ABOUT US
Álvaro Cuesta-Domínguez
My name is Álvaro Cuesta-Domínguez and I’m an associate research scientist in the department pf Physiology and Cellular Biophysics at Columbia University and current member of CPW-UAW Local 4100. Since I started this position 5 years ago I have taken an active part in organizing our co-workers to form a union (the first postdoc union at a private university nationwide!). After intense months of bargaining we finally won our first contract last summer, but we keep on working in different areas such as improving parent workers conditions, fighting racism and bias, increasing diversity and inclusion and establishing a much needed anti-bullying policy.
Ambika Kamath
My name is Ambika Kamath. I am currently a postdoctoral fellow at University of California Berkeley in the Department of Environmental Science Policy and Management. Soon I will be starting as an Assistant Professor in the Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology at University of Colorado Boulder. My research is focused on the Evolution of Animal Behavior. I have been a member of the UC Postdoc Union, UAW Local 5810, and at CU, will join UCW-CWA Local 7799. I believe that science is at its most powerful when it serves the public interest, and that labor unions are our most powerful tool for democratizing science.
Dylan Beal
I am a postdoctoral research associate at Washington State University in the Department of Entomology. I am based at the Wenatchee Tree Fruit Research and Extension Center where my research is focused on behavioral, biological, and cultural control methods for the management of Spotted Wing Drosophila, a major insect pest of cherry and berry crops. I believe strongly that science is improved when researchers listen to the communities and stakeholders that they work with and collectively incorporate community perspectives into research and extension outcomes.
Anzela Niraula
I am a postdoctoral researcher at the University of Washington, and a member of UAW 4121. Science affects all lives, and at its best, uplifts the lives of everyone. A just, equitable, diverse, and supportive research environment is conducive to better, impactful science. I believe that scientists, as workers and as citizen stakeholders, can leverage the power of collective action to improve science within research institutions and beyond, at a national and global level.
Cora Bergantiños
I started working at Columbia in 2012 as a Postdoctoral Research Scientist in the department of Genetics and Development, researching how the cellular environment affects the expansion of incipient cancer cells, and I am now the President of Columbia Postdoctoral Workers-UAW Local 4100. Back in 2015 I and other researchers started discussing the many difficulties and issues of working in Academia. As we started to organize our union at Columbia, and more recently since winning our first contract, it became clear that when we stand together we are able to improve our working conditions and research outcomes. Just as important, along with other unions we can raise the collective voice of researchers nationally, using our different types of expertise to serve the broader community and build a better society for all.
Daniel Blatter
I’m a postdoc at the Scripps Institution of Oceanography studying geophysics. I’m a current and former member of a union and have seen first hand how powerful and impactful collective bargaining is. At my previous institution, where I helped form a student worker union for the first time, graduate researcher pay had languished for decades, cost of housing had soared, and sexual harassment was rampant with little recourse for victims. As soon as we began organizing ourselves and collectively demanding improvements to our working conditions, the University began raising our pay and taking harassment more seriously. The more we work together for our collective good, the more we can change research for the better.
Elizabeth A. Holdsworth
I am a postdoctoral research associate in Anthropology at Washington State University. As a member of a graduate student employee union, I observed how unionizing and collective action enabled more creative, diverse, and ground-breaking science by adequately and materially supporting graduate student researchers and teachers. Through my work as a scientist and anthropologist, I know that all good societal change can only be achieved through collective action. Together we can improve working and living circumstances for ourselves and for the next generation of scientists.
David Jekel
I'm a postdoc/lecturer in mathematics and I study random matrices and quantum probability. I'm a current steward in UAW 5810. Mathematics, like many other sciences, suffers from severe gender inequity and lack of representation of minoritized races, despite the clear existence of talent in these underrepresented groups, a problem which is especially pronounced at top research institutions. I believe that collective action by committed scientists must be part of the solution.
Donghyung "KDan" Lee
I'm a member of UAW 2865 and an organizer for Student Researchers United. When I was applying to jobs between my undergraduate and graduate programs, I was worried I wouldn’t be able to stay in the US. Optional Practical Training extensions that UAW helped pass allowed me to stay and have an important career experience. That showed me the important role that unions of academic workers have in giving political voice to international and immigrant workers. Beyond the platform for advocacy, however, I believe that massive collective action is the only way to make truly transformative changes to the academic institutions. Together, we can create an environment in which all academic workers, including graduate students, can live with dignity.
Emily Myers
I’m a member and organizer with UAW 4121, the union that represents over 6,000 Academic Student Employees and Postdocs at the University of Washington, where I earned my PhD in Pharmacology. In my 10 years at the bench, I’ve learned that we are all better scientists when our workplaces are inclusive and just and when our basic human needs are met. I believe that as a scientific community, we must reject scarcity and turn our collective focus towards working in solidarity with each other to take collective action in order to create the future we want: well funded research, career stability, inclusive and welcoming institutions, and science as a public good in our society.
Dr. Mustafa O. Jibrin
Dr. Mustafa O. Jibrin is currently a post-doctoral research associate at the Washington State University Tree Fruit Research and Extension Center, Wenatchee. Originally from Nigeria, Dr. Jibrin completed his Bachelors degree and MS from Ahmadu Bello University, Zaria, Nigeria. During his MS, he was a Norman Borlaug Fellow at the University of Florida, Gainesville and at the International Institute for Tropical Agriculture (IITA), Tanzania. During this period, his research focused on molecular characterization of the bacteria that causes bacterial spot of tomato and pepper in Nigeria. He also led a Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation funded grand challenge exploration project in Nigeria to improve women farmers access to improved farm labor. 1n 2015, he joined the University of Florida Gainesville where he graduated with a PhD in Plant Pathology in 2019. He then completed a 2-year post-doctoral study at the University of Florida Tropical Research and Education Center, Homestead, Miami before joining WSU. Dr. Jibrin is passionate about science, Africa, ending world hunger, and advocating for underrepresented population. His hobbies including soccer, tennis and traveling.
Hayley Bounds
I'm a Graduate Student Researcher in Neuroscience using optogenetics to explore visual processing in mice. Academic workers need unions because lab work is hard enough in the best circumstances, and too many of us experience discriminatory and unsafe working conditions. By organizing together, we can better protect ourselves from harmful workplace practices.
Sarah Arveson
I am a postdoctoral researcher at UC Berkeley, and a member and organizer with UAW 5810. I conduct experiments to measure material properties at ultrahigh pressures and temperatures in order to understand the structure and evolution of Earth and other planets. I believe that strong organizing and union power are the best ways we can protect ourselves and each other from discrimination and harassment, fight for wages and benefits commensurate with our skill level, and have a voice in our workplace. Academia functions too often like a corporate entity, which should not be the case: science must be free, be fair, and benefit society. The only way to change the system is by putting power into the hands of those of us who do the science.
Stacey Sargent Frederick
Hi, I am Stacey Sargent Frederick, Program Coordinator for the JFSP California Fire Science Consortium based at the University of California, Berkeley where my position is a represented Associate Specialist. As part of the Joint Fire Science Program’s Fire Science Exchange Network I strive to bridge the gap between knowledge and practice throughout the fire world. I have been involved in organized labor since I fought for graduate research assistants to join the graduate student unit at Oregon State University and now serve as the recording secretary for UC Berkeley on the Joint Council. The solidarity across institutions and science fields to work internally towards creating and enforcing a more equitable and safe workplace is beyond inspiring.
Tess Branon
I am a proteomics scientist at Interline Therapeutics. Before that I was a postdoc at UC Berkeley and a member of UAW 5810. Organizing researchers allows us to have more leverage in the unbalanced power dynamic that we currently have in Academia. Through our low wages and dismissed cases of harassment and discrimination, we are made to feel that we are undervalued and disposable. However, by binding together and speaking with one voice, we can remind our institutions that we are the life-blood of the research that makes our universities great. We are always stronger together.