IRLE and its centers are home to experts who can provide insightful analysis opinions and comment on a wide range of labor and employment issues.
For interview requests, email IRLE’s Communications Director Ana Fox-Hodess at afoxhodess@berkeley.edu.
Lea Austin (CSCCE)
Areas of expertise: early childhood workforce; professional development in early childhood education; educational leadership development; racial and gender equity
Annette Bernhardt (Labor Center)
Areas of expertise: labor markets; future of work; low-wage work; immigrant workers; labor standards policies; living–wage jobs; enforcement of employment and labor laws; the gig economy; inequality; technology and low-wage work
Abby Copeman Petig (CSCCE)
Areas of expertise: early childhood workforce research and policy; early childhood development; early childhood workforce training; research methods and approaches in early childhood education
Miranda Dietz (Labor Center)
Areas of expertise: health care and health policy; health reform in California; the uninsured; labor standards enforcement
Pamela Egan (Labor Center)
Areas of expertise: labor-management partnerships
Anibel Ferus-Comelo (Labor Center)
Areas of expertise: labor standards; corporate social responsibility; the political economy of India; global supply chains in tech and garments production; international development
Brett Fisher (CPL)
Areas of expertise: education; criminal justice; political economy; program evaluation; quantitative methods
Jessie HF Hammerling (Labor Center)
Areas of expertise: technology and work; low-wage workers
Sara Hinkley (Labor Center)
Areas of expertise: technology and the public sector; public finance and fiscal policy; economic and workforce development; unions; low-wage work; urban inequality; public sector work and workers
Kuochih Huang (Labor Center)
Areas of expertise: low-wage work
Ken Jacobs (Labor Center)
Areas of expertise: health care; low-wage work; minimum wage; living wage and labor standards; unions; public policy
Yoonjeon Kim (CSCCE)
Areas of expertise: early childhood workforce and policy in California; educational environment and learning of immigrant children; comparative and international education; equity in education; and quantitative methods
Lisa Kresge (Labor Center)
Areas of expertise: technology and work; digital (algorithmic) workplace technologies; low-wage work; union collective bargaining responses to technology
Johanna Lacoe (CPL)
Areas of expertise: criminal and juvenile justice; education; housing; employment; public policy analysis; program evaluation; quantitative methods
Enrique Lopezlira (Labor Center)
Areas of expertise: low-wage work; racial and gender equity
Laurel Lucia (Labor Center)
Areas of expertise: health care policy; Affordable Care Act; uninsured in California; health insurance for immigrants; job-based health coverage
Jane McAlevey (Labor Center)
Areas of expertise: unions and worker organizations; collective bargaining; union organizing; research on union avoidance firms; power structure analysis and strategy; mission-driven sectors of the economy (healthcare and education)
Caitlin McLean (CSCCE)
Areas of expertise: national and state early childhood workforce research and policy; economic well-being of early educators; gender equity
Elena Montoya (CSCCE)
Areas of expertise: early childhood workforce research; California early childhood workforce and policy; early educator economic well-being
Brenda Muñoz (Labor Center)
Areas of expertise: unions; labor-management partnerships
Aparna Ramesh (CPL)
Areas of expertise: safety net; anti-poverty tax credits (e.g. Child Tax Credit; Earned Income Tax Credit; stimulus payments)
Steven Raphael (IRLE)
Areas of expertise: low-wage labor markets; housing; economics of crime and corrections; criminal justice reform
Michael Reich (CWED)
Areas of expertise: labor economics; minimum wage; employment; living wages; gig economy; racial inequality
Nari Rhee (Labor Center)
Areas of expertise: pensions; retirement security; retirement wealth inequality; public pension reform; aging
Jesse Rothstein (CPL)
Areas of expertise: tax & transfer policy; economic policy; education; labor and employment; program evaluation; quantitative methods; public finance; unemployment insurance; business cycles
Marisa Schlieber (CSCCE)
Areas of expertise: early childhood workforce research; early educator work environments; early educator well-being; early childhood development
Evan White (CPL)
Areas of expertise: housing and urban policy; consumer finance; racial disparities and discrimination; cross-systems effects; technology & innovation; strategy
Marcy Whitebook (CSCCE)
Areas of expertise: early childhood workforce research and policy; early childhood systems and policy; teacher work environments and the relationship to children’s development and learning; and economic well-being of early educators
Carol Zabin (Labor Center)
Areas of expertise: labor and the green economy; labor markets; workforce development and training; labor standards; unions and climate policy; low-wage work; labor and environment