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Speaker Bios The US Care Infrastructure: From Promise to Reality

Care Infrastructure Conference Main Page | Speaker Bios

Gary Barker, PhD, is a leading global voice in engaging men and boys in advancing gender equality and positive masculinities. He is the CEO and co-founder of Promundo-US, which has worked more than 10 years in nearly 40 countries. He is also co-founder of Instituto Promundo in Brazil, which began work on healthy masculinities and male allyship more than 20 years ago. Gary is co-founder of MenCare, a global campaign working in more than 50 countries to promote men’s involvement as caregivers, and co-founder of MenEngage, a global alliance of more than 700 NGOs. He co-created and leads the International Men and Gender Equality Survey (IMAGES), the largest-ever survey of men’s attitudes and behaviors related to violence, fatherhood, and gender equality. He is a co-author of the 2015, 2017, 2019 and 2021 State of the World's Fathers reports. He has advised the UN, the World Bank, numerous national governments, and key international foundations and corporations on strategies to engage men and boys in promoting gender equality. In 2017 he was named by Apolitical as one of the 20 most influential people in gender policy around the world. He is an Ashoka Fellow and received the Voices of Solidarity Award from Vital Voices for his work to engage men for gender equality. He holds a PhD in Developmental Psychology and a Research Affiliate position at the Center for Social Sciences, University of Coimbra, Portugal.
Eileen Boris is the Hull Professor and Distinguished Professor of Feminist Studies, History, Black Studies, and Global Studies at the University of California, Santa Barbara, specializing on home-based work and the racialized gendered state Her books include the prize-winners Home to Work: Motherhood and the Politics of Industrial Homework in the United States [1994] and Caring for America: Home Health Workers in the Shadow of the Welfare State, with Jennifer Klein [2012, 2015]; and the co-edited collection with Rhacel Parreñas, Intimate Labors: Cultures, Technologies, and the Politics of Care [2010]. Her latest books are Women’s ILO: Transnational Networks, Global Labor Standards, and Gender Equity [2018], co-edited with Dorothea Hoehtker and Susan Zimmermann; Making the Woman Worker: Precarious Labor and the Fight for Global Standards, 1919-2019 [2019]; and co-edited collections, Engendering Transnational Transgressions: From the Intimate to the Global [2021] with Sandra Dawson and Barbara Molony, and Global Labor Migrations: New Directions [2022 forthcoming] with Heidi Gottfried, Julie Greene, and Joo-Cheong Tham. Her articles have appeared in JAH, Signs, Feminist Studies, Journal of Women’s History, Journal of Policy History, Labor, ILWCH, and numerous collections. Her public writings have appeared in New York Times, The American Prospect, Time, the Nation, Al-Jazeera America, Huffington Post, New Labor Forum, Dissent, Gender Policy Report, and Labor Notes. She was PI for “Working at Living: The Social Relations of Precarity,” for “Enforcement Strategies for Empowerment: Models for the California Domestic Worker Bill of Rights,” and “The Labor of Care.” She is part of the research network on domestic work connected to the International Federation of Domestic Workers and active with the California Domestic Workers Coalition and Scholars for a New Deal for Higher Education.
Mousumi Bose is the mother of Ilan Betzer (2010-2011), who was born with Zellweger spectrum disorder, a rare, life-limiting, debilitating genetic disease. As a result of her personal experience, Dr. Bose re-focused her career goals to study rare disease. Over the last several years, she has conducted research and published multiple papers on the role of the family caregiver in the management of rare pediatric disorders. She served on the advisory committee for the 2018 Rare Caregiving Study sponsored by the National Alliance for Caregiving, and co-authored The Circle of Care Guidebook for Children with Rare and/or Serious Illnesses as well as the recent national report, Caregiving in a Diverse America. Currently, Dr. Bose holds a faculty position in the Department of Nutrition and Food Studies at Montclair State University in New Jersey, studying quality of life in rare disease patients, caregivers, and families.
Melissa Boteach, Vice President for Income Security and Child Care/Early Learning, oversees NWLC’s advocacy, policy, and public education strategies to ensure that all women and families have the income and supports they need to thrive. Prior to joining NWLC, Melissa spent nearly a decade at Center for American Progress (CAP), where she founded and led the Poverty to Prosperity Program, establishing projects to center the voices of low-income families; leading the team’s message and narrative change work, overseeing intersectional advocacy campaigns, and developing bold ideas to cut poverty & expand opportunity that resulted in new legislation, executive actions, and other progress.
Lina Bracero began working with the Service Employees International Union (SEIU) in 2010. There, she focused on building member capacity and political engagement. She’s been the union’s National Political Training Director where she designed curricula and skills development programs for members and staff, geared towards educating members and staff on a variety of topics. Since 2013, Lina has worked on managing Local and Federal strategic partnerships for legislative, electoral and issue campaigns.
Jaya Chatterjee is Legislative & Advocacy Director at Community Change, an organization dedicated to building the power and capacity of low-income people, especially low-income people of color, to change the policies and institutions that impact their lives.
Wendy Chun-Hoon serves as the 20th director of the Women’s Bureau, appointed by President Biden on February 1, 2021. Wendy is skilled at coalition building, bridging strategy across grassroots community organizing, and public sector policy making at state and national levels. She has held senior positions in Maryland state government and private philanthropy, overseeing large-scale, results-driven initiatives for worker and family economic justice. For the past 10 years, Wendy’s led Family Values @ Work, a national network of grassroots coalitions that have won more than 60 new paid leave policies bringing new rights to 55 million workers and their loved ones and are organizing to win greater access to child care, and fair wages and employment conditions for workers. Recognizing the ways in which her own family would be excluded from new policies for paid time to care, Wendy spearheaded the development of the Family Justice Network, building cross-movement organizing among paid leave advocates, communities of color, groups working for reproductive and disability justice, equality for LGBTQ individuals, and organized labor that has made inclusive family recognition a hallmark of the paid leave movement. Under Wendy’s leadership, FV@W’s staff and board grew and are now majority women of color. She was also instrumental in bringing together dozens of organizations to form a coordinated national campaign known as Paid Leave for All. Born and raised in Hawaii, Wendy graduated from Vassar College before earning master’s degrees in Philanthropic Studies and Nonprofit Management from Indiana University. An avid soccer player, Wendy lives with her wife and their two kids in Silver Spring, MD.
Fawn Cothran is the Hunt Research Director at the National Alliance for Caregiving (NAC). Dr. Cothran is a nurse scientist, and a board-certified gerontological clinical nurse specialist. Prior to joining NAC, Dr. Cothran was a faculty member with the Family Caregiving Institute in the Betty Irene Moore School of Nursing, University of California, Davis and Rush University, College of Nursing in Chicago, IL. Dr. Cothran brings 15+ years of experience in dementia family caregiving research and related activities where her work has focused on health equity and the health of African American dementia family caregivers, including most recently caregiving stress and resilience. Dr. Cothran earned a Bachelor of Science in Nursing from Howard University in Washington, D.C. She completed a Master of Science in Nursing with an emphasis in Gerontological Nursing and a Doctor of Philosophy, both from the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor. She also completed a Claire M. Fagin Post-Doctoral Fellowship with the National Hartford Centers of Gerontological Nursing Excellence. She is a fellow of the Gerontological Society of America, a member of the National Black Nurses Association, and a Distinguished Educator in Gerontological Nursing Education.
Jennifer Craft Morgan is the Interim Director of and Associate Professor in the Gerontology Institute at Georgia State University. Her research focuses on jobs and careers, attempting to understand how policy, population, workplace and individual level factors shape how work is experienced and how work is organized across care settings. She is a national expert on recruitment, training and retention of direct care workers. Dr. Morgan has led several major evaluation efforts focused on sharing lessons learned, in real-time, to inform and improve model development for practice and education-based intervention work. Her interdisciplinary research contributes to several disciplines including gerontology, health services, nursing, and sociology. She has published in high-ranking journals such as The Gerontologist, and in top-tier specialty journals such as Social Science and Medicine, Work, Employment and Society, Health Services Research and Journal of the American Medical Association, as well as in more applied outlets intended to reach practitioners.
Raven Dorsey enjoys centering her work in the intersection of race, gender and public policy. She joined the Paid Leave for All (PLFA) staff in May 2020, currently serving as the Deputy Director for Engagement. Prior to joining PLFA she was a Community Organizer for the Warren for President campaign, in Greensboro, North Carolina and a Development Associate at the Women’s Law Project where she coordinated events and fundraising efforts in the Philadelphia area. Raven completed her master’s of social work at the University of Pennsylvania in May 2018 and her bachelor’s degree in women and gender studies with a concentration in gender, sexuality and public health from SUNY Stony Brook. Raven also loves to serve her community as a trained labor and postpartum care doula.
Mignon Duffy’s primary research interests center around care work: the work of taking care of others, including children and those who are elderly, ill or disabled. She is particularly interested in how the social organization of care intersects with gender, race, class and other systems of inequality. Her first book, Making Care Count: One Hundred Years of Gender, Race, and Paid Care Work, combines quantitative, historical, and interpretive methods to analyze the emergence and organization of care work occupations in health care, education, child care, and social services. She is a co-editor of Caring on the Clock: The Complexities and Contradictions of Paid Care, which collects cutting edge research across a range of care work occupations. Duffy is also the co-chair of the Carework Network, a national organization of care work researchers and advocates. Her research has appeared in peer-reviewed journals such as Gender & Society and Social Problems. Committed to connecting her research to policy, Duffy has worked in collaboration with policy organizations such as the United Nations, the International Labor Organization, and the World Economic Forum. She loves teaching research methods to sometimes reluctant students, and also enjoys teaching gender, feminist theory, and social policy courses.
Robert Espinoza is the Vice President of Policy at PHI, where he oversees its national advocacy, research, and public education division on the direct care workforce. He is a nationally recognized expert and frequent speaker on aging, long-term care, workforce, and equity issues. In 2020, he was selected for the first-ever CARE 100 list of the most innovative people working to re-imagine how we care in America today and as one of Next Avenue’s 2020 Influencers in Aging. He also serves on the board of directors for the American Society on Aging, the National Academy of Social Insurance, and the FrameWorks Institute.
Valeria Esquevil is Employment Policies and Gender Specialist at the International Labour Office (ILO). Previously, Valeria was Research Coordinator on Gender and Development at the United Nations Research Institute for Social Development (UNRISD), where her research focused primarily on the care economy and care policies. Before joining the United Nations, Valeria developed a long academic career as feminist economist, publishing extensively on labour, macroeconomic and social policies. She has recently co-edited the Gender & Development issue devoted to the Sustainable Development Goals (Vol. 24, No. 1, 2016), and published along with Andrea Kaufmann Innovations in Care: New Concepts, New Actors, New Policies (Friedrich Ebert Stiftung, 2017). She is co-author of the report Care work and care jobs for the future of decent work (ILO, 2018). Valeria is a member of the Gender and Macroeconomics Group of Latin America and the Caribbean (http://www.gemlac.org/), and the editor of the collective volume La Economía Feminista desde América Latina: Una hoja de ruta sobre los debates actuales en la región (GEM LAC/ ONU Mujeres, Santo Domingo, 2012). She is also a member of the Editorial Board of Feminist Economics and of the Editorial Advisory Group of Gender & Development. Valeria is on leave of absence from her positions as Associate Professor of Economics at Universidad Nacional de General Sarmiento, and as Researcher at CONICET (Argentina). She was trained as economist at Universidad de Buenos Aires (Argentina) and earned an MSc and a PhD in economics from the University of London, UK.
Professor Maria S. Floro is Professor Emerita of Economics at American University (AU) in Washington DC. She was co-Director of the Program on Gender Analysis in Economics (PGAE) until 2021 and led the Care Work and the Economy (CWE-GAM) Project between 2017-21. Her publications include co-authored books on Informal Credit Markets and the New Institutional Economics, Women's Work in the World Economy, and Gender, Development, and Globalization: Economics as if All People Mattered and several articles and book chapters on care and unpaid work, time use and well-being, gender and climate change, urban vulnerability, food security and migration, household savings, credit, and the informal sector.
Nancy Folbre is Professor Emerita of Economics and Director of the Program on Gender and Care Work at the Political Economy Research Institute at the University of Massachusetts Amherst and a Senior Fellow of the Levy Economics Institute at Bard College in the United States. Her research explores the interface between political economy and feminist theory, with a particular emphasis on the value of unpaid care work. In addition to numerous articles published in academic journals, she is the author of The Rise and Decline of Patriarchal Systems (Verso, 2021), the editor of For Love and Money: Care Work in the U.S. (Russell Sage, 2012), and the author of Greed, Lust, and Gender: A History of Economic Ideas (Oxford, 2009), Valuing Children: Rethinking the Economics of the Family (Harvard, 2008), and The Invisible Heart: Economics and Family Values (New Press, 2001). She has also written widely for a popular audience, including contributions to the New York Times Economix blog, The Nation, and the American Prospect. You can learn more about her at her website and blog, Care Talk.
Jocelyn Frye is the president of the National Partnership for Women & Families, an organization that works to improve the lives of women and families by achieving equality for all women. Prior to taking the helm at the National Partnership, Jocelyn served as a senior fellow at the Center for American Progress (CAP) where she shaped and advocated for policies focused on women’s economic security, women’s employment, and women’s rights. Before her time at CAP, Jocelyn spent four years working in the White House under President Obama — serving as deputy assistant to the president and director of policy and special projects for Michelle Obama. Jocelyn first worked for the National Partnership as a staff attorney, and eventually was named general counsel. She also served on the National Partnership’s board.
Cassandra Gomez joined A Better Balance in September 2019 as a Law Clerk. She graduated from Northeastern University School of Law in 2019. During law school, Cassandra served as a Senior Staffer for the Northeastern University Law Review, Treasurer for the Latin American Law Student Association, and competed in the Hispanic National Bar Association’s Uvaldo Herrera National Moot Court Competition. She previously interned at the Massachusetts Attorney General’s Office in the Consumer Protection Division. She completed her undergraduate studies in Political Science at Boston University in 2014.
Marc Granowitter is a legislative public policy expert for the AFL-CIO.
Alycia Hardy is a Senior Policy Analyst with the child care and early education team at CLASP. She works with quantitative and qualitative federal and state data to help strengthen policies that support children, families, and the child care workforce. Alycia strives to center racial equity and intersectionality as the driving force in her work. She leads and supports developing policy recommendations, conducting research, and performing data analyses to advocate for systemic changes related to access, wages, quality, and affordability. Alycia received her Bachelor of Arts degree in Political science from Morgan State University and her Master of Public Administration degree from American University.
Robert Hartley is an applied microeconomist working in the fields of labor and public economics. His research addresses the role of social policy on the persistence of poverty and dependence, particularly through childhood exposure or labor market outcomes. Rob has written about intergenerational patterns in welfare participation as well as food insecurity, and he has used microsimulation evidence to examine the poverty and distributional impacts of policies such as income guarantees and childcare assistance. Rob is an assistant professor at the Columbia School of Social Work, and he holds a PhD in Economics from the University of Kentucky.
Elliot Haspel is a nationally-recognized early childhood policy expert. He is the author of Crawling Behind: America’s Childcare Crisis and How to Fix It, and his writings have been featured in top publications including The New York Times, The Washington Post, and The Atlantic. Elliot serves as the Program Officer for Education Policy & Research at the Robins Foundation. He holds an M.Ed. in Education Policy from Harvard's Graduate School of Education and a B.A. in History from the University of Virginia. He lives in Richmond, VA with his wife and two daughters.
Ariane Hegewisch is Senior Research Fellow at the Institute for Women’s Policy Research. Her research addresses earnings inequality, occupational segregation, workplace discrimination, and work-life policies. She is currently directing IWPR’s program on Women’s Advancement and Retention in Construction and Manufacturing, and also leads IWPR’s work on equal pay. Hegewisch was a member of the 2015-2016 EEOC’s Select Taskforce on Workplace Harassment. She joined IWPR in 2008 after having been a Distinguished Fellow at the Center for WorkLive Law. Prior to coming to the USA in 2001, she taught comparative European human resource management at Cranfield School of Management, a leading university business school in the UK. She began her career in local government in London as a policy advisor on sector strategies and women’s employment and training. She received a BSc Economics from the London School of Economics, and an MPhil Development Studies from the University of Sussex, UK.
Shannon Jones, as President & CEO, has transformed Groundwork Ohio into a highly respected public policy and advocacy organization. Under Shannon’s leadership, Groundwork has pioneered several groundbreaking initiatives – including the Ohio Early Childhood Race and Rural Equity project, the launch of three innovative Centers of Excellence, and the Vote for Ohio Kids campaign – to ensure Ohio policymakers prioritize children’s early education and health. Shannon previously served in the Ohio General Assembly as a state representative and a state senator, where she helped put kids at the top of the legislative agenda. She was the first woman in Ohio history to be chosen by her colleagues for key leadership posts in both chambers. Shannon currently serves as a Warren County Commissioner and on the Human Services and Education Committee for the National Association of Counties.
Carol Joyner has spent her career addressing the racialized and gendered history of care in the U.S. As the Director for the Labor Project for Working Families (LPWF), in partnership with FV@W, she provides organizational and strategic leadership for Family Values@Work, the national network of 27 state coalitions and is the Executive Director of the sister organization, Family Values @ Work Action (FV@WA). Prior to the LPWF, FV@W and FV@WA, Carol provided consultation on work and family trust funds and related labor administration issues. She is the founding Executive Director of the 1199SEIU/Employer Child Care Fund and past President of the 1199 Child Care Corporation, a labor/management benefit fund negotiated by the 1199 Health and Human Service Employees Union and 400 Health Care Employers in New York State. Carol is the recipient of various achievement awards including the Alliance of Work Life Professionals’ Innovative Program Award; the LPWF Annual Award, and; the NBCDI, NY Bridge Builders’ Award, among others. She is a founding member of the NY Union Child Care Coalition; is past National Advisory Board member of the Labor Project for Working Families and the Family Values@Work Network; founding partner of the Work Family Strategy Council and the related campaign Paid Leave for All; Advisory Board Chair to Poder Latinx and; Carol is a member of the NCBCP, Black Women’s Roundtable. Carol lives in Washington, DC.
Josie Kalipeni is the Executive Director of Family Values @ Work. Born in Malawi, Josephine has seen inequities in one of the poorest countries in the world and in one of the richest. As a social worker, she saw firsthand the systemic challenges families experienced. As a result, she’s committed to transforming systems and policies, including dismantling racism and toxic narratives of individualism, scarcity and “the deserving.” Inspired by her Mom, Josephine is also committed to fighting the devaluation of care and caregiving. Josephine believes that everyone has dignity and should be able to thrive on their own terms. She leads with the belief that those most impacted by the problems are closest to the solutions, and has worked in policy advocacy, organizing, and strategy development for two decades centering those most marginalized. She is a connector that catches a vision and executes it. Her life banners are peace and truth centered in prayer and fasting. She is loved by her Mother, is the oldest of 6, a novice gardener, and enjoys a glass of wine with friends.
Deborah (Debby) King has been a leader in the labor movement for over 50 years. As a working mother of two she experienced firsthand the need for quality childcare and brought that experience to the bargaining table when, as an officer of 1199SEIU, she led negotiations for the first Taft Hartley Childcare Fund in the U.S. The Fund covers over 50,000 healthcare workers in New York and provides benefits for children from birth to 17. She is also the founder of the New York Union Childcare Coalition which has supported other unions to win childcare funds and has lobbied successfully to win millions of dollars to help workers pay for childcare. She is particularly proud of 1199SEIU’s childcare and training center which provides childcare at night and on Saturdays while parents are studying. Debby is currently the Senior Advisor at the National Domestic Workers Alliance.
Elizabeth King was formerly Director of Education (February 2009-June 2014), Vice President for Human Development (October 2013-June 2014), and Senior Education Adviser (July-August 2014) of the World Bank, Washington, DC. In these positions, she was the World Bank's senior spokesperson and professional head for global policy and strategic issues related to education development and human development. In 2010, she led the development of the World Bank Group’s education strategy for the next decade. Prior to these positions, she was the World Bank’s Research Manager for human development issues, Lead Economist for human development in the East Asian and Pacific region, and co-author of three World Development Reports, the flagship publication of the World Bank. Currently, she is a nonresident senior fellow at the Brookings Institution in Washington, DC. She has published on topics such as household investments in human capital; the linkages between education, poverty and economic development; gender issues in development, especially girls’ and women's education; education finance, and the impact of decentralization reforms. She has worked on countries as diverse as Bangladesh, Colombia, Ghana, Indonesia, Nicaragua, Pakistan, and the Philippines, among others, contributing to public expenditure reviews, country economic assessments, policy analyses of the human development sectors, and impact evaluations of policies and programs. Ms. King has a Ph.D. in Economics from Yale University and a Master’s and BA from the University of the Philippines.
Becky Levin, Legislative Affairs Specialist, American Federation of State, County, and Municipal Employees Becky advocates for AFSCME on budget and policy issues that impact working families, including early childhood education and child care, K-12 and higher education, and nutrition policy. She works closely with AFSCME affiliates across the country, sharing the experiences and challenges of AFSCME’s working families with Congress. She has worked in Democratic politics and the progressive community for more than 25 years both outside and inside the Beltway. She was the advisor to Democratic Leader Nancy Pelosi on progressive issues and has worked with national and local labor unions and organizations on grassroots issues and lobbying campaigns, as well as with congressional and statewide Democratic candidates across the country. She is a graduate of the University of Virginia and the proud mom of a DC public school student and a toddler.
Bethany Lilly is the Senior Director of Income Policy at The Arc where she specializes in public policy related to Medicaid Home and Community-Based Services, health care, Social Security and other income supports, paid family and medical leave, and poverty. Bethany joined The Arc after six years at the Bazelon Center for Mental Health Law, where she worked on public policy impacting people with mental health disabilities. Prior to joining the Bazelon Center, Ms. Lilly was a law clerk with the U.S. Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions; a legal fellow at the Center for Medicare Advocacy; and, while completing her J.D. at Duke University School of Law, worked at the Duke AIDS Legal Project.
Elaine Maag is a senior fellow in the Urban Institute - Brookings Institution Tax Policy Center at the Urban Institute. She is an expert on tax policy for low-income families. Her work focuses on the distribution of income and benefits for low-income people and people otherwise disadvantaged in the labor market. She recently served on the National Academy of Social Insurance panels on Assured Income and State-Based Social Insurance Programs for Paid Leave, Affordable Child Care, and Long-Term Services and Supports. She is a member of the National Poverty Research Center – US Collaborative of Poverty Centers network of researchers. Prior to joining the Urban Institute she worked at the Government Accountability Office and the Internal Revenue Service as a Presidential Management Fellow.
Rakeen Mabud is the Chief Economist and Managing Director of Policy and Research at the Groundwork Collaborative. Rakeen is an expert on economic inequality and the 21st century workplace, with a particular focus on how structural factors such as racism and sexism perpetuate inequities. Most recently, Rakeen was the Senior Director of Research and Strategy at TIME’S UP Foundation, where she spearheaded the organization’s signature Time’s Up, Measure Up initiative. Prior to TIME’S UP, Rakeen was a Fellow and the Director of 21st Century Economy and Economic Inclusion Programs at the Roosevelt Institute, where she wrote about how structural inequities interact with the distribution of power in the economy. Rakeen also served in the Obama administration in the Office of Economic Policy at the U.S. Department of the Treasury. Rakeen’s writing has been published in The Guardian, Forbes, Teen Vogue, Morning Consult, The Hill and Ms. Magazine, among other outlets. Rakeen holds a Ph.D. in Government from Harvard University, and received her B.A. in Economics and Political Science from Wellesley College. She grew up in Maryland and currently resides in New York City.
C. Nicole Mason is the president and chief executive officer of the Institute for Women’s Policy Research (IWPR). Having stepped into the role in November 2019, Dr. Mason is the youngest person currently leading one of the major inside-the-Beltway think tanks in Washington, D.C., and one of the few women of color to do so. She succeeded noted economist and MacArthur Fellow Heidi Hartmann, the Institute’s founding CEO. As one of the nation’s foremost intersectional researchers and scholars, Dr. C. Nicole Mason brings a fresh perspective and a wealth of experience to the Institute for Women’s Policy Research. For the past two decades, Dr. Mason has spearheaded research on issues relating to economic security, poverty, women’s issues, and entitlement reforms; policy formation and political participation among women, communities of color; and racial equity. Prior to IWPR, Dr. Mason was the executive director of the Women of Color Policy Network at New York University’s Robert F. Wagner Graduate School of Public Service, the nation’s only research and policy center focused on women of color at a nationally ranked school of public administration. She is also an inaugural Ascend Fellow at the Aspen Institute in Washington, D.C. At the start of the pandemic, she coined the term she-cession to describe the disproportionate impact of the employment and income losses on women. Dr. Mason is the author of Born Bright: A Young Girl’s Journey from Nothing to Something in America (St. Martin’s Press) and has written hundreds of articles on women, poverty, and economic security. Her writing and commentary have been featured in the New York Times, MSNBC, CNN, NBC, CBS, the Washington Post, Marie Claire, the Progressive, ESSENCE, Bustle, BIG THINK, Miami Herald, Democracy Now, and numerous NPR affiliates, among others.
Amy Matsui is Director of Income Security and Senior Counsel at the National Women’s Law Center. She works on a broad range of economic issues affecting low- and moderate-income women and families, with special emphasis on federal and state tax policy. Her work comprises policy analysis, state and federal advocacy, and public education and outreach. Prior to joining the Center in 2002, Ms. Matsui was an associate at Farella Braun + Martel LLP, in San Francisco, CA. She clerked for the Honorable Carolyn Dineen King, then-Chief Judge of the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals, in 2000. She is a graduate of the University of California at Berkeley, and Stanford Law School.
Mieke Meurs is Professor and Associate Dean of Graduate Studies at American University. Her research and publications are mainly in the area of feminist economics, care work, and gender bargaining power. Recent publications and research examine national models of child and elder care and their labor market implications for individuals, and measurement and implications of gender bargaining power in the Global South and the transition economies of Eastern Europe and the former Soviet Union. Recent field research has been supported by a grant from the Open Society Foundation.
Sarah Nolan is the Deputy Policy Director for Healthcare at SEIU. She has also served as a senior policy analyst at SEIU, a member of the Department of Health and Human Services Agency Review Team for the Biden-Harris Transition, and a Senior Policy Analyst at the Massachusetts Budget and Policy Center.
Lenore Palladino is assistant professor in the School of Public Policy and the Department of Economics and a research associate at the UMass Amherst Political Economy Research Institute, as well as a fellow at the Roosevelt Institute. She holds a PhD from the New School University in economics and a JD from Fordham Law School.
Alexandra Patterson is the Director of Policy and Strategy for Home Grown, a national funder’s collaborative committed to building quality and access to home-based child care. For over 15 years Alexandra has worked in the early learning sector in a variety of roles including early childhood classroom teacher, case manager and supervisor in Pennsylvania’s QRIS system, professional development and technical assistance instructor and most recently Intermediary Director for Philadelphia’s city funded prek program, PHLpreK. Alexandra holds a Bachelor’s degree from the University of Delaware in Early Childhood Education and a Master’s degree in Education from Bank Street College in New York City.
Carolyn Pincus is the Director of Strategy for the American Sustainable Business Network. Prior to joining American Sustainable Business Network, Carolyn Pincus was a small business owner with fifteen years in the food and beverage industry. She holds an MBA in Sustainability with a focus on Circular Economy from Bard College, a Certificate in Global Affairs from NYU-SCPS and a BFA from Fordham University/Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater, with a minor in Political Science. She also has six years’ experience working for non-profits, in the areas of education, arts, community development and social justice. She also co-chairs the Bard Graduate Alumni DEI committee and volunteers for the National Women’s Liberation.
Georgia Poyatzis is the Graduate Fellow in Gender Policy Analysis in Economics at the Institute for Women’s Policy Research. She is a Ph.D. candidate in Economics at American University. Georgia’s current research concerns gender and labor with an emphasis on the effect of alternative work arrangements on female labor force participation and wages. She is also co-author with Professor Maria S. Floro of American University of a book chapter “Climate Change, Natural Disasters and the Spillover Effects on Unpaid Care: The Case of Super-Typhoon Haiyan,” which aims to quantify the normally overlooked increase in the burden of care in the aftermath of natural disasters.
Elissa Silverman has dedicated her career to making the District of Columbia and its government more accountable, responsive, and accessible to residents. She first learned the city as a reporter, spending a decade writing stories about the District for publications including Washington City Paper and the Washington Post. She later switched careers to focus on public policy and budget advocacy as an analyst with the D.C. Fiscal Policy Institute. The next big career change came in November 2014, when she was elected to serve as an independent at-large member of the D.C. Council. As a councilmember, Elissa has focused on making District government work for working families. She has championed implementation of a paid family and medical leave program in the District, funded career programs for adult learners, increased investments in early childhood and before-and-afterschool programs, and remained a firm believer in public schools as the great equalizer. Elissa has also fought to make D.C. affordable for all by prioritizing money for affordable housing and initiatives to end homelessness.
Liz Skidmore, Business Rep/Organizer for the New England Regional Council of Carpenters has been a union carpenter since 1989. She works to bring more women and people of color into good union construction jobs through an integrated supply and demand strategy, working with the Policy Group on Tradeswomen’s Issues, Building Pathways, Inc and BuildALifeMA.org. She’s part of a coalition to provide construction-hour childcare for tradeswomen in greater Boston.
Kristin Smith is a Visiting Research Associate Professor of Sociology at Dartmouth College. Her research focus is on gender inequality, employment and earnings, and work and family policy.
Robyn I. Stone, DrPH, Senior Vice President for Research at LeadingAge and Co-Director of the LeadingAge LTSS Center @UMass Boston, is a noted researcher and internationally recognized authority on long-term care, aging services and workforce policy. She has been engaged in policy development, program evaluation, large-scale demonstrations and other applied research activities in these areas for over 40 years. Dr. Stone has held senior research and policy positions in both the federal government and the private sector, including serving in the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services as Deputy Assistant Secretary for Disability, Aging and Long-term Care Policy and Assistant Secretary for Aging in the Clinton administration. Her work bridges the worlds of research, policy and practice to improve the care delivered to older adults—particularly lower-income populations—and to ensure the best quality of life for these individuals and their families.
Eiko Strader is an assistant professor with a joint appointment in the Trachtenberg School of Public Policy and Public Administration and the Women’s, Gender, and Sexuality Studies at the George Washington University. She holds a PhD in Sociology from the University of Massachusetts Amherst, was a visiting fellow at the Smith College Kahn Liberal Arts Institute, and currently serves on the editorial board of the Public Administration Review. Her research interests include social inequality, intersectionality, work and family, welfare states, and military. She has published in outlets such as Social Forces, International Migration Review, Family Relations, Public Administration Review, and Research in Social Stratification and Mobility. @GW_WGSS @gwtrachtenberg
Shengwei Sun is Manager of Research at the National Women’s Law Center, where she works across program teams to build out quantitative research on Income Security and Child Care. Before joining the Center, Shengwei was a Senior Research Associate at the Institute for Women’s Policy Research, where she authored a series of policy briefs on how young women have been faring in the pandemic-induced recession with an intersectional lens. She also published research on the effectiveness of state-level pay transparency laws in the U.S., the consequences of economic downturns for young adults, and racial disparities in accessing high-quality jobs in the paid care sector. Her work has been featured by The New York Times, BBC, NPR Marketplace, and Forbes, among others. From 2018 to 2020, Shengwei was a postdoctoral fellow at the Washington University in St. Louis, where she studied the gendered consequences of pay secrecy practices in the contemporary workplace and taught undergraduate statistics. She received her Ph.D. in Sociology from the University of Maryland, College Park.
Ben Veghte is the Director of the WA Cares Fund at Washington State Department of Social and Health Services. His work focuses on developing policies that improve the economic security of workers and help them balance the responsibilities of work and family caregiving. Veghte studied the history of European social policy during his Ph.D. studies at the University of Chicago, to gain a deeper understanding of how other capitalist democracies have come to terms with issues of social inequality. While doing his field work in Germany he took a position at the University of Bremen, where he taught comparative social policy as an Assistant Professor of Political Science until 2008. In 2008/9 he earned a Mid-Career MPA at the Harvard Kennedy School of Government, focusing on antipoverty policy research and advocacy, and statistics. In 2009 he joined the National Academy of Social Insurance, conducting research on social insurance issues. In 2011/12 he helped launch the Scholars Strategy Network at Harvard University, an initiative seeking to leverage the expertise of leading progressive scholars around the country to better inform public policy and enhance our democratic process. He directed research and policy at Social Security Works from 2012-15, and led all policy work at the National Academy of Social Insurance from 2015-18. Since July, 2018, he leads the research portfolio at Caring Across Generations.