FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: Tuesday, June 2, 2015
Contact: Donna De La Cruz, [email protected] (202) 339-9331

Council Will Support Campaign’s Push for Biggest Changes in US Economic Rules in 60 Years

(WASHINGTON)—More than 30 leaders in academia, labor, policy, religion and other fields have joined an advisory council for the groundbreaking “Putting Families First: Good Jobs for All” campaign.

The Putting Families First campaign was launched last month by the Center for Community Change, Center for Popular Democracy, Jobs With Justice, The Leadership Conference on Civil and Human Rights and the Working Families Organization. At the launch, the groups presented a blueprint to guarantee good wages and benefits and create new jobs that sustain all families by meeting America’s needs for infrastructure, education, childcare and a clean energy future.

The Advisory Council will guide and support the five organizations as they work with dozens of state and local grass roots groups to put a bold jobs agenda for communities with the highest unemployment and lowest wages at Community Change of the national debate.

The Advisory Council will be co-chaired by David R. Jones, president and CEO of Community Service Society of New York, and Sarita Gupta, executive director of Jobs With Justice. Jones is also on the board of the Center for Community Change.

Other Advisory Council members include: sociologist William Julius Wilson; Mary Kay Henry, president of the Service Employees International Union; Lee Saunders, president, American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees; Randi Weingarten, president of the American Federation of Teachers; Neera Tanden, president of the Center for American Progress; Manuel Pastor, professor and co-director, University of Southern California Center for the Study of Immigrant Integration; Felicia Wong, president and CEO, Roosevelt Institute; Teresa Younger, president and CEO of the Ms. Foundation; Nobel Prize winning economist Joseph Stiglitz; Wade Henderson, president and CEO of The Leadership Conference on Civil and Human Rights; and, Mike Brune, executive director of the Sierra Club. (A full list of the Advisory Council is listed below).

“We are honored to have access to leaders who are dedicated to helping improve the lives of Americans struggling every day to sustain their families,” said Deepak Bhargava, executive director of the Center for Community Change. “We know the guidance we receive from the Advisory Council will push these vital issues into important conversations as we head into the 2016 presidential campaign.”

The Advisory Council held its first meeting Thursday, May 28^th in New York City to lay out its recommendations for the Putting Families First campaign. Jones kicked off the meeting noting that “The stakes for working families could not be higher. Poverty and economic inequality have emerged as a dominant issue heading into the upcoming presidential election. This Advisory Council will help Putting Families First change the public conversation to focus on policy solutions and a bold economic agenda that matches the scale of the enormous problems we face.”

For more information on the campaign, go to http://www.putfamiliesfirst.org/

Here is a list of the Advisory Council members:

Mike Brune, Executive Director, Sierra Club

Dan Cantor, Executive Director, Working Families Organization

Charlene Carruthers, National Director, Black Youth Project 100

Rev. Dr. Iva Carruthers, General Secretary, Samuel DeWitt Proctor Conference

Peter Dreier, E.P. Clapp Distinguished Professor of Politics; Chair, Urban and Environmental Policy Department, Occidental College

Mark Dyen, Executive Vice President of Strategy and Products, Conservation Services Group

Tana Ebbole, Vice President, Poverty, JPB Foundation

Peter Edelman, Distinguished Law Professor, Georgetown University

Rev. Dr. Robert Franklin, Emory University, James T. and Berta R. Laney Professor in Moral Leadership

Andrew Friedman, Co-Director, Center for Popular Democracy

Angela Glover Blackwell, Founder and CEO, PolicyLink

Bob Greenstein, President, Center on Budget and Policy Priorities

Sarita Gupta, Executive Director, Jobs With Justice

Wade Henderson, President and CEO, The Leadership Conference on Civil and Human Rights

Mary Kay Henry, President, Service Employees International Union

Alan Jenkins, Executive Director, The Opportunity Agenda

David R. Jones, President and CEO, Community Service Society of New York

Bob Kuttner, Co-Editor, The American Prospect

Heather McGhee, President, Demos

Gara LaMarche, President, Democracy Alliance

Linda Meric, Executive Director, 9to5

Larry Mishel, President, Economic Policy Institute

Christine Owens, Executive Director, National Employment Law Project

Manuel Pastor, Professor and Co-Director, University of Southern California Center for the Study of Immigrant Integration

Judy Patrick, Senior Advisor, The Women’s Foundation of California

Steven Pitts, Associate Chair, University of California Berkeley Labor Center

Ai-Jen Poo, Director, National Domestic Workers Association

Nancy Rankin, Vice President for Policy, Research and Advocacy, Community Service Society of New York

Maya Rockeymoore, President, Center for Global Policy Solutions

Lee Saunders, President, AFSCME

Joseph Stiglitz, Professor, Columbia University and Chief Economist, Roosevelt Institute

Neera Tanden, President, Center for American Progress

Luz Vega-Marquis, President and CEO, Marguerite Casey Foundation

Dorian Warren, Roosevelt Institute Fellow

Vesla Weaver, Associate Professor of Political Science and African American Studies and Director of the ISPS Center for the Study of Inequality, Yale University

Randi Weingarten, President, American Federation of Teachers

William Julius Wilson, Lewis P. and Linda L. Geyser University Professor, Harvard University

Felicia Wong, President and CEO, Roosevelt Institute

Teresa Younger, President and CEO, Ms. Foundation

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