Media Contacts

Labor Center and Institute for Research on Labor and Employment (IRLE) staff are available to comment on a variety of contemporary issues related to labor and employment.

If you need assistance, you may contact the IRLE Business Office at (310) 794-5957 or uclairle@irle.ucla.edu. Or you may contact UCLA Media Representative Meg Sullivan at (310) 825-1046 or msullivan@support.ucla.edu.

IRLE Staff Title Areas of Expertise
Contact


Lauren Appelbaum
 Research Director
IRLE

Bio
  • Unemployment - psychological and economic impacts
  • Job creation policies
  • Unionization in US, CA, and Los Angeles
(310) 794-9199
lappelbaum@irle.ucla.edu

Uyen Le
 Project Coordinator Labor Center

Research Director California Construction Academy

Bio
  • Community economic development
  • Community-based planning in immigrant communities
  • Green jobs and energy efficiency
(213) 480-4155 x 207
uyenle1@gmail.com


Victor Narro
 Project Director
Labor Center

Bio
  • Low-wage immigrant workers
  • Immigration policy
  • Worker centers
(213) 480-4155 x209
vnarro@irle.ucla.edu

Gaspar Rivera-Salgado
 Project Director
Labor Center

Bio
  • Immigration
  • Latinos in the US
  • US-Mexico relations
  • Race relations
  • Latin American culture & politics
  • Indigenous peoples in the Americas
 (310) 206-3910
grsalgado@irle.ucla.edu

Janna Shadduck-Hernández
 Project Director
Labor Center

Bio
  • Labor and workplace education
  • Community-based education and training; popular education
  • Community service-learning
  • Gender issues
  • Immigration and undocumented migration
  • Undocumented students
  • Low-wage working families and K-12 education in Los Angeles
  • Qualitative research methods and labor and workplace studies field research
  • Arts activism: labor, immigration, sexuality and LGBTQ issues
  • Latino community issues: education, higher education, community development
 (213) 480-4155 x211 jshernandez@irle.ucla.edu

Lola Smallwood Cuevas
 Project Director
Labor Center

Director
LA Black Worker Center

Bio
  • African American workers in Los Angeles
  • Strategic labor and community alliances
(213) 480-4155 x210 lscuevas@irle.ucla.edu

Chris Tilly
 Director
IRLE

Bio
  • Low-wage work
  • Wage levels
  • Retail sector
  • Mexico and Latin America
  • Poverty and inequality
  • Racial discrimination
  • General workforce trends
(310) 267-4738
ctilly@irle.ucla.edu


Jan Tokumaru
 Project Director
Labor Center

Bio
  • Asian Pacific Islander workers
  • Pacific Rim labor solidarity
  • Immigrant integration
  • Student-worker alliance development
 (213) 480-4155 x201
jant@ucla.edu

Daniel Villao
 Director
California Construction Academy

Bio
  • Workforce development
  • Apprenticeship
  • Labor-management relations
  • Mutual gains bargaining
  • Construction policy and practice
  • Project labor agreements
  • Energy efficiency
(213) 480-4155 x215
daniel@constructionacademy.org


Kent Wong
Director
Labor Center

Bio
  • Immigrant workers
  • Undocumented students
  • Asian American workers
  • Contemporary union issues
 (213) 480-4155 x204
kentwong@ucla.edu