Building a Better World by Building a Better Workplace
Session Type(s): Panel
Starts: Thursday, Aug. 13 4:00 PM (Eastern)
Ends: Thursday, Aug. 13 4:50 PM (Eastern)
Isn’t it about time that progressive organizations practice what they preach? From supporting staff unions, to equitable hiring and management practices, to effective anti-harassment and discrimination programs, to good wages, to cultures that truly value everyone’s backgrounds and contributions, many of our organizations have a long way to go. Come discuss the strategies for creating change in your own workplace and movement spaces, and how doing so will help us build the world we want to see. Together we can build workplace cultures that work for ALL of us.
Moderator
Robyn Swirling
After more than a decade of working in progressive organizing, Robyn Swirling founded Works in Progress to build safer and more equitable workplaces across our movement through campaigning, researching, and providing technical assistance to progressive organizations and companies. Robyn has worked within the progressive movement as an organizer, communicator, trainer, and storyteller, including roles with the National Education Association, Action Network, Advocates for Youth, and several electoral campaigns. Robyn is committed to ending the stigma associated with women’s experiences and bodies, in particular, and writes and speaks frequently regarding sexual assault, abortion, and physical manifestations of trauma.
Panelists
Keshia Allen Horner
As Managing Director, Keshia Allen Horner leads ProgressNow Colorado Education and ProgressNow Colorado’s efforts to expand operational capacity and optimize service delivery through solid business strategies, well-designed business processes, and sound financial and human resource allocation practices.
Before joining ProgressNow Colorado Education and ProgressNow Colorado in October 2019, Keshia spent 13 years in the government auditing profession. She served 5 years with the City and County of Denver Auditor’s Office where she supervised audits of a variety of city operations, including those pertaining to city planning, public safety, and economic development. She also served just over 8 years with the U.S. Government Accountability Office (GAO) in Washington, D.C.—leading audits that spanned several areas including international and domestic tax policy and administration, oversight of employer sponsored pension plans, and small business lending.
Keshia holds a master’s degree in public administration degree and bachelor’s degrees in political science and public and urban affairs, from Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University (Virginia Tech).
Cayden Mak
Cayden Mak is Executive Director at 18 Million Rising, organizing Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders (AAPIs) and their allies online. As part of 18MR’s founding staff, they were an integral part of developing the organization’s vision, voice, analysis, and playbook. In their previous role as Chief Technology Officer, they were the driving force and product manager behind community-centered design for civic tech project VoterVOX, a community-designed matching tool to help find personalized volunteer translation assistance for limited English proficient voters.
Their organizing history also includes cofounding grassroots media startups (youngist.org), cofounding a statewide student organizing network (New York Students Rising), serving as a union officer and staff organizer (CWA 1104, Education Division), and contributing to organizing the Allied Media Conference in Detroit, MI.
In addition to their day job, they serve as the chair of the advisory board for the Kairos Fellowship, and enjoy powerlifting and Magic: the Gathering.
Aisha Satterwhite
Aisha leads Coworker’s brilliant team of strategists and organizers in supporting workers, providing education and training and offering strategic support, data analysis and workplace advocacy tools.
For the past 20 years, she’s been working at the intersection of human rights, racial and economic justice, labor, advocacy and tech and is a leader in the areas of digital transformation, advocacy and team management. She’s used technology as a tool to win advocacy, narrative and political campaigns and grow supporters. She’s worked in nonprofit, advocacy, education, and labor spaces, both in-house and on the consulting side, and has advised nonprofits, advocacy organizations, unions, membership associations, startups and tech companies in the US, UK and Africa around the best ways to activate external audiences and internal teams working for social change.
Before joining Coworker, Aisha was a Managing Director for Blue State Digital, a global digital strategy agency and tech company. She’s also led digital and communications programs and tech and product development projects at Human Rights Campaign, National Education Association, Service Employees International Union and One Economy Corporation.
Sydney Scout
Sydney Scout has served as an elected Executive Council member of the Campaign Workers Guild since September 2018. She has organized campaigns large and small from Portland to Philly and is currently based in Denver, Colorado.
Other sessions: Solidarity for Good: How Workers Across the Movement are Organizing