Head Stewards and Joint Council Delegates

Maya Wind* is third-year Ph.D. student at the department of Social and Cultural Analysis. She is a proud member of AWDU the GSOC for BDS caucus and the political solidarity committee. She brings to her work as a steward her experience and passion as an organizer for decolonization in Palestine-Israel. Last year she worked with GSOC for BDS to pass the GSOC’s BDS resolution and believes that our union should remain a platform for social and racial justice organizing. This year she is excited to work on the campaigns for better healthcare and parental rights.

Abhinav Swaminathan is a second year student pursuing his Master’s in Electrical Engineering at NYU Tandon School of Engineering. He is working as a Graduate Assistant and has been a Steward representing the Engineering School since Fall 2015. He has been working closely with the Graduate Employees of Tandon and the Incubators in ensuring that the demands mentioned in the contract are being enforced in a timely manner. He believes that addressing each of the grievances faced by the student workers and voicing them over would build a stronger student community at NYU. Abhinav served as Unit Representative for fall 2016.

Ben Stillerman is a 2nd year Ph.D. student in Psychology.

Kyle Shybunko is a 3rd year Ph.D. student in the Department of History. He has been involved in GSOC since 2014 and was active in the campaign for a fair contract. He hopes to use his seat at the Join Council to make transparency and open communication a priority ensuring that members’ concerns are brought to the Joint Council and that the activities of the Joint Council and our Local are made accessible to all members.

Emily Rogers

Nate Preus is a third-year Ph.D. student in English and an AWDU member. He has served on the Bylaws Committee since 2015 where he worked to support the ratification of GSOC’s first set of bylaws a document which enshrines the principles of social justice unionism and union democracy in the bargaining unit. Nate served as Unit Representative for summer 2016.

Colette Perold is a second-year Ph.D. student in Media Culture and Communication. She is a proud member of Academic Workers for a Democratic Union and is honored to be serving now as a steward. She began organizing with GSOC through the organizing committee and believes that building out our union’s rank-and-file leadership is the only way to build off the gains currently enshrined in our social justice contract.

Anne Pasek is a doctoral student in the department of Media, Culture, and Communication; as well as an international student worker with a dependent. She is a part of the AWDU reform caucus and strongly aligns with their platform of grassroots democracy social justice and student-led unionism. She was proud to support the AWDU-led bargaining committee and hopes to bring that momentum forward into efficient contract enforcement equitable bylaws and coalitional politics. In the future she hopes to lead several initiatives around environmental advocacy the disproportionately high cost of dependent healthcare and NYU’s pervasive culture of unpaid work. Anne served as a Unit Representative for summer 2015.

Chris Nickell is a 3rd year Ph.D. student in Music at GSAS. He served as Communications point person for GSOC since January 2014 coordinating member updates website redesign and maintenance and press contacts. Chris also worked with the Bylaws Committee on the Articles of Representation and Elections. He will continue organizing within GSOC as a Head Steward focusing on the unique workplace challenges for CORE and skills-based humanities courses in music and the languages. Chris also serves as a delegate of GSOC to Local 2110’s Joint Council. Chris is a proud member of the Academic Workers for a Democratic Union a national reform caucus within the UAW. Chris served as a Unit Representative for summer and fall 2015.

Tim Neff is a 4th-year Ph.D. candidate in the Department of Media Culture and Communication with a focus on the intersection of networks journalism and climate change. A member of the AWDU reform caucus he is committed to grassroots democracy student-led unionism and social justice. His union activities pre-date his graduate career extending back to his days as a News Guild local vice president in upstate New York.

Nadeem Mansour is a 2nd-year Masters student in Near East Studies and interim steward. Nadeem is serving as a Unit Representative for spring 2017.

Seana Lymer began her Ph.D. in Biology in 2013 specializing in neurobiology. Since then she has worked as a teaching assistant for three semesters. Her involvement with GSOC originated during the 2015 strike preparation where she got the opportunity to spread awareness not only to fellow STEM graduate workers but also to her awesome undergraduate students. She has been inspired by the incredible gains earned by our union and she hopes her term as steward serves to protect these advances. Seana served as a Unit Representative for summer and fall 2015 and summer and fall 2016.

Jennifer Lenow is a Ph.D. student in Cognition and Perception within the Department of Psychology. She is interested in organizing (and politicizing) sites of academic labor, especially in STEM disciplines, and fighting for the inclusion of research assistants in our bargaining unit. She also strongly believes that the voice of the union should speak not only to the narrow interests of NYU grad workers but to all (paid and unpaid) workers, especially those most marginalized by oppressive systems of power and capital. Toward this end, she is interested in building and sustaining campaigns that support liberatory struggles for social, economic, and climate justice more broadly. Jennifer is inspired by GSOC’s commitment to collective action and is very excited to be part of the Academic Workers for a Democratic Union caucus.

Rachel Kuo is a doctoral student in Media Culture and Communication (Steinhardt) with a specific focus on political formation racial justice and digital media organizing. She has been a graduate student worker at NYU since 2014 working as a TA RA and also grad assistant at the Center for Multicultural Education and Programs. As a steward she is committed to transforming higher education through building coalitions for racial equity and also building member organizing capacity through the union.

Ashmeet Khanooja

Lee Jasperse

Rajul Gupta is a graduate student at NYU Tandon School of Engineering pursuing Master of Science in Management of Technology. He works as an intern analyst at NYU Information Technology Services. His academic background includes Bachelor of Engineering in Electronics and Telecommunication. He aims at promoting a positive and healthy environment at NYU and to help people facing difficulties with the organization.

Jessica Feldman is a 4th-year Ph.D. Candidate in Media Culture and Communication (Steinhardt.) She has worked as a TA RA and CA and has been active in GSOC since 2011. She serves on the GSOC By-Laws; Communications Committees advocating for democratic processes and infrastructures. An AWDU member she is committed to strengthening social justice and members power through grievances collective action and solidarity across disciplines. She writes about the politics of listening and surveillance technologies and is collaborating with colleagues from Poly to design secure decentralized communications networks.

Richa Desai

Claudia Carrera is a Ph.D. Candidate and TA in GSAS Music. As a member of GSOC’s Bylaws and Communications Committees she has helped develop the founding representational structure and better internal communications for the union. Claudia looks forward to mobilizing her pre-grad-school experience in the legal non-profit and public sectors to win grievance claims and negotiate policy improvements for all workers. A member of AWDU she is particularly committed to challenging patterns of bias discrimination and micro-aggression for members of groups traditionally underrepresented in academia. Claudia is serving as a Unit Representative for summer 2016. Claudia also serves as a delegate of GSOC to Local 2110’s Joint Council.

Gaurav Cariappa is currently pursuing his MS in Management of Technology at the Tandon School of Engineering( having transferred from an MS in ECE). Gaurav’s main focus as an interim Steward will be to encourage higher participation amongst Tandon students within the union and to bring to the forefront, Grievances which may otherwise be unheard. Gaurav is also serving as graduate assistant for the ECE department at Tandon.

Alex Campolo is a fourth year Ph.D. student in Media Culture and Communication and member of the AWDU caucus. He was inspired by GSOC’s mobilization and victory of its inaugural contract and is looking forward to organizing and fighting for the rights of NYU graduate workers. His vision for a union involves a mobilized empowered rank and file a commitment to union democracy and making connections between unions and other left social movements.

Clare Busch is a Masters student in the Near East Studies and Journalism Departments. Clare is serving as a Unit Representative for the Spring 2016 semester. As a member of the AWDU reform caucus she is committed to building a stronger union based on social justice.

Caroline Bowman

Lauren C. Bernstein is a 2nd year M.P.A. student at the Wagner School of Public Service and works as a graduate assistant at the NYU leadership Initiative. She ran for steward in order to give graduate student workers from the professional schools a stronger voice within GSOC. Given that graduates students make up over 50% of the student population at NYU Lauren looks forward to strengthening the graduate student community by increasing GSOC membership and advocating for graduate student worker benefits including higher wages increased healthcare coverage and increased funding for research and career development opportunities. Lauren also supports the GSOC for Open Dialogue on Israel and Palestine caucus which has organized hundreds of members against the recent BDS resolution.

Vinay Banpel is from Mumbai India and completed his Bachelor of Engineering in Information Technology and currently pursing Masters in Management of Technology from Tandon School of Engineering and also working as a Graduate Assistant in ECE department. As a steward his priority will be to facilitate transparency between the on-campus worker NYU administration and non-worker students. He is keen to look for SOE students having problems with on-campus jobs and looks forward to enlightening them with the union contract to help them solve problems. Vinay is serving as a Unit Representative for spring 2017.

Vivienne Badaan

* elected during GSOC’s April 2016 elections with Assembly of Stewards voting status pending the results of an ongoing internal UAW appeal
** confirmed by the Assembly of Stewards as interim stewards until spring 2017 elections

UAW staff

Maida Rosenstein, President of Local 2110, became involved in the union as an office worker at Columbia in the 1980s. She joined the organizing committee immediately eventually started organizing full time and the rest is history. She has worked with GSOC since the first negotiations.

Patrick W. Gallagher, Local 2110 Representative, holds a PhD in Comparative Literature from New York University and an MA in Germanic Languages from Columbia University and his essays and short fiction have been published at n+1, The New York Times, Vol. 1 Brooklyn, The Adirondack Review, Mr. Beller’s Neighborhood, and elsewhere.

Scott Sommer, New York Subregional Director at UAW Region 9A