Join Shuler, Sims at Womxn’s Labor Leadership Symposium

(Sept. 16, 2021) — Women Innovating Labor Leadership (WILL) Empower, a new initiative to identify, nurture, train and convene a new generation of women labor leaders, will hold its Womxn’s Labor Leadership Symposium 2021 on Thursday, Sept. 30 and Friday, Oct. 1. AFL-CIO President Liz Shuler and WSLC Secretary Treasurer April Sims will be among the event’s featured guests.

This virtual symposium is a space to amplify the groundbreaking work that womxn leaders in the WILL Empower network and across worker justice movements are engaged in. It’s an opportunity to connect with others around key questions that we are all grappling with in this moment and to join an intergenerational dialogue on topics like what is transformational leadership; how are we leading in complex times; what innovative organizing and strategizing are we advancing, and more. The Symposium will also include a celebration of womxn leaders during the inaugural WILL Empower Awards.

Click here for registration information. The WILL Empower team is committed to making the symposium as accessible as possible and will be offering live ASL interpretation, Spanish interpretation, and transcription.

The symposium’s featured guests will include:

Liz Shuler is president of the AFL-CIO representing more than 12.5 million union members, a federation of 56 affiliated unions.

Stacy Davis Gates is the Vice President of the Chicago Teachers Union and the Executive Vice President of the Illinois Federation of Teachers, WILL Empower Executive Leader.

Tarn Goelling is the Director of the Civic and Community Engagement Department at the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers, WILL Empower Advisory Council member.

Lauren Jacobs is the Executive Director of PowerSwitch Action (formerly known as Partnership for Working Families).

April Sims is the Secretary Treasurer of the Washington State Labor Council, AFL-CIO.

Maritza Silva-Farrell is the Executive Director at The Alliance for a Greater New York (ALIGN), WILL Empower Executive Leader.

Sara Steffens is the Secretary-Treasurer of the Communications Workers of America, WILL Empower Advisory Council member.

Tanya Wallace-Gobern is the Executive Director of the National Black Worker Center Project, WILL Empower Advisory Council member.

WILL Empower is a bold and ambitious new initiative to identify, nurture, train, and convene a new generation of women labor leaders. WILL Empower employs a broad, multi-pronged approach that interfaces with women on multiple levels and through interwoven programs. WILL Empower is a national program, jointly housed at Georgetown University’s Kalmanovitz Initiative for Labor and the Working Poor in Washington, DC and Rutgers University’s Center for Innovation in Worker Organization in the School of Management and Labor Relations in New Jersey. It is the legacy project of the Berger-Marks Foundation.