Activist-Scholars

Kate L. Griffith is the Jean McKelvey-Alice Grant Professor and chair of the Labor Relations, Law, and History Department at the Cornell University ILR School, as well as an associate member of the Cornell Law faculty. Her scholarship focuses primarily on the intersection of immigration and workplace law, as well as legal issues affecting low-wage workers. Professor Griffith is a co-author of the textbook “Labor Law: Cases, Materials, and Problems” (Walters Kluwer), and her work has been published widely, including in the California Law Review, the Cornell Law Review, and the Law & Social Inquiry Journal. Professor Griffith is also a research fellow affiliated with the Center for Labor & Employment Law at New York University School of Law, from which she received her J.D. in 2004.

Tamara L. Lee is an assistant professor in the Department of Labor Studies and Employment Relations at Rutgers School of Management and Labor Relations. Her academic work includes critical race theory and intersectionality in industrial relations and worker political participation in Cuban industrial relations. Professor Lee is one of the original co-founders of Haven, a collective of BIWOC and nonbinary-identifying folks rooted in abolition, liberation, and healing through art and storytelling. She also serves on several executive boards and advisory committees, including the Labor and Education Research Association (LERA), the Labor Research Action Network (LRAN), the National Lawyers Guild’s (NLG) Cuba and Labor and Education subcommittees, the Alliance for Cuba Engagement and Respect (ACERE), and Justice League NYC.

Naomi R. Williams is an assistant professor in the Department of Labor Studies and Employment Relations at Rutgers School of Management and Labor Relations. They research late-capitalism at the end of the 20th century and workers’ role in shaping U.S. political economy. Professor Williams’ primary research interests include labor and working-class history; urban history and politics; gender and women; race and politics, and, more broadly, social and economic movements of working people. They are currently revising a book manuscript, tentatively titled “Workers United: Race, Labor, and Coalition Building in Deindustrialized America,” about the transformation of class identity and politics in the second half of the 20th century. Professor Williams holds a Ph.D. in U.S. History from the University of Wisconsin-Madison.

Phela Townsend is a Ph.D. candidate at the Rutgers University School of Management and Labor Relations. She is working on her dissertation on Black worker centers, while her other academic research touches areas such as race, class, and gender; economic inequality; and newer models of worker voice and organizing. Ms. Townsend has written several policy-focused articles and reports concerning workers’ data rights and digital technology’s impact on labor and employment. She also is a member of New Currents Collective, which is committed to dismantling white supremacy and working towards the political, spiritual, and material liberation of Black and brown people — and, in turn, the liberation of all people. Ms. Townsend holds a B.S. in Industrial and Labor Relations from Cornell University and an MBA from the MIT Sloan School of Management.

Maite Tapia is an associate professor in the School of Human Resources and Labor Relations at Michigan State University, where she teaches at the graduate and undergraduate levels. Her research revolves around civil society organizations and collective representation; comparative labor and social movements in the U.S. and Europe; and work, migration, and intersectionality. Professor Tapia has published in leading scholarly journals such as Industrial Relations, the British Journal of Industrial Relations, Socio-Economic Review, and the International Journal of Human Resource Management. She also is co-editor and co-author of the 2014 book “Mobilizing against Inequality: Unions, Immigrant Workers, and the Crisis of Capitalism.” In 2019, Professor Tapia received the John T. Dunlop award from the Labor and Employment Relations Association (LERA) and the ILERA Luis Aparicio award in 2021. She holds an M.S. and Ph.D. from the Cornell ILR School as well as a B.A. from the University of Ghent (Belgium).

Sheri Davis is Associate Director of the Center for Innovation in Worker Organization, and an Assistant Professor of Professional Practice with the Labor Studies and Employment Relations Department in the School of Management and Labor Relations at Rutgers University. She also co-directs the WILL Empower (Women Innovating Labor Leadership) program, a joint initiative with the Kalmanovitz Initiative for Labor and the Working Poor at Georgetown University. In that role, Professor Davis convenes leadership cohorts for womxn who are emerging labor leaders and women in executive leadership roles. She currently serves as the board president of the National Black Worker Center and teaches critical race theory and labor. Prior to coming to Rutgers, Professor Davis was director for the Westside Communities Alliance in the Ivan Allen College of Liberal Arts at Georgia Tech. She holds a Ph.D. in American Studies from Emory University.