Bios | Workers First AI Summit

Charlotte A. Burrows

From 2021-2025, Charlotte A. Burrows served as Chair of the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC), the United States’ leading agency charged with enforcing federal laws against employment...

Cherika Carter

Cherika Carter (she/her) is the Secretary Treasurer of the Washington State Labor Council, AFL-CIO. A proud UFCW member and certified Pharmacy Technician, she has been a union member her entire...

Amy Chin-Lai

Amy Chin-Lai serves as the President of the Nonprofit Professional Employees Union (NPEU), IFPTE Local 70, which empowers thousands members at over 50 nonprofit organizations nationwide to advocate...

Duncan Crabtree-Ireland

Duncan Crabtree-Ireland is the National Executive Director and Chief Negotiator of SAG-AFTRA. In this capacity, he oversees the world’s most influential union of actors and media artists, representing...

Claude Cummings Jr.

Claude Cummings Jr. is president of the Communications Workers of America (CWA). A Houston, Texas native, President Cummings is a longtime community activist who believes in the power of bringing...

Bob Foose

Bob Foose is the Executive Director of the Major League Soccer Players Association, a role he has held since the PA’s formation in 2003. During his tenure as Executive Director, the PA has...

Jodi Forlizzi

Jodi Forlizzi is the Herbert A. Simon Professor of Computer Science and Human-Computer Interaction in the School of Computer Science at Carnegie Mellon University. Jodi has advocated for design...

Jose Garcia

Jose Garcia is the Director of the Future of Work at the Ford Foundation, where he leads the foundation’s global mission to strengthen worker power and advance economic justice. With a career spanning...

Lorena Gonzalez

Lorena Gonzalez has dedicated her career to expanding workers’ rights through organizing, politics, and legislation. From transforming the San Diego region as head of the San Diego-Imperial Counties...

Jason Gordon

Jason Gordon leads communications and policy strategy for the Writers Guild of America East, a union of 7,500 members working in film, television, news, podcasts and online media. His policy work...

Janet Haven

Janet Haven is the executive director of Data & Society. She has worked at the intersection of technology policy, governance, and accountability for more than twenty years, both domestically and...

Ed Hawthorne

Ed Hawthorne was unanimously elected President of the Connecticut AFL-CIO in October 2021, making him the youngest president in the organization’s history. Prior to being elected to lead the...

Darrick Hamilton

Darrick Hamilton is the University Professor and Henry Cohen Professor of Economics and Urban Policy at The New School, where he also founded and directs the Institute on Race, Power & Political...

Alexander Hertel-Fernandez

Alexander Hertel-Fernandez is the Herbert H. Lehman Professor of Government at Columbia University, where his research and teaching focuses on the intersection of politics and markets, labor policy...

Representative Ro Khanna

Representative Ro Khanna represents California's 17th Congressional District and is serving his fifth term. As a leading progressive voice in the House, he is committed to improving the lives of...

Mike Kubzansky

Mike Kubzansky serves as CEO of Omidyar Network, a role he has held since 2018. He leads the organization and its key strategic priorities, including partnerships with other philanthropies and...

Chrissy Lynch

Chrissy Lynch was unanimously elected as President of the Massachusetts AFL-CIO in October 2023 after previously serving as the Secretary-Treasurer and Chief of Staff of the Massachusetts AFL-CIO, and...

Lauren McFerran

Lauren McFerran is the Executive Director of the AFL-CIO Technology Institute, where she works to ensure that emerging technologies, including artificial intelligence, are deployed in ways that...

Gerry Petrella

Gerry Petrella is the General Manager for U.S. Public Policy and the Executive Branch at Microsoft. In this role, he leads a team of policy and government relations experts focused on strategically...

Fred Redmond

Fredrick D. Redmond is the secretary-treasurer of the AFL-CIO. On June 13, 2022, he was unanimously elected to the position as the highest ranking African American officer in the history of America’s...

Greg Regan

In 2021, Greg Regan was elected President of the Transportation Trades Department, AFL-CIO, a labor organization consisting of 33 unions that together represent workers in all areas of transportation...

Megan E. Rivera

Megan E. Rivera is a fellow for policy and advocacy at the Washington Center for Equitable Growth and was Equitable Growth’s Siegel Research Fellow from 2024 to 2025, focused on the impact of emerging...

Symone D. Sanders Townsend

Symone Sanders Townsend has never been one to wait her turn. A powerhouse in politics and media, she has spent her career breaking barriers, shaping national conversations, and using her voice to...

Liz Shuler

Elizabeth H. Shuler is president of the AFL-CIO, the democratic federation of 65 national and international unions that represent nearly 15 million working people. Shuler is the first woman leader of...

Christine Silvia-DeGennaro

Christine Silvia-DeGennaro is the Senior Workplace Technology Policy Advocate for the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees (AFSCME), where she works on policies related to...

Heidi Shierholz

Heidi Shierholz (she/her) is the president of the Economic Policy Institute, a nonprofit, nonpartisan think tank that uses the power of its research on economic trends and on the impact of economic...

Max Tegmark

Max Tegmark is a professor doing AI and physics research at MIT as part of the Institute for Artificial Intelligence & Fundamental Interactions and the Center for Brains, Minds and Machines. He is the...

Randi Weingarten

Randi Weingarten is president of the AFT, a union of 1.8 million teachers; paraprofessionals and school-related personnel; higher education faculty and staff; nurses and other healthcare professionals...

Maya Wiley

Maya Wiley is the president and CEO of The Leadership Conference on Civil & Human Rights and The Leadership Conference Education Fund. A nationally respected civil rights attorney, she has been a...