Congressman Keith Ellison, Minnesota’s 5th District
Diane Feeney, Director, French American Charitable Trust
Marcelas Owens, Washington CAN!, an affiliate of NWFCO
North Carolina Fair Share
Promise Arizona
Richard L. Trumka, President, AFL-CIO
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Mary Kay Henry’s labor roots go deep.The daughter of a salesman and a teacher, Henry grew up near Detroit at a time when working people had a strong union voice. Her Roman Catholic faith instilled in her a deep commitment to opportunity for everyone.
In 1979, Henry joined the staff of Service Employees International Union (SEIU), standing shoulder to shoulder with Fresno nursing home workers, Twin Cities janitors, California state employees, and Seattle nurses in their quests for jobs, rights, dignity and respect. In 2010, Henry was unanimously elected International President of SEIU, becoming the first woman to leadthe fastest-growing union in North America, with 2.1 million workers in healthcare, public and property services. Under her leadership, SEIU members are forming partnerships to confront income inequality and demand corporate and political accountability.
"I am moved by the countless acts of individual courage I've witnessed in building this incredible organization called SEIU," Henry said. "Leadership in this moment of crisis for working people will transform our nation's priorities and get our country back to work in good, union jobs that can support our families and nourish the dreams of the next generation."
The Community Change Champion Award in Labor Partnership is given to Mary Kay Henry in recognition of her partnership with CCC and other national and local groups that fight for equity and social justice.
Susan Sandler and Steve Phillips have worked passionately and courageously for racial justice for decades. They are highly regarded leaders, advocates, activists and philanthropists in progressive politics, pursuing a bold social justice policy agenda that champions equity for all.
Sandler is a national leader and philanthropist in educational equity, continuing a family tradition at the Sandler Foundation. She has long been focused on strengthening progressive infrastructure. She is president of the donor collaborative Progressive Era Project that builds infrastructure in California to move forward a bold, social justice policy agenda. Sandler is also chairperson of the Board for the Campaign for Community Change and sits on the board of directors for the Center for American Progress.
Phillips is a longtime donor activist who works on the state and national levels in progressive donor organizing and infrastructure-building. Over the past 20 years, he has worked as an education reformer, attorney and elected official. Phillips is founder and chairman of PowerPAC.org, a national advocacy organization committed to increasing voter participation in underrepresented communities. He sits on the boards of Progressive Majority, electing progressive champions to office throughout the country; and the Democracy Alliance, a national collaborative of the country’s largest progressive donors working to fund progressive infrastructure nationally.
Together, Sandler and Phillips are powerful champions of democracy and social justice in states and communities across the country.
The Coalition for Humane Immigrant Rights of Los Angeles (CHIRLA) is a multiethnic collaborative of advocacy groups, social service providers, policy makers, and legal services organizations dedicated to advancing the human and civil rights of immigrants and refugees in Los Angeles. CHIRLA was formed in 1986 as a steering committee to coordinate between direct service providers and advocacy groups working with immigrant populations; today, it is a powerful and growing movement that serves as a template for innovation and success on behalf of immigrant rights in the 21st century.
Angelica Salas has been executive director of CHIRLA since 1999, during which she led its transformation from a coalition of social service providers into an organization that empowers immigrants to engage in advocacy on their own behalf. Under Salas’ leadership, CHIRLA has spearheaded campaigns to win in-state tuition for undocumented immigrants, helped win access to financial aid for immigrant students, and established day laborer job centers that have served as a model for the rest of the nation. CHIRLA continues to be a national leader on the issue of comprehensive immigration reform, and Angelica Salas is a leading national spokesperson on immigration policy. CHIRLA has worked with its partners across the country to mobilize millions of immigrants to demand comprehensive immigration reform including a path to citizenship, family reunification, and the protection of civil and labor rights
“We encounter each other in words, words spiny or smooth, whispered or declaimed, words to consider, reconsider.” So writes Elizabeth Alexander in “Praise Song for the Day,” the poem she read at the first inauguration of President Barack Obama.
We are indeed fortunate to encounter and consider Alexander’s words – a body of work so powerful that she received an Alphonse Fletcher, Sr. Fellowship for work that “contributes to improving race relations in American society and furthers the broad social goals of the U.S. Supreme Court’s Brown v. Board of Education decision of 1954.”
Alexander has published six books of poems including American Sublime (2005), which was one of three finalists for the Pulitzer Prize and an American Library Association “Notable Book of the Year”; a young adult collection, Miss Crandall’s School for Young Ladies and Little Misses of Color, co-authored with Marilyn Nelson (2008 Connecticut Book Award); and Crave Radiance: New and Selected Poems 1990-2010 (2010 Paterson Prize for Poetry). Her two essay collections are The Black Interior (2004) and Power and Possibility (2007). Her play, “Diva Studies,” was produced at the Yale School of Drama.
Most recently, she was named an Anisfield-Wolf Book Award winner for her lifetime achievement in poetry. She is the Thomas E. Donnelley Professor of African American Studies and the chair of the African American Studies Department at Yale University.
These awards are all about honoring an outstanding group of leaders in the fight for economic equity and social justice. Each year we celebrate social justice heroes – both sung and unsung – who have dedicated their work and, in some cases, their lifetimes to change the lives of low-income people and people of color across the country.
The Community Change Champion Awards is a time for activists, allies, organizations and community leaders to recognize the leadership of the honorees and celebrate the work of the Center for Community Change. Join the growing list of supporters for this event by sponsoring today. Questions? Please contact Andi Ryder at aryder@communitychange.org or (202) 339-9369.
We celebrate the work that often goes unheralded, and the people and organizations that keep our vision for a just world alive. Too frequently, we focus only on the final outcome of a campaign instead of taking a moment to honor the often-unsung heroes behind the scenes. The Community Change Champion Awards were created to do just that: to recognize the people and organizations whose work is making progress toward social justice a reality. We honor work that reshapes the political landscape and challenges us to press forward toward a better world:
These people and organizations nourish the social justice movement every day, in every community, in myriad ways. You’re invited to join us for our 9th annual Community Change Champion Awards to help us honor these heroes!
