Description
Why does your vote matter? How do we continue advocacy before, during, and after election cycles? The Thursz Social Justice Lecture continues its Election Tuesday series by focusing on areas that matter to our school and to the people of Baltimore and Maryland: transportation equity, fair wages for all workers, and paid field placement for own social work students. We invite advocates in each of these areas to share the goals that they are trying to accomplish and why they matter. They will explain what role elections play in moving these issues forward and what other advocacy work helps to carry these through. Finally, they will share how social workers and what other concerned individuals can do to contribute to improve transportation, wages, and compensation for field placements.
This University of Maryland School of Social Work Daniel Thursz Social Justice Event will be offered as a panel discussion with interactive dialogue.
All are invited to attend the event in person at the University of Maryland School of Social Work auditorium or virtually.
The event is free of cost.
Continuing Professional Education Credits are available for a fee of $25.
Panelists:
Moderator:
Courtney Fullwood, MSW Student
Sponsored by: Daniel Thursz Social Justice Lecture Series and Center for Restorative Change
Instructor
Brian O’Malley began his career in urban planning in Chicago with a non-profit, industrial economic development organization called NORBIC. He also served on the Board of Directors of the Neighborhood Capital Budget Group, a watchdog organization focused on winning capital infrastructure improvements for Chicago neighborhoods. In 2003 Brian relocated to Maryland and joined the Planning Department of Carroll County. He served for two years as a Comprehensive Planner working on local comprehensive plan updates, a hazard mitigation plan for the County, and acting as a liaison planner to the towns of Hampstead and Manchester. In 2006 Brian was promoted to Concurrency Manager, overseeing Carroll County’s adequate public facilities program. He currently serves as the President and CEO with the Central Maryland Transportation Alliance. Brian holds a B.A. in Spanish from Duke University and a Masters in Urban Planning from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. Brian was born in Red Bank, New Jersey and raised in Bellevue, Washington. He is married to Krishna Upadhya and they have two daughters, Kavita and Satya.
Courtney Fullwood is currently attending the University of Maryland School of Social Work, where he serves as the Student Government Association President. He served as an intelligence analyst in the US Navy from 1999 to 2006. Courtney was honorably discharged and worked as an intelligence analyst supporting several US government agencies. Over time, he decided to pursue higher education. He attended Bowie State University and graduated Summa Cum Laude with a Bachelor of Science degree in History. After his undergraduate studies, Courtney completed an AmeriCorps service year with Reading Partners, tutoring children behind their grade level in reading. Then he transitioned into teaching for two years before deciding to pursue his Master of Social Work at the University of Maryland School of Social Work with a scheduled graduation date of May 2025. Courtney has also worked for One Fair Wage, a non-profit organization looking to end the use of sub-minimum wages for tipped service workers.
Saru Jayaraman is the President of One Fair Wage and Director of the Food Labor Research Center at University of California, Berkeley. After 9/11/01, together with displaced World Trade Center workers, she co-founded the Restaurant Opportunities Center (ROC), which grew into a national movement of restaurant workers, employers and consumers. In 2013, she launched One Fair Wage as a national campaign to end all subminimum wages in the United States. The story of Saru and her colleagues' work has been chronicled in the book The Accidental American, and the story of the One Fair Wage campaign has been profiled in the documentary films Waging Change and The Great American Lie, by CA First Partner Jennifer Siebel Newsom. Saru is a graduate of Yale Law School and the Harvard Kennedy School of Government. She was profiled in the New York Times “Public Lives” section in 2005, named one of Crain’s “40 Under 40” in 2008, was 1010 Wins’ “Newsmaker of the Year” and New York Magazine’s “Influentials” of New York City. She was listed in CNN’s “Top10 Visionary Women” and recognized as a Champion of Change by the White House in 2014, a James Beard Foundation Leadership Award in 2015, and the SF Chronicle ‘Visionary of the Year’ in 2019. Saru authored Behind the Kitchen Door (Cornell University Press, 2013), a national bestseller, Forked: A New Standard for American Dining (Oxford University Press, 2016), Bite Back: People Taking on Corporate Food and Winning (UC Press, 2020); and One Fair Wage: Ending Subminimum Pay in America (New Press, 2021). She has appeared on CNN with Soledad O’Brien, Bill Moyers Journal on PBS, Melissa Harris Perry and UP with Chris Hayes on MSNBC, Real Time with Bill Maher on HBO, the Today Show, and NBC Nightly News with Brian Williams. She attended the Golden Globes in January 2018 with Amy Poehler as part of the Times Up action to address sexual harassment.
Learning Objectives
Upon the completion of this workshop, participants will be able to:
Bibliography & References
BIBLIOGRAPHY & REFERENCES
Keenan, E. K., Limone, C., & Sandoval, S. L. (2017). A “Just Sense of Well-Being”: Social Work’s Unifying Purpose in Action. Social Work, 62(1), 19–28. http://www.jstor.org/stable/44652367
Nancy A. Humphreys Institute for Political Social Work. (n.d.) Voting is social work. https://socialwork.uconn.edu/humphreys-institute/voting-is-social-work/
National Association of Social Workers. (2024). Increasing voter participation. https://www.socialworkers.org/Advocacy/Social-Justice/Increasing-Voter-Participation
Pritzker, S., & Lane, S. R. (2017). Political Social Work: History, Forms, and Opportunities for Innovation. Social Work, 62(1), 80–82. http://www.jstor.org/stable/44652375
Target Audience
Social Workers, LCPCs, and Psychologists
We welcome anyone interested in the topic!
Late Fees and Refunds
The base price is free, but does not include CE credit. CE credit is $25.
Refunds are not offered for this event.
ADA Accommodations
If you are requesting ADA accommodations, please contact our office via email at least two weeks prior to the workshop date. Requests after that date may not be fulfilled.
Our email address is cpe@ssw.umaryland.edu.
