People

Steven C. Pitts

Emeritus Associate Chair

Steven Pitts is the creator and host of Black Work Talk, a podcast that looks at the struggles to build Black workers’ collective power and to challenge racial capitalism.

Steven recently retired from the UC Berkeley Labor Center where for 19 years he focused on leadership development and Black worker issues. While there, he produced several reports on Black workers and job quality; launched a Black union leadership school; and co-founded the National Black Worker Center – a network of Black worker centers around the country. (Learn more about Steven's work at the Labor Center.)

Prior to coming to the Labor Center, Steven taught economics for 15 years at the Houston Community College. Before teaching at the community college, he worked in a machine shop in Houston (Hughes Tool Company) for eight years and was active in the United Steelworkers of America local trying to build a stronger and more democratic union.

Karina Camacho

Karina is a Graduate Student Researcher with the High-Road Training Partnerships Project under the Labor-Management Partnerships Program. She is a 2nd year Master of Public Policy student at the Goldman School of Public Policy. Prior to joining the Labor Center team, Karina interned at the California Energy Commission where she helped staff incorporate energy equity into their work. She also has four years of work experience helping advocates across the state push for stronger public health local ordinances.

Andrew Jaeger

Andrew is a PhD candidate in sociology at UC Berkeley. His dissertation analyzes the political economy of climate change in California. He’s happy to be working at the Labor Center with Pamela Egan developing California's High Road Training Partnerships.

Nina Mast

Nina Mast is a second-year Master of Public Policy student at UC Berkeley's Goldman School of Public Policy. At the Labor Center, she is a graduate student researcher with the Technology and Work program. She previously worked with Senior Fellow Jane McAlevey on power structure analyses of the Bay Area. Before graduate school, Nina worked as a strategic researcher in the labor movement and for issue advocacy campaigns related to health care and the economy.

Sky Mihaylo

Sky is currently a second year Master of Public Policy student at the Goldman School of Public Policy. They support the Labor Center’s work through research synthesis, survey design, and policy analysis. Prior to joining the Labor Center, Sky conducted research on race and gender-based bias in the workplace at the Center for WorkLife Law, University of California Hastings. When not at work, Sky enjoys being outside, listening to audiobooks and podcasts, making and eating good food with good people, and reading children’s joke books.

Vivian Vázquez

Vivian Vázquez is a graduate student researcher with the Low-Wage Work program. She is a first-year Master of Public Policy student at the Goldman School of Public Policy. Before graduate school, she was a researcher and evaluator of workforce development programs. During her undergraduate studies, Vivian researched the workplace experiences of immigrants with the Worker Institute at Cornell.

Jon Hiatt

Visiting Scholar

Jon Hiatt is a union lawyer, who currently serves as Of Counsel to Solidarity Center, based in Washington D.C., while also a Visiting Scholar at the UC Berkeley Labor Center. Previously, Hiatt was General Counsel of the Service Employees International Union from 1987-1996, General Counsel of the AFL-CIO from 1996-2009, and then Chief of Staff and Executive Assistant to AFL-CIO President Richard Trumka from 2009-2017.

John Logan

Visiting Scholar

John Logan, Ph.D., U.S. labor history, University of California, Davis, is an expert on the anti-union industry and anti-union legislation in the U.S., and comparative labor issues, particularly how multinational companies treat employees and unions differently in the U.S. compared to European countries.

Katie Quan

Senior Fellow

Katie Quan is a senior fellow at the UC Berkeley Center for Labor Research and Education. Formerly chair and associate chair of the Labor Center, she retired in 2016, but continues to work at the center on special projects involving research on global labor strategies and executive education for union leaders. In 2010 she co-founded the International Center for Joint Labor Research at Sun Yat-sen University in Guangzhou, China, and was its co-director for four years. In 2014 she received a Fulbright grant to study the apparel supply chain in China at Peking University. Prior to joining the staff of the Labor Center in 1998, Katie Quan was a seamstress, organizer, and international vice-president with the International Ladies’ Garment Workers’ Union, and its successor, UNITE. Learn more about Katie's career and her research.