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A forthcoming report from The Century Foundation (TCF) and Caring Across Generations (CAG) grades all fifty states and Washington, D.C. on a range of care policies—and the scores are illuminating.

TCF and CAG in partnership with The Care for All with Respect and Equity (CARE) Fund are excited to welcome you to a virtual event on Thursday, March 21, 2024 from 1:30 to 2:30 PM ET to hear from experts about how pandemic-relief investments not only lifted the invisibility cloak that had hidden the nationwide need to invest in care, but also supported states to innovate and take action. We’ll explore how the persistent underinvestment in care means that even those measures were not enough, and discuss what more must be done at both the state and federal level. 

Live CART and ASL interpretation will be provided.

Featured Remarks:

  • Governor Tim Walz (D-MN)
  • Congressman Jimmy Gomez (CA-34)

Speakers:

  • Jasmine Bowles, executive state director, 9to5 Georgia
  • Madeleine Foutch, director of public affairs, SEIU 775
  • Julie Kashen, director, women’s economic justice and senior fellow, The Century Foundation
  • Andrea Serrano, executive director, OLÉ
  • Laura Valle-Gutierrez, fellow, The Century Foundation
  • Candice R. Vickers, executive director, Family Forward Oregon
  • Anna Wadia, executive director, CARE Fund
  • Jaimie Worker, director of public policy, Caring Across Generations
  • And special guests (TBA)

Sponsored by the CARE Fund. Presented by The Century Foundation and Caring Across Generations.

Speaker Bios

Governor Tim Walz is Minnesota’s 41st Governor. He was first elected Governor in 2018 and won re-election in 2022. Accomplishments from his time as Governor include providing universal free school meals for students, protecting reproductive freedom, strengthening voting rights, laying the groundwork to get Minnesota to 100% clean electricity by 2040, cutting taxes for the middle class, and expanding paid leave for Minnesota workers. Throughout his time as Governor, Tim has prioritized making Minnesota the best state in the country to raise a family.

Congressman Jimmy Gomez proudly represents California’s 34th Congressional District, one of the country’s most diverse and culturally rich districts. In the 118th Congress, Congressman Gomez sits on the Ways and Means Committee. He serves as an Assistant Whip of the Democratic Caucus and Deputy Whip for the Congressional Progressive Caucus (CPC). Congressman Gomez is the Founder and Chair of the Congressional Dads Caucus and Congressional Renters Caucus. He is a member of the Congressional Hispanic Caucus (CHC), Congressional Asian Pacific American Caucus (CAPAC), and Future Forum.

Prior to his election to Congress in June of 2017, Congressman Gomez served four and a half years in the California State Assembly, where he served as Chair of the Assembly Appropriations Committee. In the Assembly, Congressman Gomez distinguished himself as a proven national champion of paid family leave and combating climate change. He became a key figure in authoring landmark legislation to address public health, environmental justice, water conservation, access to education, civic engagement, campaign finance disclosure, LGBTQ+ rights, and affordable housing.

Jasmine Bowles is the Executive State Director at 9to5 Georgia, where she defends Black and Brown working women by organizing, advocating, & lobbying.

Jasmine is an Atlanta native, an alum of Emory & UM, and a graduate of the district she now helps govern, representing her hometown on the Clayton County Board of Education. Jasmine began her career as a classroom teacher and has continued to sharpen her lens as an administrator, policy analyst, realtor, non-profit executive, lobbyist and founder. In addition to her local organizing efforts to end inequity, Ms. Bowles has coached hundreds of organizers, policy fellows, teachers, non-profit leaders, and school board members across the country. As a working woman of color and homegrown Georgian, Jasmine believes that her work is both a calling and a responsibility.  In her “spare” time, Ms. Bowles hosts community meetings, yoga sessions, and think tanks for problem solvers. 

Maddie Foutch is the director of public affairs for SEIU 775, which represents over 50,000 long-term caregivers in Washington, Montana and Alaska.  In this role, Maddie has secured policies and funding to improve the lives of caregivers and our families, increase access and affordability of long-term care for all Washingtonians, and policies that make Washington more just and equitable. Some critical victories include winning funding to raise wages for caregivers to over $21/hr and expand healthcare coverage to include caregiver’s kids, passing a policy to reduce harassment, abuse and discrimination of caregivers in the workplaces and the groundbreaking Washington Cares program, the first public long-term care benefit in the country. Maddie currently serves on the LTSS Commission working hard to protect and successfully implement this new complex WA Cares program. Maddie enjoys hiking, gardening, spending time with her partner Kendall and their dog Eddy and visiting new places.

Julie Kashen is a senior fellow and director for women’s economic justice at The Century Foundation, with expertise in work and family, caregiving, economic mobility, and labor. Kashen has more than two decades of experience forwarding these issues in federal and state government and through the nonprofit sector, including helping to draft three major pieces of national legislation. She is an active member of many child care, paid leave, and equal pay coalitions and tables. Kashen has been affiliated with The Century Foundation since 2015. Kashen holds a master’s in public policy from Harvard University’s Kennedy School of Government and a bachelor’s with highest honors in political science from the University of Michigan.

Andrea J. Serrano was born and raised in the neighborhood of Duranes in Albuquerque, NM, and has been working in non-profit and social justice organizations since 1999. 

Andrea’s experience spans decades, beginning in non-profit service providing organizations, activism and organizing. Andrea began working at OLÉ in 2012 as a community organizer focused on BIPOC communities and urban conservation, and helped stop the development of Albuquerque’s Bosque, one of the only urban riparian forests in the US.  Andrea is now Executive Director of the organization, leading the organization’s political and electoral organizing work.

 In 2022 Andrea was elected as one of three co-chairs of the Working Families Party National Committee. 

Andrea is also a published poet and opinion writer, appearing in various anthologies and publications including Time Magazine and Truthout. 

Andrea lives in Albuquerque’s South Valley.

Laura Valle-Gutierrez is a fellow at The Century Foundation, where she works on economic policy and research to promote economic, disability, racial, and gender justice. Prior to joining TCF, Laura was the senior policy analyst at the Bell Policy Center, a state-based research and advocacy organization in Colorado. At the Bell she did research and advocacy for equity-centered policies around postsecondary education, workforce development, and fiscal reform. She received an MPA at Brown University with a focus in data-driven policy and a BA from Brown University in comparative French and English literature. Laura is originally from Puerto Rico and grew up in Longmont, Colorado.

Candice R. Vickers grew up in NE Portland and graduated from McCoy Academy Public Charter School with the Portland Teachers Program scholarship. She earned a Bachelor of English with a minor in psychology and a Master of Education from Portland State University before becoming a high school Language Arts teacher in Molalla, Oregon. She went on to earn a Master of Science in Special Education and is currently completing her doctoral degree in leadership and policy. Throughout her career, she has been dedicated to interrupting the inequities experienced by students of color, students with disabilities, and students learning English in our public schools. This includes creating systems to ensure students were not disproportionately disciplined, excluded from school, and that they received the special education services they deserved and were entitled to.

Throughout her career, she has served in a variety of teaching and leadership roles including general and special education teacher, district climate coach, assistant principal, student services supervisor, principal, school director, and executive director of student services. She has served as a board member in a non profit organization in N Portland, on bargaining teams in two large school districts, and as a mentor, mother, partner, and daughter. Her commitment to equity has led to diverse opportunities to serve historically underserved communities in a variety of contexts and spaces, and to grow as a servant leader.

Anna Shireen Wadia is the Executive Director of the Care for All with Respect and Equity (CARE) Fund, where she catalyzes alignment across the care agenda in philanthropy and the field. The CARE Fund brings diverse funders together to invest in movement building for universal publicly supported care infrastructures that will fuel economies, improve the wellbeing of kids and families, create millions of good jobs, promote equity, and enable people with disabilities and older adults to live independently with safety and dignity. For several decades at the Ford and Ms. Foundations, Anna has seeded, nurtured and propelled movements for care and built bridges among funders and advocates across the care continuum. She holds a master’s degree in public affairs from the School of Public and International Affairs at Princeton University and a bachelor’s degree from Yale University.

Jaimie Worker is director of public policy at Caring Across Generations. She leads the organization’s state policy and advocacy strategy and advances federal strategies for affordable, accessible care at every stage of life, support for family caregivers, and good jobs in the care economy. Prior to joining the team at Caring Across Generations she worked with the Economic Policy Institute providing policy support to a national network of state policy and research organizations advancing worker, racial, gender justice.