Labor Education & Community Engagement
Labor education is not an extension of my research — it's half of the job, and the half that keeps the other honest. As faculty at the School for Workers, the oldest university-based labor education program in the country, I design and teach non-credit programs for workers, stewards, organizers, and union leaders across Wisconsin and beyond, in English and in Spanish.
Workshops and trainings
Recent programs include know-your-rights, wage theft, and health and safety workshops in Spanish with Voces de la Frontera (Green Bay, Boscobel), Worker Justice Wisconsin, Justicia Obrera Wisconsin, the Essential Workers Rights Network (Milwaukee, Fennimore, Madison), and Wisconsin Contigo (Beloit); workers' compensation trainings delivered to more than 140 workers statewide; stewards trainings for IBEW Locals 965 and 2304; contract campaign and internal organizing programs at the Bargaining Institute; and multi-day institutes with the Boilermakers (IBB) and the Utility Workers Coalition on globalization, diversity, and building member involvement. I'm currently developing a Spanish-language leadership institute and a new officers training.
Community partnership
I serve on the board of Worker Justice Wisconsin, coordinate the data collection committee of the Wisconsin Farmworkers Coalition, and am a member and labor educator with Voces de la Frontera. I'm also a co-academic partner with Legal Action of Wisconsin on farmworker legal education.
Where this comes from
Before I was a labor educator I was a union member and officer: Vice President for Political Education of my graduate employee union at the University of Oregon, Vice President at Large of AFT–Oregon's statewide council, and a volunteer bilingual paralegal with the Northwest Workers' Justice Project. That experience — bargaining, organizing, fielding calls from workers in trouble — informs everything I teach.
Request a workshop
Unions, worker centers, and community organizations: workshops can be requested in Spanish or English, in person across Wisconsin or online. Write me with your group's needs and we'll figure out the rest together.