Executive Director

Mary Beth Maxwell is the founding Executive Director of American Rights at Work, a national advocacy organization launched in 2003 whose mission is to modernize and reform our nation’s labor laws to better meet the needs of 21st century employers and workers. Maxwell’s work has garnered national news coverage in the pages of The New York Times and The Wall Street Journal, among many other news outlets, dramatically altering the public debate about the need for employers and workers to have access to a fair collective bargaining process.

Maxwell is the author of the organization’s inaugural report, Some of Them Are Brave: The Unfulfilled Promise of American Labor Law. She is widely acknowledged as the leading voice for improving the effectiveness of the National Labor Relations Board and in finding common ground among diverse groups to solve problems in our nation’s antiquated labor-management public policies.

Maxwell brings more than 15 years of management experience, staff development, policy reform, and grassroots organizing skills to her current position. She previously served as National Field Director for Jobs with Justice. During her tenure, the organization quadrupled the number of local affiliates, with similar growth in its national staff. As a result, the organization engaged new allies, mobilized support, and built relationships with stakeholders to broaden and strengthen the causes of worker and economic justice.

Prior to Jobs with Justice, Maxwell was Deputy Field Director for NARAL, directing the pro-choice organization’s electoral, legislative, media, and fundraising training programs for local affiliates. She also served as Field Director for the United States Student Association where she designed field programs to organize students in targeted congressional districts to impact higher education policy, and managed a leadership development and grassroots action program, which mobilized thousands of students.

Throughout her professional career, Maxwell has developed a rare acumen for building broad, sustainable coalitions among diverse sectors in support of policy reforms by directly involving those most affected by the decisions. Her calling to social justice activism is rooted in her Catholic upbringing in Omaha, Neb., and her undergraduate years at Marquette University in Milwaukee, Wis., where she became deeply involved in civil rights, anti-poverty and women’s rights issues. She graduated with honors, earning three degrees in English, Philosophy, and Political Science. She currently serves on the Board of Directors of the Partnership for Working Families and the Discount Foundation and is an active member of Sacred Heart Catholic Parish in Washington, DC, the Human Rights Campaign, the Family Equality Council, among many other groups. She and her 7-year-old son, Coleman Charles, reside in Washington, DC.