MEET THE EXPERTS

JOURNALIST

Kurt Andersen is a writer. He spent his first 20 years in Nebraska, and most of the rest in New York City. His latest book is Evil Geniuses: The Unmaking of America: A Recent History, a companion volume to Fantasyland: How America Went Haywire: A 500-Year History, both of which were New York Times bestsellers. He’s also the author of the critically acclaimed, bestselling novels True Believers, Heyday, and Turn of the Century.

SOLID GROUND

Mike is the Communications Director for Solid Ground in Seattle, WA. Solid Ground works to end poverty and undo racism and other oppressions that are root causes of poverty. Solid Ground envisions a community beyond poverty and oppression where all people have equitable opportunity to thrive.

STORM LAKE TIMES

Art Cullen is a Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist, editor of The Storm Lake Times (a family-run weekly newspaper in small-town Iowa), and author of the new book, Storm Lake: A Chronicle of Change, Resilience, and Hope from a Heartland Newspaper.

CORNELL UNIVERSITY

Professor Evans is an environmental and developmental psychologist interested in how the physical environment affects human health and well being among children. His specific areas of expertise include the environment of childhood poverty, children’s environments (housing, schools, playgrounds, toys), cumulative risk and child development, environmental stressors, and the development of children’s environmental attitudes and behaviors.

CITY LAB

Richard Florida is a co-founder and editor at large of CityLab and a senior editor at The Atlantic. He is a university professor in the University of Toronto’s School of Cities and Rotman School of Management, and a distinguished fellow at New York University’s Schack Institute of Real Estate and visiting fellow at Florida International University.

CUNY-STONE CENTER

Janet Gornick is professor of political science and sociology at the Graduate Center of the City University of New York. She is also Director of the James M. and Cathleen D. Stone Center on Socio‐Economic Inequality, an interdisciplinary research center at CUNY.

Most of her research is comparative and concerns social policies and their impact on gender disparities in the labor market and/or on income inequality. She is the co‐author or co‐editor of four books: Families That Work: Policies for Reconciling Parenthood and Employment (2003), Gender Equality: Transforming Family Divisions of Labor (2009), Income Inequality: Economic Disparities and the Middle Class in Affluent Countries (2013), and Measuring Distribution and Mobility of Income and Wealth (forthcoming.)

She frequently advises policymakers who are working to strengthen social policies that support and protect U.S. workers and their families.

YALE UNIVERSITY

Jacob S. Hacker is a Stanley Resor Professor of Political Science and Director of the Institution for Social and Policy Studies at Yale University.

A regular media commentator and policy adviser, he is the author or co-author of five books, numerous journal articles, and a wide range of popular writings on American politics and public policy.

His most recent book, written with Paul Pierson, is American Amnesia: How the War on Government Led Us to Forget What Made America Prosper—a New York Times Book Review Editor’s Choice and a best business book of 2016 according to the management magazine Strategy+Business.

YALE UNIVERSITY

Jacob S. Hacker is a Stanley Resor Professor of Political Science and Director of the Institution for Social and Policy Studies at Yale University.

A regular media commentator and policy adviser, he is the author or co-author of five books, numerous journal articles, and a wide range of popular writings on American politics and public policy.

His most recent book, written with Paul Pierson, is American Amnesia: How the War on Government Led Us to Forget What Made America Prosper—a New York Times Book Review Editor’s Choice and a best business book of 2016 according to the management magazine Strategy+Business.

SEIU 87

Olga is President of SEIU Local 87 in San Francisco. The SEIU was founded in 1921 in Chicago as the Building Services Employees Union (BSEU); its first members were janitors, elevator operators, and window washers.

Today SEIU is the fastest-growing union in North America, uniting workers in the United States, Canada and Puerto Rico. Over 25 percent of our members whom identify as immigrants – a constant tribute to the union’s roots. From the start, SEIU has embraced its heritage as a union of immigrants and has stood on the frontline of immigrant justice.

ILSR

Stacy Mitchell is co-director of the Institute for Local Self-Reliance and directs its Independent Business Initiative, which produces research and analysis, and partners with a broad range of allies to design and implement policies to reverse corporate concentration and strengthen local enterprise.

Mitchell has also written for The Atlantic, Bloomberg, Washington Monthly, and Wall Street Journal. She’s the author of the book Big-Box Swindle. Her perspective and research are frequently cited in news media and she’s appeared on several national radio shows and podcasts, including NPR’s On The Media and Chris Hayes’ Why Is This Happening?

Owner E.M. Duggan INC.

Len Monfredo is an owner of the fifth-generation mechanical contracting company E.M.Duggan. In 1891 the company started out as a mom and pop plumbing shop in Boston, they are now leaders in the mechanical contracting industry, employing more than 400 people.

Contractor Magazine named them "contractor of the year" and they routinely rank as one of the best/top places to work by both the Boston Globe and Boston Business Journal.

In 2009 Monfredo joined the Duggan team operating all aspects of the business including finances, planning, operations, client relations, management, vendor relations, advertising, marketing, safety and green building. He is also President of Duggan Mechanical Service a division for E.M. Duggan.

Monfredo, has been active in the construction industry for nearly 30 years. He was a former owner of Creative Engineering Inc, and C.E. Space Planning Inc, two New York City based design and construction companies both still in operation today.

He is also a managing partner of NycePower Innovations. The company strives to create innovative, practical products to make life "nycer" one invention at a time.

RITHOLTZ WEALTH MGMT

Barry Ritholtz has spent his career helping people spot their own investment errors and to learn how to better manage their own financial behaviors. He is the creator of The Big Picture, often ranked as the number one financial blog to follow by The Wall Street Journal, New York Times, and others.

Barry is the creator and host of Bloomberg’s “Masters in Business” radio podcast, and a featured columnist at the Washington Post. He is the author of the Bailout Nation: How Greed and Easy Money Corrupted Wall Street and Shook the World Economy (Wiley, 2009). In addition to serving as Chairman and Chief Investment Officer of Ritholtz Wealth Management, he is also on the advisory boards of Riskalyze, and Peer Street, two leading financial technology startups bringing transparency and analytics to the investment business.

Barry has named one of the “15 Most Important Economic Journalists” in the United States, and has been called one of The 25 Most Dangerous People in Financial Media. When not working, he can be found with his wife and their two dogs on the north shore of Long Island.

ORGANIZE FLORIDA

As a community organizer, Stephanie Porta has spent the last 15 years working to support Florida’s low income communities in their fight for equity and dignity. Her work has led to raising Florida’s minimum wage in 2004, passing police accountability reforms, winning foreclosure prevention programs, affordable utility campaigns, electing progressive officials and much more.

In 2010, Stephanie co-founded Organize Florida to work on the needs of Florida’s low and moderate income communities and now acts as Executive Director. The membership organization has grown quickly and has membership in 17 counties across mid-Florida. In 2014, Stephanie championed efforts to pass Earned Sick Time in Orange County, and in 2016 supported outreach efforts to more than two million voters across Florida.

​Stephanie has been recognized by the Orlando Sentinel, Orlando Weekly, Orlando Magazine & Orlando Women’s Magazine for leadership on government transparency and issues facing the working poor.

President of the Washington State Labor Council, AFL-CIO

April Sims was elected Secretary Treasurer of the Washington State Labor Council, AFL-CIO by its affiliated unions in December 2018 and she began her four-year term on Jan. 5, 2019.

She is the first woman of color to be elected as a WSLC executive officer. April has served as the WSLC’s Political and Strategic Campaign Director since November 2017, working to develop shared agendas with labor and community partners, to advance strategic organizing campaigns (raising wages, naturalization, revenue reform, etc.), and to recruit, train and elect political champions for working people.​

April first joined the WSLC in September 2015 as Field Mobilization Director, working with WSLC-affiliated unions and community partners to support and encourage the participation of individual members with many different political, legislative and community programs.

US HOUSE CANDIDATE IA

J.D. Scholten is an American politician, former paralegal, and baseball star. He was born James D. Scholten in 1980 in Ames, Iowa. He has played baseball in Canada, Belgium, and France, among other countries. He has also worked as a paralegal with various firms.

He is widely known for being nominated as the congressional candidate for the 4th district in Iowa in the 2018 elections. He ran against Republican Steve King and nearly caused a major upset by beating King. He would later run again in 2020 and was defeated again, but this time by republican Randy Feenstra.

Former Secretary of Labor, United States of America

Martin J. Walsh was sworn in as the 29th Secretary of Labor on March 23, 2021. A lifelong champion of equity and fairness, and a proud product of the City of Boston, Secretary Walsh leads the U.S. Department of Labor with a strong connection to working people, and a commitment to creating an economy that works for all.

Walsh is currently the Executive Director of the National Hockey Players Association.

In 1997, he was elected to serve as a State Representative for one of the most diverse districts in Massachusetts. There, he focused on creating good jobs, protecting workers’ rights, expanding mental health treatment, and investing in public transit.

Following his time as a State Representative, Secretary Walsh spent the last seven years as the Mayor of the City of Boston. While mayor, he led the creation of close to 140,000 jobs and helped secure a statewide $15/hour minimum wage, paid sick leave, and paid parental leave. He established Universal, high-quality Pre-Kindergarten for all children, and free community college for low-income students.

Secretary Walsh was a national leader in the response to COVID-19, getting PPE to first responders and nursing homes; funding emergency child care for healthcare and frontline workers; halting evictions and providing rental relief; and setting up multiple funds to help small businesses survive. His work early in the pandemic to pause construction and establish safety requirements has been lauded as a model by both unions and employers alike.

As Mayor of Boston, Secretary Walsh also made his mark as a labor leader. After following his father into Laborers Local 223 in Boston, he rose to head the Building and Construction Trades Council from 2011 to 2013. He worked with business and community leaders to promote high-quality development, and he created a program called Building Pathways that has become a model for increasing diversity in the workplace and providing good career opportunities for women and people of color.

Born and raised in the neighborhood of Dorchester by immigrant parents, Secretary Walsh is driven to ensure our nation’s economy works for everyone. Secretary Walsh is a survivor of Burkitt lymphoma and is a proud member of the recovery community who has worked to expand addiction treatment throughout his career. While working full-time as a legislator, he returned to school to earn a degree in Political Science at Boston College.