EXECUTIVE OFFICE

Kimberly Freeman Brown
Executive Director

Kimberly Freeman Brown’s tenure with American Rights at Work began with the organization’s inception in 2004 as its founding Communications Director. Prior to accepting the Executive Director post in November 2009, Kimberly served the organization as its Deputy Director. In the year and a half that she held that position, American Rights at Work significantly diversified its funding, doubled its staff size, and played a prominent role in workers' rights legislative efforts. Before joining American Rights at Work, Kimberly served the progressive community as a senior communications strategist for more than a decade.

» Read Kimberly's full bio

David Bonior
Chair

David Bonior is the Chair of American Rights at Work’s Board of Directors and has served in this role since the organization’s founding in 2003. Elected to the U.S. House of Representatives in 1976, he served Michigan’s Macomb and St. Clair Counties for 26 years—the longest tenure of any Congressman from this district. When he retired at the end of 2002, he had held the position of Democratic Whip, the second ranking Democrat in the House, for 10 years.

» Read David's full bio

ADMINISTRATION

Emily Citkowski
Office Manager

Kimberly Taylor
Finance Officer / Assistant to the Chair

COMMUNICATIONS

Liz Cattaneo
Communications Director

Elizabeth Bukey
Communications Assistant

Josh Goldstein
Press Secretary

Beth Handy
Communications and Publications Coordinator

Manny Herrmann
Online Strategies Director

DEVELOPMENT

Alicia Daly
Development Director

Hilary Fry
Development Associate

Susan Van Dyke
Development Assistant 

RESEARCH

Julie Martínez Ortega
Director of Research

Before joining our staff, Julie Martínez Ortega was a Kerr White Visiting Scholar with the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. She also practiced civil rights litigation with Hadsell & Stormer, Inc. of Los Angeles, California, and worked on Capitol Hill as a Special Assistant to Senator Alan Cranston. She is a graduate of Stanford University, the UCLA School of Law, and the Heller Graduate School of Brandeis University.  She is a member of the California Bar Association.  

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Erin Johansson
Senior Research Associate

Erin Johansson has worked as a Research Associate for American Rights at Work since 2004. Her recent publications include "Checking Out: The Rise of Wal-Mart and the Fall of Middle Class Retail Jobs" in the Connecticut Law Review, and two American Rights at Work reports, Fed Up With FedEx: How FedEx Ground Tramples Workers’ Rights and Civil Rights, and Broken Promises: Verizon neglects its commitment to provide good jobs and quality service. Erin also writes the Eye on the NLRB blog. She holds a Master of Public Policy degree from the University of Maryland College Park, and a Bachelor of Arts from Skidmore College, where she was elected to the Phi Beta Kappa Society.  Erin is a member of the Labor and Employment Relations Association and as serves as a Co-Chair of the Labor Studies Committee.

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Nancy Wiefek
Research Analyst

PARTNERSHIPS & OUTREACH

Jane Norman
Director, Partnerships and Outreach

Jane Norman brings over 10 years of experience in program design, training, and nonprofit management to American Rights at Work.

Previously, as a Program Director at Advocates for Youth, she led a multi-year public health education project with the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention to reduce the rates of HIV/AIDS infection among adolescents.  She established a national clearinghouse to strengthen the design and delivery of adolescent health programs, provided training and technical assistance to youth-serving institutions and professionals, authored articles and publications, built networks of youth leaders, and led lobbying delegations to the UN Special Sessions on Children and HIV/AIDS.  She has also served as a training consultant to the UN Population Fund, where she designed and led advocacy trainings in Bosnia and Panama.

She currently sits on the Board of the Office of Minority Health Resource Center.

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Jen Kern
Field Campaign Manager

Jessica Klonsky
Campaign Strategy Consultant

Rebecca Wasserman
Government Relations Manager

SOCIALLY RESPONSIBLE BUSINESS PROGRAM

Nikki Daruwala
Director, Socially Responsible Business Program

Nikki Daruwala brings over 20 years of labor policy, corporate advocacy, and management experience to her current position. She joined American Rights at Work in 2005 to launch and develop the Socially Responsible Business Program. In this capacity, Ms. Daruwala works with responsible employers who support ethical corporate labor practices and protect workers' rights. The Labor Day List: Partnerships that Work is one of the many projects she spearheads.

Prior to joining American Rights at Work, she was Manager for Advocacy and Social Policy at Calvert, a leading socially responsible mutual fund company. She has worked with several major U.S. and international corporations in developing comprehensive workplace policies and programs. Previously, she was employed by the Food and Allied Service Trades Department of the AFL-CIO and the United Food and Commercial Workers International Union (UFCW), where she led and was instrumental in advocacy campaigns to help workers gain union representation and bargaining rights.

Ms. Daruwala is a founding member of the Child Labor Coalition, and has served as Chairperson of the Indigenous Rights Committee and the Diversity Committee at the Interfaith Center on Corporate Responsibility (ICCR) and on the Shareholder Advisory and Policy Committee Board of the Social Investment Forum (SIF). She currently serves on the Advisory Committee for the Institute for Women’s Policy Research (IWPR) and the Board of Green America (formerly Coop America).

She is a graduate of Ithaca College and holds an MS in industrial and labor relations from the University of Massachusetts-Amherst.

» Email Nikki