Protecting and Assisting Workers in the Midst of a Pandemic

David Sherwyn is the John and Melissa Ceriale Professor of Hospitality Human Resources and a Professor of Law at Cornell University’s Nolan School of Hotel Administration. He is also the academic director of the Cornell Center for Innovative Hospitality Labor and Employment Relations as well as a research fellow at the Center for Labor and Employment Law at New York University’s School of Law. In addition, Professor Sherwyn is of counsel to the law firm of Stokes & Wagner. Prior to joining the School of Hotel Administration, Professor Sherwyn practiced management-side labor and employment law for six years.

Professor Sherwyn has published articles in the Arizona State Law Review, Berkeley Journal of Labor and Employment Law, Cornell Hospitality Quarterly, Fordham Law Review, University of California Hastings Law Journal, Indiana Law Journal, Northwestern Law Review, Stanford Law Review, and the University of Pennsylvania Labor and Employment Law Journal. His research interests include arbitration of discrimination lawsuits and union-management relations.

D. Taylor is the International President of one of the fastest-growing unions in America, UNITE HERE, which has over 300,000 members across North America. Taylor is a new organizing expert with a track record of results spanning nearly 40 years in the labor movement. He has served as President of UNITE HERE since 2012. Under Taylor’s leadership, UNITE HERE has organized 62,000 workers in five years (24% overall growth), surpassing organizing goals he set at the 2014 Convention. Of those 62,000 people, 12,000 of them reside in the American South, underscoring UNITE HERE’s commitment to organize in conservative, right-to-work states with uncommonly successful results. UNITE HERE has also achieved significant political victories that have bucked conventional wisdom regarding what labor can do under the Trump Administration.

Paul Ades is Senior Vice President, Labor Relations and Operations for Hilton, with global responsibility over Hilton’s labor relations. Ades brings over 25 years of labor relations experience to his role with Hilton Management Services. Prior to joining Hilton, Ades held senior labor relations positions at both MGM Mirage and Caesars Entertainment and served as outside labor counsel to Fortune 500 companies during his tenure as an attorney at a national law firm. Ades holds a JD in Law from the University of California, Berkeley, and a BA in Political Science from Williams College.

Richard W. Hurd is Professor of Labor Studies (retired) and Associate Director of the Cornell Center for Innovative Hospitality Labor and Employment Relations. A leading specialist on trade union administration and strategy, on union representation in the hospitality sector, and on the unionization of professional workers, Hurd has been quoted widely in the national and international print and broadcast media on various labor issues.

Seth D. Harris is a Distinguished Professor of Practice at Northeastern University and Affiliated Faculty and a Senior Fellow at the Burnes Center for Social Change (and its partner project The GovLab), where he runs the Initiative on Labor and Economic Justice. Prior to joining Northeastern University, Professor Harris was the Deputy Assistant to the President for Labor and the Economy and Deputy Director of the Biden White House’s National Economic Council.

Building on almost seven years of service in the Labor Department during an earlier administration, Professor Harris was Acting U.S. Secretary of Labor (and a member of President Obama’s cabinet) and Deputy U.S. Secretary of Labor from 2009 to 2014. Between the Obama and Biden administrations, he was an attorney in Washington, D.C.; a Visiting Professor at Cornell University’s Institute for Public Affairs and ILR School; and one of the nation’s most sought-after analysts, speakers, and commentators on work, workers, workplaces, the economy and labor market issues, government leadership, and government performance.

During the early days of the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020, Professor Harris made several dozen television and radio appearances, and participated in webinars for numerous organizations, to help Americans understand the pandemic’s effects on the economy, workers, small businesses, and unemployment, as well as the government’s response to the health and economic crisis.

Professor Harris brings decades of experience as a teacher and scholar, attorney and advisor, corporate board member, and leader at the highest levels of the U.S. government. He was a Professor of Law and the Director of the Labor & Employment Law Program at New York Law School from 2000 to 2009. He taught Leadership in Public Affairs for Cornell graduate and undergraduate students and created a certificate program in Public Sector Leadership that trained hundreds of public sector practitioners. Professor Harris has co-authored three books, including “Labor and Employment Law and Economics,” and authored dozens of scholarly articles and op-eds on labor, employment, leadership, government performance, retirement, and economics topics.

Professor Harris earned a Bachelor of Science degree with honors from Cornell University’s School of Industrial & Labor Relations and a Juris Doctor with honors from New York University’s School of Law, where he was a member of the Order of the Coif and editor-in-chief of the Review of Law & Social Change.