Program Schedule

View the 2025 NLSWRC program schedule, plenary and workshop descriptions, and speaker biographies below.

2025 NLSWRC Program Schedule

Friday, October 17th, 2025

11am - 6pm	2025 NLSWRC Registration & Check In
	MCC Front Desk Foyer
12noon - 1pm	2025 Fellows Lunch open to 2025 Fellows only
	Chesapeake Dining Room
1:30pm - 3pm	2025 Fellows Wrap Up Session open to 2025 Fellows only
	Speakers: Antonia Domingo and Ates Serifsoy
5pm - 6:30pm	Open Dinner
	Chesapeake Dining Room
6pm - 7:30pm	PBF Community Cocktails & Desert Reception
	Auditorium Foyer
7:15pm	2025 NLSWRC Opening Remarks \|
	Auditorium
7:30pm - 8:45pm	Friday Night Plenary \| The War on Federal Workers: Responding to the Movement with Rise Up & Democracy Forward \| Panelists: Craig Becker (AFL-CIO), Subhashini Bollini (Partner, Correia & Puth), Rob Shriver (Democracy Forward), Andrew Huddleston (AFGE) and Matt Blumin (AFSCME); moderated by Suzanne Summerlin (Rise Up)
	Auditorium

Saturday, October 18th, 2025

7am - 8:30am	Open Breakfast
	Chesapeake Dining Room
7:45am - 8:30am	Saturday Only Registration
	MCC Front Desk Foyer
8am - all day	Employers & Allies Tables
	Classrooms Foyer
8:30am - 9:20am	Keynote Speaker: Gwynne Wilcox
	Auditorium
9:20am - 9:30am	Break

9:30am - 10:45am	Workshop Session 1 - MCC Classrooms
	Intro to Basic Labor Law \| Jay Smith & Lucas Aubrey \| Classroom 2

	Protecting and Organizing Immigrant Workers \| Ingrid Nava & Andrew Lyubarsky \| Auditorium

	Employee Benefits Law \| Lisa Gomez & Mayoung Nham \| Classroom 1

	Getting in the Door: Paths to Starting Your Labor Career \| Alex Roe, David Jury & Melissa Woods \| A100

	Federal Labor Law 101: What Every Union-Side Lawyer Should Know about the FLRA \| Suzanne Summerlin \| A302

	Networking Room \| A314

11am - 12:15pm	Workshop Session 2 - MCC Classrooms
	Intro to Basic Labor Law \| Jay Smith & Lucas Aubrey \| Classroom 2

	Protecting and Organizing Immigrant Workers \| Ingrid Nava & Andrew Lyubarsky \| Auditorium

	Employee Benefits Law \| Lisa Gomez & Mayoung Nham \| Classroom 1

	Intro to Public Sector Labor Law \| Michael Artz \| A302

	Lawyers of Color in the Movement \| Matt Fernandes, Tiffany Wang, Michelle Fujii, Isabel Oraha, Treyvon Jordan, & Jorge Salles-Diaz \| A100

	Networking Room \| A314

12:15pm - 1:30pm	Lunch Break
	Chesapeake Dining Room
1:30pm - 2:45pm	Saturday Afternoon Plenary \| Organizing in Response to the Attack on Immigrants \| Representatives Chris Newman (NDLON), Ama Frimpong (CASA) & Sabrina Liu (USW).
	Auditorium
3pm - 4:15pm	Workshop Session 3 - MCC Classrooms
	Organizers and Lawyers: Working Together \| Nick Gleichman, Bridget Daley, and Elliott Becker \| Classroom 2

	Lawyers of Color in the Movement \| Matt Fernandes, Tiffany Wang, Michelle Fujii, Isabel Oraha, Treyvon Jordan, & Jorge Salles-Diaz \| A100

	Getting in the Door: Paths to Starting your Labor Career \| Alex Roe, David Jury, and Melissa Woods \| Classroom 1

	Intro to Public Sector Labor Law \| Michael Artz \| A302

	Trade & Labor Law \| Marley Weiss \| Auditorium

4:30pm	2025 NLSWRC Closing Remarks
	Auditorium

Plenary & Workshop Descriptions

Friday Night Plenary | The War on Federal Workers: Responding to the Moment with Rise Up & Democracy Forward

Panelists: Craig Becker (AFL-CIO), Subhashini Bollini (Partner, Correia & Puth), Rob Shriver (Democracy Forward), Andrew Huddleston (AFGE) and Matt Blumin (AFSCME); moderated by Suzanne Summerlin (Rise Up)

What happens to the federal workforce when the rule of law is under siege? From efforts to terminate civil service protections to sweeping agency reorganizations that mask mass layoffs, federal workers are under attack. Join leaders from Rise Up and Democracy Forward to explore how workers and advocates are fighting back in court, at the bargaining table, and through organizing. This session will unpack the legal threats, the resistance, and outline what’s at stake for the federal government, the labor movement, and democracy itself.

Saturday Morning Plenary | Keynote Speaker: Gwynne Wilcox, moderated by John D'Elia

On January 27, 2025, President Donald J. Trump removed Ms. Wilcox from the Board prior to her term’s expiration in 2028. Ms. Wilcox was the first Board Member to have been removed in 90 years of the Board's inception in 1935. Ms. Wilcox filed a lawsuit in Federal Court in Washington, DC, against President Trump challenging her unprecedented and unlawful termination based upon current statutory law and well-established Supreme Court precedent. The case is still pending.

Previous to her appointment to the Board, Wilcox was a senior partner at Levy Ratner, P.C., a New York City labor and employment law firm. While there, she served as Associate General Counsel of 1199SEIU United Healthcare Workers East and as a labor representative to the NYC Office of Collective Bargaining. Prior to joining Levy Ratner, she worked as a Field Attorney at Region 2 of the NLRB in Manhattan.

Upon graduation from law school, Ms. Wilcox was a Reginald Heber Smith Community Fellow at Middlesex County Legal Services office in New Brunswick, NJ and then continued as a Staff Attorney, handling domestic violence cases and other matters.

Ms. Wilcox is a Fellow in the College of Labor and Employment Lawyers. She is the recipient of numerous awards. Most recently, Ms. Wilcox was the recipient on February 25, 2025 of a Certificate of Honor from the Rutgers University School-Newark Law School's Minority Student Program, the Association of Black Law Students, Phi Alpha Delta Fraternity, Inc.- Jackson Chapter, the American Constitutional Society and Student Bar Association, celebrating a "trailblazer whose dedication and leadership have elevated the distinction of Rutgers Law School [and] ..honors an unwavering commitment to service, impactful contributions and a role as a guiding force and inspiration for future generations."

In 2023, Ms. Wilcox was recognized by the Rutgers University-Newark Law School Minority Student Program, and was the commencement speaker later that year.

Ms. Wilcox has been the recipient of other awards, including the November 2021 Honorable Bernice B. Donald Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion in the Legal Profession Award by the American Bar Association’s Labor and Employment Law Section. The award is given to a member, law firm, corporation, organization or academic institution “that has demonstrated leadership in and commitment to advancing diversity, equity, and inclusion in the legal profession," the 2017 Syracuse University Chancellor’s Citation for Achievements “in honor of an exceptional career in law and dedication to advancing diversity”; the 2015 Basil Paterson Award at the Amsterdam News Labor Awards Breakfast; the 2015 Brandworkers’ Champion of Economic Justice Award; and the 2009 Peggy Browning Fund Lifetime Achievement Award.

Prior to joining the Board, Ms. Wilcox was a board member of various organizations, including the Brandworkers; Peggy Browning Fund; Scheinman Institute on Conflict Resolution of the Cornell University ILR School; Workers Defense League; and the AFL-CIO Lawyers Coordinating Committee, now known as the Union Lawyers Alliance.

Ms. Wilcox has made numerous presentations concerning Board law at many bar associations and other organizations.

Ms. Wilcox gave the 2023 David E. Feller Memorial Labor Law Lecture—Cemex: A New Framework for Union Representation Proceedings,
https://www.law.berkeley.edu/library/ir/bjell/archive.php

Ms. Wilcox holds a J.D. from Rutgers University School of Law-Newark and a B.A. from Syracuse University.

Saturday Afternoon Plenary | Organizing in Response to the Attack on Immigrants

Panelists: Representatives Chris Newman (NDLON), Ama Frimpong (CASA) & Sabrina Liu (USW); moderated by Antonia Domingo (USW)

The Trump Administration is waging a massive and escalating attack on immigrants. Congress has also approved an unprecedented increase to ICE’s budget while the Supreme Court has allowed the agency to continue racially profiling workers and engaging in aggressive raids. Hear how community and union activists in different parts of the country are preparing and responding as detentions, deportations, and workplace raids increase.

Workshops

Intro to Basic Labor Law | This workshop covers an overview of the basic concepts of labor law, focusing on the National Labor Relations Act, its primary purposes, its structure, and its administration by the National Labor Relations Board, with a little bit of labor law history thrown in for good measure. Also covered briefly is the labor arbitration system and its enforcement in federal courts.

Intro to Public Sector Labor Law | Public sector workers, employed by the federal government, cities, towns, school boards, states and other public entities, work under a jurisdiction-by-jurisdiction legal system that offers twists and turns not always found in the private sector. This workshop provides an overview of public sector labor law and how it differs from private sector law; discuss the types of attacks that conservative legislatures and governors have undertaken against public sector unions; and highlight the new and creative ways of organizing in the public sphere.

Employee Benefits Law | Employee benefits, including health care, retirement benefits, training, and more, are of paramount importance to workers. Every day, issues regarding employee benefits are in the news and at the bargaining table. Yet many law schools offer little to no coursework in employee benefits law and students committed to workers’ rights may not have the opportunity to learn about these issues and this area of law. In addition, there are many union-side law firms and union-sponsored benefits looking for dedicated employee benefit lawyers, and there is a limited pool of candidates looking for jobs as union-side employee benefit lawyers or other legal jobs protecting workers’ benefits. In this workshop we will provide a basic overview of the Taft-Hartley Act rules for labor-management employee benefit plans, the Employee Retirement Income Security Act (ERISA) and related laws. We will also provide information about what kinds of work the lawyers in this practice area actually do, and the types of careers a student could pursue in employee benefits law.

Lawyers of Color in the Movement | In 2023, the ABA released shocking demographic information that revealed the American legal profession is disproportionately white. Due to various socioeconomic pressures, this disparity is even more present in the various fields of public interest law, including labor and employment. This workshop will feature a panel of young attorneys of color in the labor and employment field, all of whom were recent Peggy Browning Fellows themselves. At this workshop, the panelists will discuss the importance of attorneys of color in the labor movement, their own paths to becoming legal advocates for workers’ rights, and how they handle(d) various barriers and issues unique to being a person of color in a predominantly white profession. The goals of this workshop are to share information and resources; to create a space for law students of color to feel seen and welcomed; and, most importantly, to encourage these Fellows to stay the course and continue to push the labor movement forward.

Protecting and Organizing Immigrant Workers | The labor movement and the fight for workers’ rights now more than ever revolve around immigrants’ rights. At the same time, the effort to protect the rights of immigrants frequently depends upon workplace and labor organizing. This workshop will give an overview of the challenges that immigrant workers face when they attempt to form a union or enforce other workplace rights. The workshop will also discuss legal, policy, legislative and grassroots strategies for overcoming those challenges.

Getting in the Door: Paths to Starting Your Labor Career | Finding your way to a career representing labor unions can be daunting because positions do not open on a regular schedule and the type of work involved from one position to another can vary widely. As a result, law students may be unnerved by the unpredictability of the union lawyer career path. However, there are steps students can take to increase their chances of finding a position where they are likely to thrive. Hear from panelists who have traveled this road and have since found themselves on the other side of the hiring process. You will receive job search and resume building tips as well as reassurance as you look toward graduation and beyond.

Trade & Labor Law | For decades, the labor movement has fought the dominant, neoliberal model of free trade. Trade has put workers into labor cost competition around the globe. Off-shoring of bargaining unit work and resultant plant closings has caused a precipitous drop in private sector union representation. Racial and other minorities have borne a disproportionate share of this downward spiral. The Trump administration approach to trade, however, has not been an improvement. It has functionally eliminated recent free trade agreements, which had created leverage for improving labor standards and enforcement by harnessing trade sanctions to respond to workers' rights violations by foreign countries and businesses. This workshop will examine trade and investment-related mechanisms and supply chain initiatives for implementing workers’ rights around the world, aimed at turning the negative impact of trade toward positive uses of trade leverage on behalf of working people of all races, nationalities and identities. It will consider what remains of older and more recent models of trade-labor linkage in light of the Trump administration's more ad hoc approach to global trade.

Federal Labor Law 101: What Every Union-Side Lawyer Should Know About the FLRA | This workshop introduces the unique world of federal sector labor law. Attendees will learn about the Federal Service Labor-Management Relations Statute, how the FLRA operates, and how union-side lawyers advocate for workers in a legal framework that excludes strikes and relies on administrative enforcement. We’ll cover ULPs, bargaining rights, and the role of executive orders, plus real-world examples from ongoing fights over telework, reassignments, and union access.

Organizers and Lawyers: Working Together | Building solidarity and trust between lawyers and organizers to achieve shared goals is even trickier and more essential now that remote work has taken hold. This workshop will explore practical tips that you can implement to foster teamwork, strengthen relationships, and cultivate a sense of camaraderie among your labor team. This workshop will also explore the many hats that labor lawyers wear. we will discuss when it’s appropriate to be a lawyer, when it’s appropriate to be an organizer, and when it’s appropriate to be both.

Workshops will be held in the MCC Classrooms space.

Speaker Biographies

Michael Artz | Michael Artz is an Associate General Counsel at the American Federation of State, County & Municipal Employees (AFSCME). Throughout his legal career he has represented labor unions, health and pension funds and individuals before courts, administrative agencies and arbitrators. He also developed, planned, implemented and supervised Presidential election voter protection programs in Virginia and Nevada. He received his undergraduate degree from Miami University (Ohio) and graduated cum laude from American University’s Washington College of Law, where he also teaches legal rhetoric and writing as a law professor. He clerked for the Honorable Stephanie Duncan-Peters in the Superior Court of the District of Columbia, then served as a legal fellow for the Service Employees International Union and as an associate attorney at Mooney, Green, Baker & Saindon in Washington, D.C. He was a Peggy Browning Fellow in 2000 and currently serves as the Vice Chair of the External Committee for the Peggy Browning Fund's Board of Directors.

Lucas Aubrey | A partner at Sherman Dunn, P.C., Lucas Aubrey has significant experience assisting clients under the National Labor Relations Act, the Railway Labor Act, and the Labor-Management Reporting and Disclosure Act. He regularly counsels the firm’s clients on collective bargaining negotiations, organizing campaigns, and internal union affairs. Lucas has litigated cases in federal and state trial and appellate courts, and before the National Labor Relations Board and other federal and state administrative agencies. A graduate of the Columbus School of Law, Lucas also serves as the co-chair on the Board of Directors of the Peggy Browning Fund.

Craig Becker | Craig Becker is Senior Counsel to the AFL-CIO, where he previously served as General Counsel from 2012 to 2022. Before assuming that role, he was a Member of the National Labor Relations Board, appointed by President Obama in 2010 and serving until 2012. Craig has also held faculty positions at UCLA and Georgetown Law, and has written extensively on labor and employment law.
As one of the architects of Rise Up, Craig was among the leadership at the AFL-CIO and ULA who recognized the urgent need for a program to defend federal workers in crisis. His vision and leadership helped lay the foundation for Rise Up’s creation, ensuring workers could access both cutting-edge legal strategies and a nationwide network of volunteer attorneys.

Elliott Becker | Elliott Becker has been doing labor law for over ten years, working at UNITE HERE! Local 2 and the Culinary 226, as well as Deats, Durst, and Owen, PLLC during law school summers, and at the Equal Justice Center during and after law school. Subsequently, he worked for SEIU as a law fellow, and then in the General Counsel's office at the National Labor Relations Board, first in the Honors program, and then in the Contempt, Compliance and Special Litigation Branch. He has been working for the Communication Workers of America since 2022. He appears in his personal capacity.

Matt Blumin | Matthew Stark Blumin is General Counsel of the Coalition of Immokalee Workers, advising CIW in all legal matters including its award-winning Fair Food Program, which protects farmworkers’
human rights through legally-binding Fair Food Agreements signed by CIW and large multinational food retailers such as Subway and Wal-Mart. In 2006, Matt was a Peggy Browning Fellow at the Department of Labor in Philadelphia, PA. After graduating from Stanford Law School and completing two judicial clerkships, Matt began his career as a workers’ rights attorney at Friends of Farmworkers in Philadelphia with a focus on representing survivors of workplace sexual harassment. Matt then represented a wide range of labor unions in private practice with the law firm of Bredhoff & Kaiser before joining AFSCME as Associate General Counsel, and finally CIW. Prior to law school, Matt was a middle school teacher and an active member of the Philadelphia Federation of Teachers (AFT).

Subhashini Bollini | Subhashini (“Subha”) Bollini is a Partner at Correia & Puth, where she represents federal and private sector employees in whistleblower reprisal and retaliation cases. She regularly counsels employees preparing to report unlawful activity to their employers or government agencies such as the OSC, Offices of Inspector General, IRS, SEC, Department of Labor/OSHA, and the Department of Justice.
Subha also serves as one of Rise Up’s expert attorneys, helping to guide volunteer lawyers through consultation clinics. She is a recognized expert on Merit Systems Protection Board (MSPB) filings for federal employees, bringing both technical mastery and practical experience to some of the most complex federal employment disputes.

Richard J. Brean | Since graduating from Harvard Law School, Richard Brean spent his entire career in the Legal Department of the United Steelworkers in Pittsburgh. During his first ten years in the Legal Department, he maintained a general labor practice. Starting in 1988, he devoted the bulk of his practice to NLRB litigation involving unfair labor practice strikes and unlawful lockouts. From 2009 to 2018, Mr. Brean served as USW General Counsel. He also supervised litigation performed by “the Steelworker family” of outside law firms. A long-time member of the Peggy Browning Fund’s Board of Directors, he was elected Chair in 2015. Mr. Brean is passionate about encouraging law students to pursue careers in public and private practice defending the rights of working people.

Bridget Daley | Bridget Daley is a Lead Organizer with SEIU Local 32BJ. She has been organizing low wage workers across the east coast for the last 11 years. She began her career with organizing Fast Food workers across New England as a part of the Fight for $15 movement. Since working with 32BJ her work has focused on their groundbreaking airport contractor organizing campaigns. Since moving to Maryland she has worked closely with anti poverty organizations in Baltimore to make real systemic change in the city. Her passion for training, development, and political education of both staff and members has supported the successful unionization of thousands of airport contractor members in the Northeast, Mid Atlantic, and the South.

John D'Elia | John is an Assistant General Counsel at the Service Employees International Union where he focuses on federal labor law, government contract workers, and other policy issues. Prior to joining SEIU, John worked for the U.S. Senate and House Committees with jurisdiction over federal labor and employment laws on oversight and policy issues. John also served as an Honors Attorney at the Department of Labor and spent both of his law school summers at the United Food and Commercial Workers Union's Legal Department, once as a Peggy Browning Fellow.

Samantha Dulaney | Samantha Dulaney is General Counsel for the International Alliance of Theatrical Stage Employees, Moving Picture Technicians, Artists and Allied Crafts of the United States, Its Territories and Canada (IATSE). In 2008, Ms. Dulaney was named as the first in-house counsel in the IATSE General Office. With a membership of over 150,000, IATSE is the largest labor union representing behind-the-scenes workers in the entertainment and related industries. In her role, Ms. Dulaney assists in contract negotiation with some of America’s largest entertainment industry employers and provides assistance to union representatives on behalf of 360 IATSE local unions. She holds a Master’s degree in Letters of Law from Columbia Law School, where she was a Harlan Fiske Stone Scholar, and a J.D. from Georgetown University Law Center. Ms. Dulaney is currently a Fellow in the College of Labor and Employment Lawyers, a member of the Board of Directors of the AFL-CIO Union Lawyers Alliance and the co-chair of the Internal Committee for the Peggy Browning Fund's Board of Directors.

Jorge Salles Diaz (he/they) | Jorge immigrated to the United States when he was fifteen. After college he worked at an immigrants advocacy organization where he responded to workplace immigration raids and coordinated legal clinics for immigrant families. He was also an organizer at a workers center. His experiences working with immigrant workers inspired him to join the labor movement and to help workers build power and create a better world for everyone across borders, race, national origin, gender, age, language, and disability. He is a first-year labor and employee benefits associate at O’Donoghue & O’Donoghue in Washington, DC. Jorge attended Vanderbilt Law School where he was President of the Labor and Employment Society.

Antonia Domingo | Antonia has worked for the United Steelworkers Legal Department since she graduated from law school in 2015. She is a PBF alum and a member of the Peggy Browning Fund Board, the ACLU Pennsylvania Board, and Pittsburgh’s Asian Pacific American Labor Alliance chapter.

Matthew Cypriano Fernandes (he/any) | Matt is a union trust fund attorney with Weinberg, Roger & Rosenfeld in the San Francisco Bay Area. He is in his first year of practice after having been a Peggy Browning Fellow at the firm in 2022 and 2023. He graduated from Berkeley Law where he was Co-President of the Asian Pacific American Law Students Association as well as Articles Editor for the Berkeley Journal of Employment and Labor Law. Before entering the legal field, Matt organized rideshare drivers for SEIU Local 1021 and worked as a Program Assistant for the West Oakland Job Resource Center where he helped formerly incarcerated individuals find union employment in the building trades. As a first-generation college graduate and the child of immigrants, Matt is dedicated to bringing more people from underrepresented backgrounds into the sphere of radical lawyering.

Ama Frimpong | Ama Frimpong is a nationally recognized attorney and fierce advocate for immigrant justice. As legal director at CASA, she leads with excellence and a deep commitment to grassroots people power, ensuring that the fight for immigrant, Black, and Brown communities is waged not only in the courtroom, but also before the legislature and in the streets. Since joining CASA in 2022, she has driven landmark strategies to defend immigrant rights, including litigating high-profile cases challenging the Trump administration’s anti-immigrant agenda, such as the termination of birthright citizenship and Temporary Protected Status (TPS); and leading efforts to limit dangerous collaborations between local law enforcement and ICE, with particular emphasis on ending 287(g) agreements. Today, Ama serves as one of the attorneys for Kilmar Abrego Garcia, a case through which she is amplifying the stories of those too often silenced, making clear that the struggle for one man’s freedom is a struggle for all of our freedoms. Throughout her career, Ama has represented clients and mentored attorneys on cases before the Board of Immigration Appeals (BIA), Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), Customs and Border Protection (CBP), and in criminal and civil courts across D.C., Maryland, Virginia, and North Carolina. Her work has always centered the lived experiences of low-income, immigrant, and Black and Brown communities, bridging the gap between courtroom victories and systemic change. Before joining CASA, Ama served as managing attorney at the Capital Area Immigrants’ Rights (CAIR) Coalition, leading legal defense for detained adults and unaccompanied children in the D.C. region. A proud graduate of Salem College (2011) and Wake Forest University School of Law (2014), Ama brings not only legal expertise, but also an unwavering belief in the power of communities to demand and win justice.

Michelle Fujii (she/they) | Michelle is a first-year Honors Attorney at the General Counsel Headquarters of the National Labor Relations Board in Washington, D.C. Born and raised in Japan, Michelle graduated from Northeastern University School of Law where she served as Co-President of the Asian Pacific American Law Students Association. In 2023, she was a Peggy Browning Fellow with the International Association of Sheet Metal, Air, Rail, and Transportation Workers (SMART). Before law school, Michelle worked as a policy advocate for nuclear disarmament and as a paralegal at a plaintiff-side employment law firm. Her varied personal and professional experiences have shown her the pivotal role of organized labor in building people power and she hopes to dedicate her career to this end.

Nicholas J Gleichman | Nicholas J Gleichman: has been a union counsel since becoming a lawyer 2016, representing workers at various state courts and agencies including the NLRB and PERB. Currently he works in the legal department of SEIU Local 1000, representing 10 different bargaining units of California state workers. previously, he has represented SEIU international as well as workers in the fight for fifteen campaign. He is also the president of UAW Local 2350. He has a great fondness for the Orioles and is considered an expert river rafter by several of his own family members.

Lisa Gomez | Lisa Gomez is the founding member of LMG Collaborative Consulting Solutions, a consulting firm providing services in all areas related to employee benefit plans. Lisa has served as assistant secretary of the Employee Benefits Security Administration of the United States Department of Labor. Previously, she was a partner and chair of the management committee at the law firm Cohen, Weiss and Simon LLP. Lisa has deep technical and practical experience in employee benefits law and has spent almost three decades representing various types of plans. As the head of the Department of Labor’s Employee Benefits Security Administration (EBSA), she was responsible for leading an agency with approximately 850 full-time employees nationwide and a budget of approximately $191 million and was charged with the safeguarding of the job-based retirement, health and other welfare benefits for more than 153 million American workers and retirees and their families. Through her leadership, EBSA oversaw approximately 2.6 million job-based health plans, 801,000 retirement plans, and 548,000 other welfare plans, with combined assets of nearly $12 trillion, in addition to the oversight of the federal Thrift Savings Program. Lisa has also served as a co-chair of the board of senior editors of the Bloomberg BNA treatise Employee Benefits Law. She also served in various leadership positions with the American Bar Association (ABA) Section of Labor and Employment Law. She was a member of the International Foundation of Employee Benefit Plans and the AFL-CIO Union Lawyers Alliance. Lisa was inducted as a Fellow of The American College of Employee Benefits Counsel, Inc. in recognition of her decades of practice in employee benefits law and her contributions to the field. Lisa was also a member of the advisory board of The Peggy Browning Fund. She previously served as an arbitrator for the American Arbitration Association and as a volunteer mediator for the New Jersey state courts. She was a guest lecturer for the Cornell University School of Industrial and Labor Relations and Hofstra University School of Law on employee benefits. She was named as a Super Lawyer for Employee Benefits on the Super Lawyers New York Metro Annual Lists for 2021 and 2022. Lisa earned her law degree from the Fordham University School of Law and her undergraduate degree from Hofstra University

Andrew Huddleston | Andrew Huddleston is the Director of Advocacy for the American Federation of Government Employees (AFGE), where he oversees the union’s communications, grassroots mobilization, political advocacy, and education programs. Appointed to lead the newly created department in 2025, Huddleston is responsible for aligning AFGE’s message, strategy, and organizing capacity to meet escalating challenges facing federal and D.C. government workers. Previously, Huddleston served for seven years as AFGE’s Director of Communications, leading a nationally recognized team that won multiple awards. He has also held senior digital and communications roles in the labor movement, including at the United Auto Workers (UAW). A graduate of the University of Pennsylvania and Johns Hopkins University, Huddleston resides in the Takoma neighborhood of Washington, DC.

David Jury | David Jury is General Counsel of the United Steelworkers, a position he has held since October 2017. David has worked in the USW’s Legal Department in Pittsburgh since 1996 and has appeared regularly before federal appellate, district, and bankruptcy courts and in NLRB proceedings. As General Counsel, he advises the union’s officers and participates in bargaining in many of the union’s major industrial sectors. A graduate of The George Washington University Law School, he is the co-chair of the Board of Directors of the Peggy Browning Fund.

Treyvon Jordan | Treyvon Jordan is an associate attorney at Beins, Axelrod & Keating in Alexandria, VA, where he represents labor unions throughout the South. A native of South Carolina, he graduated from William & Mary Law School in 2024. After graduating, he joined the American Federation of Labor and Congress of Industrial Organizations (AFL-CIO) as their 2024–2025 Fellowship Lawyer. Treyvon’s career in labor began in 2021 with UNITE HERE Local 23/25, where he worked as a student organizer in Williamsburg, Richmond, and Washington, D.C. While in law school, he led committees with United Campus Workers of Virginia Local 2265 (CWA), focusing on lobbying the Virginia General Assembly to pass laws supporting public sector collective bargaining and affordable childcare. In 2023, he was a Peggy Browning Fellow at the Communications Workers of America. Prior to law school, Treyvon served as a Field Artillery Officer in the United States Marine Corps. As a veteran, he serves on the Board of Directors for Everyone for Veterans, a nonprofit providing dental care to low-income veterans with limited access to services.In addition to his professional work, Treyvon is an active member of the National Lawyers Guild (NLG), where he volunteers as a legal observer and jail visit attorney. He also organizes with Veterans About Face, a group of post-9/11 military members challenging U.S. imperialist actions that lead to permanent war.

Danielle Leonard | Danielle Leonard is a partner at Altshuler Berzon in San Francisco, California, where she has practiced law since 2003. Danielle’s practice consists primarily of complex litigation. She has represented international, state and local labor unions, environmental groups and other advocacy organizations, and workers, students, and consumers in class actions, in cases involving diverse areas of law including labor law, employment law, voting rights and other constitutional issues. She has briefed and argued numerous cases at the trial and appellate levels in federal and state courts. Danielle is currently a member of the Board of Directors of the Peggy Browning Fund. Prior to joining the firm, Danielle was a trial attorney in the Voting Rights Section of the Civil Rights Division of the United States Department of Justice, and is a graduate of Harvard Law School and Harvard and Radcliffe Colleges.

Sabrina Liu | Sabrina is the assistant director of the Strategic Campaigns department of the USW and has worked as a campaigner and leverage researcher at the USW since 2014. She is the president of the Asian Pacific American Labor Alliance (APALA) Pittsburgh Chapter and serves on APALA’s national executive board. She is an immigrant from Taiwan.

Joe Lurie | Joseph Lurie, Founder and President of the Peggy Browning Fund, retired in 2010 as the Senior Partner in the law firm of Galfand Berger in Philadelphia, PA. His practice included union side labor, workers’ compensation and products liability cases. Some of the cases he handled have set national precedents. Mr. Lurie successfully represented injured workers before the United States Supreme Court and the Supreme Court of Pennsylvania. He tried several hundred cases in the County Court systems and various Federal District Courts throughout Pennsylvania. A member of the American Trial Lawyers Association, Pennsylvania Bar Association and the Philadelphia and Pennsylvania Trial Lawyers Associations, he has written and lectured extensively. Mr. Lurie is the founder of three non-profit agencies: The Pennsylvania Federation of Injured Workers, a support group for men and women who have been injured at work; Peggy Browning Fund, a memorial to his late wife, Margaret A. Browning, to educate law students on the rights and needs of workers; and Kids’ Chance of Pennsylvania, a scholarship fund for children of workers who have been seriously injured or killed while at work.

Andrew Lyubarsky | Andrew Lyubarsky has been an Associate General Counsel at the AFL-CIO since June 2022, where he has assisted in amicus filings resisting the constitutional attacks on the NLRB’s authority. Prior to joining the AFL-CIO, he was an immigration attorney at a New York City-area public defender, representing detained immigrants, and prior to that, had worked for Bredhoff & Kaiser PLLC, a DC-area labor law firm. He has clerked for judges on the Second Circuit and the Southern District of New York, and is a 2016 graduate of New York University School of Law. When in law school, he was a Peggy Browning Fellow at Levy Ratner, P.C. in New York City.

Ingrid Nava | Ingrid Nava is Associate General Counsel for Service Employees International Union. Before this role, she was Associate General Counsel for SEIU Local 32BJ, 32BJ, the largest labor union for property services workers in the country and a union with a large immigrant membership. Ms. Nava is also a founding board member of Justice at Work, a legal services nonprofit organization serving immigrant worker centers in Massachusetts. She previously served as an employment lawyer for low-wage workers with Greater Boston Legal Services, where along with direct client representation, she provided legal counsel to immigrant worker centers. Prior to law school, Ms. Nava was an organizer for SEIU. She earned her JD from Northeastern University School of Law and her AB from Stanford University.

Mayoung Nham | Mayoung Nham has been working with defined benefit and defined contribution pension plans, health and welfare plans, and training plans since graduating law school in 2007. Her experience includes advising clients on all aspects of employee benefits law, including the Employee Retirement Income Security Act, the Internal Revenue Code, the Affordable Care Act, the Consolidated Omnibus Budget Reconciliation Act, and the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act. Ms. Nham advises multiemployer pension and health and welfare funds, as well as single employer and public employee benefit plans. She counsels clients on issues including regulatory compliance, tax qualification, plan design, fiduciary duties, plan administration, and investment issues. She has broad experience in drafting plan documents and participant disclosures and negotiating service provider contracts on behalf of pension plans and health and welfare plans. Her practice also involves representation of employee benefit plans in matters before the Internal Revenue Service and the Department of Labor, and she has represented clients in litigation and arbitration matters. Ms. Nham is a member of the Advisory Council on Employee Welfare and Pension Benefit Plans at the U.S. Department of Labor, and was appointed as the Chair of the Advisory Council for 2024 and 2025. She is also a member of the Board of Directors for the AFL-CIO Union Lawyers Alliance. Ms. Nham is actively involved with the American Bar Association’s Employee Benefits Committee and has published several articles in the ABA Employee Benefits Committee Newsletter. She is also a senior chapter editor of the ABA Section of Labor and Employment Law’s treatise, Employee Benefits Law and is a frequent speaker on employee benefit issues. Ms. Nham received her law degree from the George Washington University School of Law in 2007 and a Bachelor’s of Arts in Public Policy Studies and French Studies from Duke University in 2004. Ms. Nham is licensed to practice law in the District of Columbia and the Commonwealth of Virginia.

Chris Newman | Chris Newman is the Legal Director & General Counsel for the National Day Laborer Organizing Network (NDLON) based in its Los Angeles office. He has worked with day laborers since 2002, was hired as NDLON’s first attorney in 2004 and since then, has helped develop and coordinate NDLON’s work to defend and advance day laborers’ civil, workplace, and human rights. He was counsel on a coalition lawsuit challenging Arizona’s SB 1070 in federal court. Before working at NDLON, he was the founding coordinator of the Wage Clinic and Legal Program at El Centro Humanitario para los Trabajadores, a day laborer work center in Denver, CO. He is the recipient of an Academy of Educational Development New Voices Fellowship. He is currently a Transatlantic Forum on Migration and Integration fellow at the German Marshall Fund. He earned his J.D. with honors from the University of Denver College of Law.

Isabel Carmen Oraha (she/her) | Isabel is a regional attorney for Region 19 of the National Labor Relations Board. She was a Peggy Browning Fellow in 2022 for Weinberg, Roger & Rosenfeld in addition to working for various labor and employment clinics, firms, and nonprofits throughout law school. She served on the board of University of San Diego’s Middle Eastern Law Society, raising scholarship money for Middle Eastern students. She grew up attending Teamsters barbecues and was inspired to practice labor law because she views labor rights as human rights.

Alex Roe | Alex Roe is Managing Counsel at the AFL-CIO Union Lawyers Alliance, a professional organization for union lawyers. In that role, she helps plan seminars, webinars, and conferences offering continuing legal education tailored to the needs of lawyers who represent AFL-CIO affiliated unions. Prior to joining the AFL-CIO, she was Headquarters Counsel at Communications Workers of America where she provided advice and guidance on employee benefits, labor, employment, insurance, and other areas of law relevant to a large international union. Alex received her B.A. from Carleton College and her J.D. from George Washington University.

Ates Serifsoy | Growing up in Florida, a state where workers are heavily disenfranchised, Ateş saw firsthand how institutional injustice limits the welfare and potential of entire communities. Through their experiences, Ateş learned the immeasurable value of collective power and developed a lifelong commitment to protecting the rights of working people. Before pursuing law school, Ateş was fortunate enough to have worked for labor unions in various capacities. Now a rising 2L, Ateş has clerked for a local labor law firm, participated in her school’s Workers’ Rights Clinic, and spent her 1L summer as a PBF Fellow at Teamsters 117, fighting for workers’ rights. Ateş is thrilled to be a returning PBF Fellow, this time at the AFL-CIO. There, she hopes to expand her horizons further and learn how those in the movement can strategically act as a united coalition and use policy tools to ensure workplace justice is a reality across the county and beyond.

Rob Shriver | Rob Shriver is the Managing Director of the Civil Service Strong and Good Government Initiatives at Democracy Forward. He brings a deep background in leadership, policy, program development, and operations to his work strengthening federal service. Rob was confirmed by the Senate on a bipartisan vote to serve as Deputy Director of the Office of Personnel Management (OPM) in December 2022. He also served at OPM during the Obama Administration, where he advanced equality for LGBTQ+ federal employees, improved federal labor relations, and oversaw the implementation of major provisions of the Affordable Care Act. He began his career as an attorney with the National Treasury Employees Union.

Jay Smith | A shareholder in Gilbert & Sackman in Los Angeles, Jay has represented labor unions and their members for 38 years. Previously a partner at Cooper, Mitch, Crawford, Kuykendall & Whatley in Alabama, Mr. Smith has represented the United Steelworkers for almost his entire legal career, and now serves as USW’s District Counsel for the eleven western states. He is also greatly honored to represent other militant and progressive labor organizations, including UNAC/UHCP, AFSCME, many IATSE Local Unions, AGVA, UNITE HERE Local 11, UFCW Local 324, many USW local unions and other local unions. He appears regularly in federal and state courts, before the NLRB and PERB, before arbitrators, and in collective bargaining negotiations. Jay also represents plaintiffs in class action litigation. He is a graduate of Harvard University and the University of Alabama School of Law and has been a member of the Peggy Browning Fund’s Board of Directors since 2017.

Suzanne Summerlin | Suzanne Summerlin is a seasoned labor attorney with extensive experience in labor law, union advocacy, and workplace justice. She has represented a diverse range of federal employees across more than thirty agencies, including U.S. Forest Service wildland firefighters, Department of State passport processors, Veterans Administration medical professionals, and Transportation Security Administration security screeners. In 2017, Suzanne was lead counsel in a coalition lawsuit challenging restrictive executive orders under the first Trump administration, representing 13 unions in a case heard by now-Supreme Court Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson. Her career also includes roles with the American Federation of Government Employees, the National Federation of Federal Employees, and the Federation Education Association where she handled labor arbitrations, collective bargaining, and unfair labor practice hearings. Suzanne has led litigation, negotiated collective bargaining agreements and provided strategic legal guidance to federal employees worldwide. Recognized for her expertise, Suzanne was nominated by President Biden to serve as General Counsel of the Federal Labor Relations Authority. Her work reflects a steadfast commitment to protecting the rights of federal workers and empowering unions in complex and evolving legal landscapes.

Tiffany Wang (she/her) | Tiffany is a third generation Chinese Taiwanese American originally from Maryland but now living in Albuquerque, New Mexico. She is a Legal Fellow with Innovation Law Lab’s Anticarceral Legal Organizing team, fighting to end immigrant detention in New Mexico while ensuring that communities surrounding immigrant prisons can thrive without relying on human suffering. She was a 2023 Peggy Browning Fellow at the Equal Justice Center, where she supported immigrant workers and helped them navigate a new immigration deferred action process for labor enforcement. As a cafe worker throughout her three years in law school, Tiffany understands the importance of cross racial and cross economic solidarity in the labor movement.

Marley Weiss | Marley Weiss received her B.A. from Barnard College and her J.D. from the Harvard Law School. Upon graduation, she practiced labor law for ten years with the International Union, United Automobile, Aerospace and Agricultural Implement Workers of America (UAW). She was the first woman attorney hired into the UAW General Counsel’s office. Since 1984, she has been a member of the faculty of the University of Maryland Carey School of Law, where she is Professor of Law. Professor Weiss also has taught at Eötvös Loránd Faculty of Law and at the Central European University in Budapest, Hungary, and has supervised Maryland’s international clinic students working in Mexico. She is a former Secretary of the ABA Section of Labor and Employment Law, a past co-chair of the Section’s Committee on International Labor and Employment Law, and a past co-chair of the Section’s Committee on Immigration and Human Trafficking. During the Clinton administration, she chaired the U.S. National Advisory Committee on the NAFTA Labor Side Agreement. She is a member of the Peggy Browning Fund’s Conference Planning Committee.

Gwynne A. Wilcox | Gwynne A. Wilcox was renominated by President Joseph R. Biden and reconfirmed by the Senate on September 6, 2023 to serve a second term as a Board Member of the National Labor Relations Board ending August 27, 2028. Ms. Wilcox previously served as a Member of the Board from August 4, 2021 until August 27, 2023, and she served as Chair of the Board from December 17, 2024 to January 20, 2025. Ms. Wilcox is the first Black woman to serve on the Board since its inception in 1935, and is also the first Black woman to serve as Chair of the NLRB. On January 27, 2025, President Donald J. Trump removed Ms. Wilcox from the Board prior to her term’s expiration in 2028. Ms. Wilcox was the first Board Member to have been removed in 90 years of the Board's inception in 1935. Ms. Wilcox filed a lawsuit in Federal Court in Washington, DC, against President Trump challenging her unprecedented and unlawful termination based upon current statutory law and well-established Supreme Court precedent. The case is still pending. Previous to her appointment to the Board, Wilcox was a senior partner at Levy Ratner, P.C., a New York City labor and employment law firm. While there, she served as Associate General Counsel of 1199SEIU United Healthcare Workers East and as a labor representative to the NYC Office of Collective Bargaining. Prior to joining Levy Ratner, she worked as a Field Attorney at Region 2 of the NLRB in Manhattan. Upon graduation from law school, Ms. Wilcox was a Reginald Heber Smith Community Fellow at Middlesex County Legal Services office in New Brunswick, NJ and then continued as a Staff Attorney, handling domestic violence cases and other matters. Ms. Wilcox is a Fellow in the College of Labor and Employment Lawyers. She is the recipient of numerous awards. Most recently, Ms. Wilcox was the recipient on February 25, 2025 of a Certificate of Honor from the Rutgers University School-Newark Law School's Minority Student Program, the Association of Black Law Students, Phi Alpha Delta Fraternity, Inc.- Jackson Chapter, the American Constitutional Society and Student Bar Association, celebrating a "trailblazer whose dedication and leadership have elevated the distinction of Rutgers Law School [and] ..honors an unwavering commitment to service, impactful contributions and a role as a guiding force and inspiration for future generations." In 2023, Ms. Wilcox was recognized by the Rutgers University-Newark Law School Minority Student Program, and was the commencement speaker later that year. Ms. Wilcox has been the recipient of other awards, including the November 2021 Honorable Bernice B. Donald Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion in the Legal Profession Award by the American Bar Association’s Labor and Employment Law Section. The award is given to a member, law firm, corporation, organization or academic institution “that has demonstrated leadership in and commitment to advancing diversity, equity, and inclusion in the legal profession," the 2017 Syracuse University Chancellor’s Citation for Achievements “in honor of an exceptional career in law and dedication to advancing diversity”; the 2015 Basil Paterson Award at the Amsterdam News Labor Awards Breakfast; the 2015 Brandworkers’ Champion of Economic Justice Award; and the 2009 Peggy Browning Fund Lifetime Achievement Award. Prior to joining the Board, Ms. Wilcox was a board member of various organizations, including the Brandworkers; Peggy Browning Fund; Scheinman Institute on Conflict Resolution of the Cornell University ILR School; Workers Defense League; and the AFL-CIO Lawyers Coordinating Committee, now known as the Union Lawyers Alliance. Ms. Wilcox has made numerous presentations concerning Board law at many bar associations and other organizations. Ms. Wilcox gave the 2023 David E. Feller Memorial Labor Law Lecture—Cemex: A New Framework for Union Representation Proceedings, https://www.law.berkeley.edu/library/ir/bjell/archive.php. Ms. Wilcox holds a J.D. from Rutgers University School of Law-Newark and a B.A. from Syracuse University.

Melissa Woods | Melissa S. Woods is a Partner who focuses on negotiating and litigating labor and employment law matters on behalf of unions and individual employees, and represents unions and funds in employer bankruptcy proceedings. Melissa leads the firm’s harassment/discrimination prevention and DEI practice, where she shares her extensive experience investigating allegations of workplace misconduct – including discrimination, harassment and unethical activity – providing legal and strategic advice on policy matters and workplace culture, and creating and conducting discrimination and harassment prevention, implicit bias and racial sensitivity trainings.

The Peggy Browning Fund is committed to providing a harassment-free environment in all sponsored events and activities as defined in our code of conduct & values.