Jana Silverman is the Program Director of the Center for Labor and Community, University of California-Santa Cruz. She is also a Research Fellow with the Washington Brazil Office and an adjunct professor for the Global Labor University program at the Universidade Estadual de Campinas (UNICAMP), Brazil. She holds a PhD in Labor and Social Economics from the Instituto de Economia, UNICAMP, and a Master’s in International Affairs with a concentration in Human Rights from Columbia University. Previously, she was Country Programs Director for Brazil of the AFL-CIO Solidarity Center in Sao Paulo from 2012-2020. She has published articles in English, Spanish and Portuguese on Latin American labor relations regimes, contemporary Brazilian political economy, and domestic worker organizing strategies in journals such as Journal for Labor and Society, Latin American Perspectives, NACLA Report on the Americas, New Labor Forum, and Politica & Trabalho, as well as in edited volumes.
Sarah Mason is the graduate student researcher at the Center for Labor and Community (2022-present) and PhD candidate in Sociology at the University of California, Santa Cruz. Her dissertation examines the relationship between the labor process and the progression and outcome of strike action in higher education. Sarah also researches and writes on app-based work and contemporary left-wing political movements in the United States. Her writing has appeared in the New Left Review, Logic Magazine, the Guardian, New Politics, Notes from Below, and more. Sarah is a union steward in UAW 2865 and volunteer organizer with the Emergency Workplace Organizing Committee.
Steve McKay has served as director of the UCSC Center for Labor Studies since 2010. He is author or co-editor of numerous books, chapters and articles on labor, migration, race, gender, affordable housing, and critical community-engaged scholarship including: Satanic Mills or Silicon Islands?: The Politics of High-Tech Production in the Philippines; New Routes for Diaspora Studies and Precarity and Belonging: Labor, Migration, and Noncitizenship. Steve was among the founders and served on the steering committee of the Economic Justice Alliance of Santa Cruz County; served on the advisory committee of the Affordable Housing Coalition of Santa Cruz County; currently serves as an executive board member of Community Bridges/Puentes De La Communidad; and serves on the advisory board of the Day Worker Center, a program of the Community Action Board of Santa Cruz County. Since 2013, he has led or co-led the four Community Initiated Student Engaged Research (CISER) projects on labor and community issues focused on Santa Cruz County and the Central Coast.
Chris Benner is director of the Institute for Social Transformation (home to CLC) and the Everett Program for Technology and Social Change. He is also the Dorothy E. Everett Chair in Global Information and Social Entrepreneurship, and a Professor of Environmental Studies and Sociology at UC Santa Cruz. His research examines the relationships between technological change, regional development, and the structure of economic opportunity, focusing on regional labor markets and the transformation of work and employment. He has authored or co-authored seven books (including Solidarity Economics, 2021, Polity Press) and more that 75 journal articles, chapters and research reports.
Community Partners
Cesar Lara, Monterey Bay Central Labor Council
Daniel Dodge Sr., CCFT – CFT 4400
Francisco Rodriguez, AFT 1936 PVFT
Glen Schaler – (IBT 890) MBCLC Political Coordinator
Jeffrey Smedberg, SEIU 521
James Sandoval, SMART 0023 UTU
Affiliated Faculty
Jasmine Alinder, History
Amy Argenal, Sociology
Eva Bertram, Politics
David Brundage, History
Mijin Cha, Environmental Studies
Kathleen Gutierrez, History
Norman Makoto Su, Computational Media
Aims McGuinness, History
Megan McNamara, Sociology
Juan Pedroza, Sociology
Catherine Ramirez, Latin American and Latino Studies
Nirvikar Singh, Economics
Jessica Taft, Latin American and Latino Studies