*Please Note: The livestream will begin on this page at the time of the event. If stream is not working or visible, please refresh your browser. 

Care work is the backbone of our society: it supports our families and communities and makes all other work possible. The COVID-19 pandemic made clear how little investment the United States has made in care infrastructure, and how little care workers are valued for their contributions. 

Join The Century Foundation and Carework Network on Tuesday, October 24, 2023 from 1:00 to 2:00 PM ET, as we discuss the new book From Crisis to Catastrophe and the state of the care sector, reimagine what it could and should look like, and explore policy strategies for turning those ideas into reality.

Please note: The first fifty registrants will receive a free copy of From Crisis to Catastrophe. Recipients will be emailed within seventy-two hours post-event with further details.

Live CART and ASL interpretation will be provided.

Featured Remarks:

  • Representative Jennifer McClellan (D-VA)

Speakers:

  • Moderator: Julie Kashen, director, women’s economic justice and senior fellow, The Century Foundation
  • Dionne Davis, member, National Domestic Workers Alliance
  • Mignon Duffy, professor of sociology, University of Massachusetts–Lowell
  • Juliana Martínez Franzoni, professor of political science, University of Costa Rica and steering committee member, Carework Network
  • Ai-jen Poo, president, National Domestic Workers Alliance

Presented by The Century Foundation and Carework Network.

Speaker Bios

Jennifer McClellan entered the U.S. Congress in 2023 after winning a special election to replace the late Congressman A. Donald McEachin. A lifelong Virginia native, McClellan was born in Petersburg to parents who served the community: her father worked as a professor at Virginia State University and her mother worked as a counselor at VSU. McClellan attended Matoaca High School in Chesterfield County, where she was valedictorian. She earned her undergraduate degree from the University of Richmond, where she served as a Charter member of the Rho Rho Chapter of the Delta Sigma Theta Sorority, Inc. She then obtained her Juris Doctorate from the University of Virginia School of Law. McClellan has served the greater Richmond area in elected office for nearly twenty years. She was first elected to the Virginia House of Delegates in 2005 and served in that post until she was elected to the Virginia State Senate in 2017, where she succeeded A. Donald McEachin after his election to the U.S. House of Representatives. 

In Congress, she sits on the House Armed Services Committee and the House Science, Space, and Technology Committee. A principled and progressive legislator, McClellan has always worked to ensure Virginians’ voices are heard in government. Throughout her eighteen sessions in the Virginia General Assembly, McClellan passed over 370 pieces of legislation, including landmark bills to protect and expand voting rights, combat climate change, preserve reproductive health care, and enhance workers’ protections and labor rights. McClellan lives in Richmond with her husband, David Mills, and their two children, Jackson and Samantha.

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.

Dionne Davis is a super proud nanny who focuses on infant care – in particular with first-time parents – an educator, a motivational speaker, a member of We Dream in Black Georgia Chapter, a member of NDWA’s Nanny Council, an author and a fierce advocate for domestic workers.

Mignon Duffy is a professor of sociology at the University of Massachusetts Lowell. Her research focuses on how the social organization of care intersects with gender, race, class, global and other inequalities. She is the co-editor of From Crisis to Catastrophe: Care, COVID, and Pathways to Change, as well as one of the series editors for the Carework in a Changing World Series at Rutgers University Press. Duffy is also a longtime member of the leadership team of the Carework Network, an international organization of care work researchers and advocates.

Juliana Martínez Franzoni is a full professor at the University of Costa Rica and Georg Foster Awardee from the Humboldt Foundation for outstanding research careers in developing countries. She has been awarded other prestigious fellowships, including by Fulbright and the Kellogg Institute of International Studies. Her most recent work investigates whether responses to the pandemic have entailed opportunities for social policy change in Central America and public opinion towards cash transfers across Latin America. She is co-editor of Social Politics. 

Ai-jen Poo is a next-generation labor leader, award-winning organizer, author, and a leading voice in the women’s movement. She is the President of the National Domestic Workers Alliance, Director of Caring Across Generations, Co-Founder of SuperMajority and Trustee of the Ford Foundation. Ai-jen is a nationally recognized expert on elder and family care, the future of work, gender equality,  immigration, narrative change, and grassroots organizing. She is the author of the celebrated book, The Age of Dignity: Preparing for the Elder Boom in a Changing America. Together with Alicia Garza, Ai-jen co-hosts the podcast, Sunstorm.