Organization and Structure
The Washtenaw County Worker Center (WCWC) is lead by our Executive Board. The Executive Board has three committees:
The Programming and Organizing Committee is in charge of community outreach efforts, worker trainings, planning our membership meetings, and developing our campaign goals and strategies.
The Executive Board
The members of the Executive Board are chosen annually at a monthly Workers' Rights Committee meeting, which are open to all members of the WCWC. Board members are nominated and approved by members.
The Executive Board is a diverse group of community and university members that fill many roles including functioning as volunteer staff, trainers, advocates, and researchers.
We cannot work alone. We draw upon the resources and advice of local allies and organizations such as ROC-Michigan, the Interfaith Council for Peace and Justice, the University of Michigan’s Labor Studies Center and National Center for Institutional Diversity, the Lecturers’ Employee Organization (LEO), the Graduate Employees’ Organization (both of the University of Michigan), and United Auto Workers Local 849 (Ypsilanti).
We also work with national organizations such as Domestic Workers United, the National Domestic Workers Alliance, the Interfaith Worker Justice network of workers’ centers, and the AFL-CIO.
Please see our Partners page for brief descriptions of, and links to, these partner organizations.
Executive Board Member Bios
Danilo Gutierrez is one of the founding members of the WCWC and currently serves on our Programming Committee. He is the ESL Community Program Coordinator at First United Methodist Church in Ypsilanti. Danilo is an advisory board member for The Nicaragua Project -- El Puente: Capital to Bridge the Divide. The Nicaragua Project is a fundraising mission to develop sustainable economic development in Catarina, Nicaragua. Danilo is also involved in the work of the Washtenaw Interfaith Coalition for Immigrant Rights (WICIR). He has been involved in organizing community events and activities in the Ann Arbor-Ypsilanti area for the past 20 years, including past involvement with Ann Arbor-Juigalpa Sister City Committee and Festival Latino/Latinos Unidos, Inc.
Jason Kosnoski has been on the WCWC Board since 2007. He is currently Co-Chair of the Executive Committee. He is an Assistant Professor of Political Science at the University of Michigan—Flint, where he teaches political theory and labor studies. Prior to this he taught political science to both college students and working union members in community colleges, labor education programs, and four-year institutions. He helped to found COCAL (the Coalition for Contingent Academic Labor), an organization dedicated to advocacy for part-time faculty. He has worked closely with the Hotel and Restaurant Worker’s Union (HERE) on organizing and community campaigns in New York City and California. In the past, he has been active in JFREJ (Jews for Racial and Economic Justice), Jobs With Justice, and was a participant in the Union Summer Program of the AFL-CIO. He holds a Ph.D. from the New School for Social Research.
Lynn Nybell has been on our Board since the Spring of 2009, and currently serves on our Organizing Committee. She is professor of Social Work at Eastern Michigan University. She has an M.S.W. and a Ph.D degree in Anthropology and Social Work from University of Michigan. She has served on the Executive Committee and Negotiating Team of the EMU-AAUP, which serves as the bargaining unit for EMU faculty.
Greg Pratt has been involved with the WCWC since March of 2007 and currently serves on its Fundraising Committee. Greg was instrumental in the development and execution of the WCWC’s first major worker survey, training and coordinating the students and WCWC members who did the interviews. He is committed to the mission of the WCWC because he believes that, contrary to the way the local, state, and national economic structures are currently arranged, all workers deserve a larger share of the wealth created by their labor. Greg is a union organizer for AFT-Michigan (American Federation of Teachers) and a recent graduate of the University Of Michigan School Of Social Work. He has also been active in the Washtenaw Interfaith Coalition for Immigrant Rights in Washtenaw County.
Ian Robinson has been involved in the WCWC since its formation in 2006. He is Co-Chair of the Executive Committee, and also serves on the Organizing and Fundraising committees. He has worked for many years with U.S., Canadian and Mexican academics and union activists who seek to build stronger, more democratic unions and labor movements. Ian is a Lecturer and Research Scientist in the Residential College’s Social Theory and Practice program and in the Department of Sociology at the University of Michigan. His degrees are from Queen’s University in Canada (B.A.), Oxford University (M.Phil.), and Yale University (Ph.D.). He helped to organize and lead the Lecturers' Employee Organization (LEO) -- the union of nontenure-track faculty at the university -- and is currently the Chair of its Solidarity Committee and a member of its Bargaining Committee.
Joe Walls
Staff Bios
Maya Barak has been involved with the WCWC on and off since the summer of 2008 and is currently a lead organizer for the center’s outreach and training activities. She recently graduated from the University of Michigan with a B.A. in Social Anthropology and Peace and Social Justice, and is working on her M.A. in Criminology at Eastern Michigan University where she is also a Graduate Assistant. Her specific interests include worker and immigrant rights and economic and urban inequality.
Jasmine Franco has been involved with the workers’ center for a long time: first as a member, then as volunteer and is now a community organizer. She recently graduated from Huron High School and is now attending Washtenaw Community College. Her family used to work in the area and attend WCWC meetings and is very excited to be involved with us. She grew up in the immigrant community and wants better laws to protect them. She hopes to become a pediatrician and help children all over the world. Read more about Jasmine at: http://www.annarbor.com/news/homeless-after-parents-deported/.
Marisa Huston is the newest addition to the WCWC family. She began work with the WCWC in the summer of 2010 after graduating from Beloit College with a B.A. in Anthropology and Religious Studies. She spent a semester studying abroad in Guatemala, El Salvador, and Nicaragua. She is passionate about social justice and immigrant rights. She hopes to attend graduate school sometime within the next few years to study human rights.