Labor Capital Fellowship Kicks Off New Year
The 2023 Labor Capital Strategies (LCS) Fellowship kicked off in early June with a two-day orientation session for the students with a crash course in ESG, labor, and responsible investing. LCS is a collaboration between the HCS Network the Kalamovitz Initiative at Georgetown University. Even with the haze coming down from Canada, our group braved the elements for our traditional "class photo."
Day One - Georgetown University
The Fellows started day one with presentations from Heartland and KI staff who provided an overview of the program. Dawn Carpenter, Director of the Solidarity Economy Workshop at KI, gave a crash course in finance and it's ecosystem. Mary Margaret Prange (above right), CPA, from Calibre CPA Group discussed her background and the ins/outs of pension fund accounting.
The afternoon included a presentation from Ed Smith (above left), CEO and Chairman of the Board, Ullico. Ed provided the Fellows with the viewpoint of a host and potential expectations during their participation in the program. Heartland and KI staff finished up the afternoon with a lesson on the labor movement's role in responsible investing. Day one wrapped with a networking reception hosted by LRAN and KI at the Healy Family Center on the Georgetown campus.
Day Two - In The Field
Day 2 started at Ullico with a review of the previous day and a background on pensions from Heartland
experts and board co-chairs, Debbie Nisson and Steve Sleigh.
Dr. James C. Benton (below right), Director of the Race & Economic Empowerment Project at KI elaborated on the labor movement's role in responsible investing through the 20th and 21st centuries.
The morning finished by providing the Fellows with the view from a pension consultant. Christian Sevier (left), President and Senior Consultant at Segal Marco, discussed how they assess responsible investing products and what they expect in results.
Lunch was hosted at the LiUNA offices with a presentation by Erin Hutson (below), Director of Corporate Affairs and members of her reserach staff. Erin discussed LiUNA's history and the strategies utilized in assessing responsible investing for their pension funds. Erin also praised the work of Ben Donnelly-Fine, a Summer 22 Fellows, who worked on a LIUNA campaign to win a Project Labor
Agreement for work on on the Purple Line in suburban Washington DC. Ben's efforts helped bring back 200 LIUNA union jobs, with the potential for 200 more.
The next stop on the tour led our Fellows to the AFL-CIO headquarters. Their lesson on labor's corporate governance and capital strategies work was presented by Brandon Rees (below), Director of Corporation and Capital Markets and Carin Zelenko (below right), Director of the AFL-CIO Capital Strategies Department.
A huge thank you goes out to all of our speakers, presenters, and hosts for the extensive two-day orientation. Special thank you goes to Debbie Nisson, Steve Sleigh, and Dawn Carpenter for their hard work in coordinating the jam-packed two days.
