennedy School Daniel Schneider is the Malcolm Wiener Professor of Social Policy at the Harvard Kennedy School and Professor of Sociology at Harvard University. Professor Schneider’s research focuses on precarious work, social demography, and inequality. As Co-Director of the Shift Project, he has co-led the creation of a novel dataset tracking the working experiences of service-sector workers. His work examines racial/ethnic and gender inequalities in job quality, the effects of precarious work on the economic security and wellbeing of workers and their families, and the effects of labor standards on working conditions. Professor Schneider holds a PhD in Sociology and Social Policy from Princeton University and a BA from Brown University. Prior to joining HKS, he was a faculty member in the Sociology Department at the University of California, Berkeley. | |
| Wendelin Slusser MD, MS Associate Vice Provost and Clinical Professor University of California, Los Angeles Wendelin Slusser, MD, MS (she/her/hers) is the Associate Vice Provost of the Semel Healthy Campus Initiative Center and a Clinical Professor at the UCLA Schools of Medicine and Public Health where she is currently building an inclusive culture of health and wellbeing for the over 85,000 students, staff, and faculty. Her career is dedicated to promoting health and well-being with a keen focus on equity for children, young adults, and their families. She has led pioneering research, such as the Fruit and Vegetable Bar Intervention study that inspired national policies and campaigns, including former First Lady Michelle Obama’s Let’s Move Salad Bar to Schools Campaign and the Preventing Childhood Overweight through Parent Training intervention study, which was later adopted by the LA County Department of Public Health. In addition to her research and clinical practice in pediatrics and nutrition, Dr. Slusser has been instrumental in integrating nutrition education into the training of healthcare professionals across disciplines at UCLA. Her efforts have culminated in the establishment of the primary care pediatric training track for UCLA Pediatric Residents at the Venice Family Clinic and the UCLA teaching kitchen that focuses on reducing student food insecurity and supporting research. In her free time, as a member of a fifth-generation California farming family, Dr. Slusser leads the sustainability efforts for the Slusser Ranch. See Dr. Slusser’s UCLA TedX talk, UCLA LiveWell podcasts | |
| Laura Stock MPH Director Labor Occupational Health Program Laura Stock is the director of the Labor Occupational Health Program (LOHP). She directs and administers LOHP’s programs providing training, research support, materials development and technical assistance for workers, employers, health professionals, and the general public. She also provide direction to staff on translating research findings to practice and to public policy (R2P2P). In her over thirty years at LOHP, she has developed various training programs and educational materials on occupational safety and health issues and have provided technical assistance and consultation to workers, unions, joint labor/management committees, employers, policymakers and others on how to set up comprehensive and effective health and safety programs. Ms. Stock is currently principle investigator on a number of statewide worker education initiatives including WOSHTEP (Worker Occupational Safety and Health Training and Education Program), and is a member of the Cal/OSHA Standards Board, charged with developing occupational safety regulations for the state of CA as well as the NIOSH/ NORA Committees on Healthy Work Design. | |
| Julie A. Su Acting Secretary of Labor U.S. Department of Labor Julie Su became Acting Secretary of Labor on March 11, 2023. She was previously confirmed by the Senate to serve as the deputy secretary of labor on July 13, 2021. As deputy secretary, she served as the de-facto chief operating officer for the department, overseeing its workforce, managing its budget and executing the priorities of the secretary of labor. Prior to joining the U.S. Department of Labor, Deputy Secretary Su served as the secretary for the California Labor and Workforce Development Agency. The LWDA enforces workplace laws, combats wage theft, ensures health and safety on the job, connects Californians to quality jobs and career pathways, and administers unemployment insurance, workers compensation and paid family leave. Su is a nationally recognized expert on workers' rights and civil rights who has dedicated her distinguished legal career to advancing justice on behalf of poor and disenfranchised communities and is a past recipient of a MacArthur Foundation "genius" grant. As California labor commissioner from 2011 through 2018, Su enforced the state's labor laws to ensure a fair and just workplace for both employees and employers. | |
| Suzanne Teran MPH Associate Director Labor Occupational Health Program, University of California, Berkeley Suzanne Teran is the Associate Director of the Labor Occupational Health Program at UC Berkeley, where much of her career has focused on addressing immigrant workers’ health and safety and developing effective strategies to improve working conditions. Key areas of work include developing training programs, participatory research, outreach and education strategies, social marketing and communications campaigns, and policy initiatives. She has extensive experience conducting qualitative research and developing research partnerships with community and worker organizations. Her recent and current work includes facilitating the state advisory committee that developed guidelines and policy recommendations to protect household service workers, managing LOHP’s program as part of the statewide COVID-19 Workplace Outreach Project, and conducting research to better understand occupational chemical exposures among domestic workers, hotel housekeepers and janitors, as well as to evaluate the effectiveness of a worker resiliency center as a workplace violence prevention strategy. Ms. Teran teaches the class Social Justice and Worker Health at Berkeley Public Health. | |
| Jane Thomason CIH Lead Industrial Hygienist National Nurses United/California Nurses Association Jane Thomason is a Certified Industrial Hygienist and the Health and Safety Coordinator with National Nurses United, the largest labor union and professional association for registered nurses in the United States. In her role, Jane oversees the Health and Safety literature and policy review and teaches continuing education classes for NNU’s 225,000 RN members. Jane has developed expertise and conducts research on a wide range of issues faced by nurses, including workplace violence, ergonomics and patient handling, infectious diseases, and other hazardous exposures. | |
| Laura Trupin MPH California Labor Lab Center Coordinator UC San Francisco Laura Trupin, MPH is the Center Coordinator for the California Labor Lab and a co-investigator on the California Work and Health Survey, a project of the Lab. Her research has focused on the impact of work and working conditions on health and on disparities in health outcomes for people with chronic illness. | |
| David Weil BS, MPP, PhD Professor of Social Policy and Economics Heller School for Social Policy and Management, Brandeis University David Weil is Professor at the Heller School for Social Policy and Management at Brandeis University and Visiting Senior Fellow at the Ash Center for Democracy, Harvard Kennedy School. He also served as the Dean of the Heller School from 2017-2022. Weil served as the Administrator of the Wage and Hour Division of the U.S. Department of Labor under President Barack Obama from 2014 to January 2017. Weil is an internationally recognized expert in employment and labor market policy along with regulation, transparency policy, and the impacts of industry restructuring on wages, employment and work outcomes. He has advised government agencies at the state and federal levels and international organizations on employment, labor, and workplace policies. He is the author of more than 130 articles and five books including The Fissured Workplace (Harvard University Press). He has received many awards including the Frances Perkins Intelligence and Courage Award and was named a Public Dollars for Public Good Scholar by the Marguerite Casey Foundation in 2022. Weil received his BS in Industrial and Labor Relations at Cornell University and Master and Ph.D. degrees in Public Policy at Harvard University. | |
| Edward Yelin PhD Edward A Dickson Emeritus Professor; Director, California Labor Laboratory University of California, San Francisco Dr. Edward Yelin is the Edward A Dickson Emeritus Professor of Medicine and Health Policy at UCSF. Dr. Yelin is the Director of the California Labor Laboratory, a NIOSH Total Worker Health Center of Excellence. Dr. Yelin's research has been focused both on how persons with health problems function in contemporary employment and on how contemporary employment, with fewer long-term ties between employers and workers, may result in health problems. Dr. Yelin has more than 300 publications and is an elected member of the National Academy of Social Insurance. | |
| Nancy Zuniga MPH Program Director Instituto de Educación Popular del Sur de California (IDEPSCA) Nancy Zuniga is Director of the Workers’ Health Program at the Institute of Popular Education of Southern California (IDEPSCA), a multi-issue worker center based in Los Angeles that organizes day laborers, domestic workers and other immigrant low wage workers. Nancy has led the organization’s climate justice and occupational health work, which includes outreach and education of workers impacted by climate accelerated disasters, like local wildfires and extreme heat, as well as policies that address gaps in health and safety protections for immigrant workers. She has served on multiple Advisory Committees to share what she has learned by organizing impacted immigrant workers over the years, including the Technical Advisory Committee for the 2020 Los Angeles County Climate Vulnerability Assessment and most recently, the SB321 Domestic Worker Health and Safety Advisory Committee that created the first voluntary health and safety guidelines for domestic work in California. She earned her B.S in Chemistry from UCLA and her Masters in Urban Public Health from Charles R. Drew University. Nancy is Salvadoran, LA Native, daughter of a domestic worker, and health and safety popular educator over a span of 12 years. | |
