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.

Diane Arnos

Health Care Program

Diane Arnos is a master's student in the Berkeley School of Public Health and a graduate student researcher with the Health Care Program at the Labor Center. Previously, she was a research analyst at the Urban Institute Health Policy Center where she worked on research using microsimulation modeling to estimate the effects of potential health reform policies on coverage and spending. Diane has extensive experience organizing with fellow academic workers both at UC Berkeley and the Urban Institute. She is originally from the Washington, DC area and holds a bachelor's degree in Biology and Community Health from Tufts University.

Adriana Hernandez Castaneda

Low-Wage Work Program

Adriana is a GSR with the low-wage work team. She has a master’s in Economics from the University of Nevada, Reno. She is currently a PhD student in the department of Sociology at UC Davis. Prior to starting her doctoral studies she worked as a research support specialist for the Cornell University Program on Applied Demographics where she focused on New York State data with an emphasis on school district data, labor force indicators, and group quarters data. Additionally, she supported NYS and the US Census Bureau with 2020 decennial census operations which included projects on data collection and map creation. Her primary research interests lie at the intersection of precarious labor, gender, and immigration.

Kung Feng

Technology and Work Program

Kung Feng is a graduate student pursuing a Masters in Public Policy at UC Berkeley. He was previously the executive director of Jobs with Justice San Francisco, a labor community alliance organizing around worker power, housing rights and climate justice. At JWJSF, he was part of ground-breaking victories, including the Retail Worker Bill of Rights which launched fair scheduling laws around the country and Free City College, a model for free higher education. His recent efforts led to a major study of app workers in San Francisco with UC Santa Cruz that was cited in the official ballot argument against Prop 22 as well as in major news outlets like the New York Times and Washington Post. His contributions to the labor movement span over twenty years as a rank and file activist and as a union organizer.

Annette Gailliot

Low-Wage Work Program

Annette Gailliot is a Ph.D. student in sociology. Her research focuses on how technology is changing work-based inequalities and regulations. Gailliot is currently working on the Low-Wage Work Program and has previously studied how unpredictable scheduling conditions affect service sector workers as part of the Shift Project. Previously she worked as a research analyst studying urban and regional economics at the Federal Reserve Bank of Philadelphia. Gailliot holds dual Bachelors of Science in Mathematics and Economics from the Ohio State University.

Andrew Jaeger

High-Road Training Partnerships Project

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.

Rio Morales

Labor Studies Program

Rio Morales is a Master of City Planning student studying economic development and labor policy. He is a graduate student researcher with the Labor Center's Green Economy Program. Before Berkeley, he organized hospitality workers in Philadelphia with UNITE HERE and architects in New York City in their fledgling union efforts. Rio also has experience in architectural design and worked in urban park operations for several years before continuing his education. He graduated from Haverford College with a degree in Growth and Structure of Cities.

Kelly Quinn

High-Road Training Partnerships Project

Kelly Quinn is a PhD student in sociology. Her research looks at labor market power dynamics and the incidence of occupation-level contracting, particularly as they relate to job quality and security. Quinn is currently helping evaluate the Inland Empire High Road Training Partnerships program, and has previously studied how unstable and unpredictable scheduling arrangements affect service and retail workers as part of the Shift Project. Before coming to Berkeley, she worked as an analyst at a non-profit policy research organization called MDRC.

Dean Rene

HRTP SF Rework the Bay, Worker Power in Workforce project

Dean Rene is an ethical leader with over 10 years of program evaluation, strategy, and people management experience in the public sector. He graduated with a Master of Public Affairs degree at the Goldman School of Public Policy in May 2022. He is a current Master of Information Management and Systems student at the School of Information. He holds a Bachelor of Arts from the University of Maine at Farmington.

Laura Schmahmann

High-Road Training Partnerships Project

Laura is a PhD student within the Department of City and Regional Planning at UC Berkeley. Her dissertation focuses on perceptions of the value of different jobs and the role of job creation and economic development strategies in reinforcing these perceptions of value in the context of a post-industrial society. In 2021, Laura led the development of a database of minority-owned businesses across the Bay Area as part of a study by the Urban Displacement Project which mapped the vulnerability of minority-owned businesses in the wake of Covid-19. Prior to commencing her PhD, Laura worked as an urban planner for eight years in an economics and planning consulting firm in Australia. She managed a wide range of projects for local, state and federal governments including economic development strategies, housing studies and integrated transport and land use strategies.

Anabel Sosa

Communications Team

Anabel Sosa is a master's student at the UCB Graduate School of Journalism and is specializing in narrative writing and investigative reporting. Recently, she worked at the Los Angeles Times where she covered policy and the legislature out of the Sacramento statehouse. She holds a bachelor's degree in Political Science from the University of Vermont. She is originally from New York City.

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.