Summer 2007 Annual Meeting

Resources

Seattle Climate Partnership, City of Seattle. Read more.

Seattle Climate Protection Initiative, City of Seattle, June 1st, 2007. Read more.

Cambridge Energy Alliance – Project Overview, Cambridge Energy Alliance, April 12th, 2007. Read more.

City of Palo Alto Sustainability Policy, Sustainable Silicon Valley, June 7th, 2007. Read more.

Speakers

Amanda Eichel serves as Climate Protection Advisor within the City of Seattle’s Office of Sustainability and Environment, the City entity charged with implementation of Mayor Nickel’s Climate Action Plan.  In addition to working on the City’s own climate action initiatives, she serves as a liaison between the City and the US Conference of Mayors to support efforts related to the U.S. Mayors’ Climate Protection Agreement.  She holds a Master of Environmental Science & Management degree from the Bren School of Environmental Science and Management at the University of California, Santa Barbara. Prior to her current position with the City, she worked within California State government on sustainability, environmental justice, and green government issues.

Michael Armstrong manages energy-conservation programs for the City of Portland Office of Sustainable Development.  He works on issues related to energy policy, climate change, green building, and sustainable food systems. Michael coordinated the public process that led to Portland’s Local Action Plan on Global Warming and tracks the implementation of local emission-reduction efforts.  Michael received an MPA from Indiana University’s School of Public Environmental Affairs and attended Deep Springs College.

Romel Pascual serves as the Associate Director for Environment for Los Angeles Mayor, Antonio R. Villaraigosa.  In this capacity, Romel provides policy direction on a number of key environmental priorities for the City, including climate change, environmental justice, open space, brownfields redevelopment, and sustainability.  From 2001-2004, Romel served as California’s first Assistant Secretary for Environmental Justice for California Environmental Protection Agency where led the Agency efforts in developing the state’s first environmental justice program. Between 1999-2004, the State of California passed 10 pieces of environmental justice legislation.

Romel’s involvement with environmental issues began in community organizations and grassroots leadership. He has over a decade of experience in the environmental and environmental justice fields.  Prior to joining the Mayor’s Office, Romel headed the environmental justice program for the United States Environmental Protection Agency, Region 9. His work focused on national environmental policy and program development.

Romel also worked with the Urban Habitat Program, a non-profit organization based in San Francisco whose focus is to build multicultural urban environmental leadership. He was the Project Coordinator of the Brownfields Leadership and Community Revitalization Project. He also worked with the Asian Pacific Environmental Network (APEN) where he conducted research on the impacts of environmental pollution on communities.

He has a B.A. in Political Science from UCLA, and Masters in City and Regional Planning from UC Berkeley.  He currently serves on the board of Urban Habitat.

Resources

US Hotels and their Workers: Room for Improvement, Working for America, September 1st, 2002. Read more.

Living Wage Victory in LA, Peter Dreier, The Nation, February 5th, 2007. Read more.

City, Business Leaders Rach Compromise on Hotel Wages, NBC4 TV. Read more.

Coalition of Port-Area Residents, Environmental, Labor, and Religious Leaders Premier Solution to Al, Coalition for clean and Safe Ports, March 29th, 2007. Read more.

2 LA-area ports aim to slash diesel exhaust, Janet Wilson and Ronald D. white, East Bay Alliance for a Sustainable Economy, April 14th, 2007. Read more.

Data on Chicago’s Retail Industry, Brennan Center for Justice. Read more.

Job Standards and Accountability fo rLarge Retailers, Brennan Center for Justice. Read more.

Citywide Minimum Wage Laws: A New Policy Tool for Local Governments, Paul Sonn, Brennan Center for Justice, May 1st, 2006. Read more.

CityBuild: A Construction-focused workforce initiative managed by the Mayor’s Office of Economic and, Jesse Blout, September 1st, 2005. Read more.

Widespread Abuse of Day Laborers Shows Gap in Legal Aid, Cara Anna, Associated Press, February 11th, 2006. Read more.

Day Laborers, Organized Labor Unite for Workers’ Rights, The Oakland Tribune, September 18th, 2006. Read more.

Workers Centers: Organizing Communities at the Edge of the Dream, Janice Fine, Economic Policy Institute, February 1st, 2006. Read more.

Labor Peace Agreements for Hotel Development Projects, Washington, D.C., January 1st, 2014. Read more.

Cities and Jobs: Local Strategies for Improving Job Quality and Access, Center on Wisconsin Strategy, June 12th, 2007. Read more.

Speakers

Jennifer Sung is an attorney in the Economic Justice Project of the Brennan Center. She works primarily with grassroots coalitions to develop new public policies to promote accountable economic development. She also provides support to campaigns to secure living wages, expand access to health care, and protect the right of workers to organize. Prior to  joining the Brennan Center, Ms. Sung clerked for Judge Betty Binns  Fletcher of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit. She received her J.D. from Yale Law School (2004), where she was a co-founder of the Hospital Debt Justice Project in the Jerome N. Frank  Legal Services Organization and served as co-chair of the Workers Rights Project. She received her B.A. from Oberlin College (1994).

Pablo Alvarado currently serves as the national Day labor Organizing Network.  His responsibilities include leading day labor organizations in their pursuit to represent the day labor community in various forums and giving day laborers a public voice.  He is the recipient of the Next generation Leadership Fellowship from the Rockefeller Foundation, which recognizes entrepreneurial, risk-taking and fair leaders who seek to develop solutions to major challenges of democracy, including issues of race, changing demographics, the digital divide, and massive globalization.  In 2004, Alvarado was recognized by the Ford Foundation’s Leadership for a Changing World program.  Alvarado worked with the Coalition for Humane Immigrant Rights of Los Angeles as the Lead Coordinator of their Day labor Project.  Under his leadership, CHIRLA’s Day Labor Project received recognition from the Los Angeles County Human Relations Commission during the year 2000.  He brings an extensive background of working with day laborers and community organizing to the Day Labor Rights Project.  In August 2005, TIME magazine named Alvarado among the 25 most influential Hispanics in the US.

Neal Kwatra is the Deputy Director of the UNITE HERE Department of Strategic Affairs. He leads the New Hotel Development Program and helped to found INMEX, THE INFORMED MEETINGS EXCHANGE, which helps to leverage the economic power that big group customers have with key employers in the hotel industry in the context of current new organizing and industry-wide bargaining in the hotel industry.  Before coming to UNITE HERE, Neal worked at the AFL-CIO Center for Strategic Affairs on the United Farm Workers Strawberry Campaign and the Multi-Union (SEIU-1199, HERE, UFCW, UAW) Geographic Organizing Campaign based in Stamford, CT.  Neal has also been a field director for campaigns and a press intern at the White House. He has a degree in Political Science and Journalism from Rutgers University.

Resources

City of Chicago Initiatives Targeted to Individuals with Criminal Backgrounds, Chicago Department of Human Resources. Read more.

Jeff Rakover Interviews Maurice Emsellem, Center for America Progress, June 4th, 2007. Read more.

Major US Cities Adopt New Hiring Policies Removing Unfair Barriers to Employment of People with Crim, National Employment Law Project, January 3rd, 2007. Read more.

Courts Mix Justice with Social Work, Leonard Post, National Law Journal, June 7th, 2004. Read more.

City Aims to Break Cycle for Ex-Cons, Jonathan Schuppe, May 2nd, 2007. Read more.

An Ordinance Regarding CORI, The City of Boston. Read more.

Restoring Hope—Justice Programs Address Offenders’ Problems, Doug Smeath, Desert News, January 14th, 2007. Read more.

San Francisco District Attorney’s Office, Kamala D. Harris. Read more.

Courting the Community: Justice Center will Address Causes of Crime by Aiding Offenders, Victims, Gavid Newsom, Kamala D. Harris, SF Gate, May 13th, 2007. Read more.

Community Court Principles: A Guide for Planners, Center for Court Innovation, January 1st, 1997. Read more.

Request for Proposals (RFP) for a Customized Work Serves Program Serving Ex-Offenders, City of Chicago, June 1st, 2007. Read more.

Rebuilding Lives. Restoring Hope. Strengthening Communities, Richard Dailey, January 1st, 2006. Read more.

Red Hook Experiment: How a Neighborhood Court Fights Crime and Solves Problems, ABA Journal , June 1st, 2004. Read more.

Programs Offered through the Salt Lake City Prosecutors Office, Salt Lake City Prosecutors Office, July 1st, 2007. Read more..

Speakers

Greg Berman is the director of the Center for Court Innovation, a non-profit think tank that helps courts reduce crime, aid victims, and improve public trust in justice. Part of the founding team responsible for creating the Center, he has helped guide the organization from start-up to an annual budget of $15 million. The Center has received numerous awards, including the Prize for Public Sector Innovation from the Citizens Budget Commission and the Innovations in American Government Award from the Ford Foundation and Harvard’s John F. Kennedy School of Government. Greg is the co-author of Good Courts: The Case for Problem-Solving Justice (The New Press, 2005).

Maurice Emsellem is the National Employment Law Project’s (NELP) Policy Director.  NELP is a research and advocacy organization that delivers on the nation’s promise of economic opportunity. Mr. Emsellem specializes in government systems of support for unemployed workers and policies that reduce employment barriers of people with criminal records.  He and his colleagues at NELP have co-authored several publications, including scholarly articles that appeared in the Stanford Law & Policy Review and the University of Michigan Journal of Law Reform.   Mr. Emsellem was a Soros Justice Senior Fellow (2005), and a Visiting Public Interest Mentor at Stanford Law School (2003).  He received his B.A. in 1982 from the University of Michigan and his J.D. in 1986 from Northeastern University School of Law.

Angela Rudolph, Assistant to the Mayor, joined the Office of Mayor Richard M. Daley in October 2006. Ms. Rudolph has been charged with spearheading the development of strategies and initiatives for the City of Chicago to support people with criminal backgrounds as they work to transform their lives achieve success, strengthen their families and home communities — thus making a stronger safer Chicago.  Prior to joining the Mayor’s Office Ms. Rudolph served as a Program Director at Chicago Metropolis 2020 where she focused on justice and violence by working on issues of childhood exposure to violence, re-entry, juvenile justice and sentencing reform. She has served as the Education Director with the Chicago Urban League where she was responsible for coordinating the development and implementation of the League’s education and youth development programming. Ms. Rudolph began her professional career in Illinois working for the North Central Regional Educational Laboratory working as a Policy Associate and a Program Associate with the policy and advocacy division of the Ounce of Prevention Fund. She holds a Master’s in Education Policy from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign and a B.A. from Union College in American History.