Research Team

Maya Cruz, Researcher

Former Research Assistant Maya Cruz (she/her) accepted a promotion to Researcher in July 2024. Maya graduated from high school in Tacoma in 2021 and from UW Seattle in June 2023 with a degree in Political Science and a Labor Studies minor. She was a member of the 2022 Union Summer cohort, working with the Washington Federation of State Employees (AFSCME Council 28). Since joining the research team in June 2023, Maya has worked on several projects, including a brief connecting reproductive justice to racial and economic justice, providing research support for collective bargaining, as well as helping lead the State of the UW Student Worker - the Center’s ambitious study regarding student workers’ perspectives and experiences. In addition to providing research support for multiple projects, she assists onboard and lead interns selected for the new MLK Labor President’s Organizing Initiative (POI)/Harry Bridges Center Research Assistant Internship.

Kait Johnson, Research Assistant

Kait (they/them) is a Research Assistant at the Bridges Center and 3^rd year majoring in Law, Societies, and Justice with Interdisciplinary Honors. Their work with the Center has focused on workforce development and migrant issues. They are also a community organizer in the national democratic movement for a sovereign, democratic Philippines.

​MLK Labor President’s Organizing Initiative (POI) Interns

Christina Joo, Research Assistant

Christina Joo (she/her) is a senior at the University of Washington, double majoring in Political Science—with a focus on political economy—and Philosophy. She was one of two Research Assistant interns with MLK Labor President’s Organizing Initiative (POI) and the Harry Bridges Center. Inspired after taking the transformative LABOR 480 course in Winter 2024, she joined the POI research team that fall, contributing to a range of research projects aimed at supporting worker organizing and building power for working people across Washington State.

Andrea Fernandez-Henry, Research Assistant

Andrea Fernandez was a research assistant in a collaborative internship between the Harry Bridges Center and the MLK Presidents’ Organizing Initiative (POI). She is graduating in Spring '25 with a Bachelor of Arts in Political Science, also earning minors in Gender, Women & Sexuality Studies as well as Labor Studies. She worked with the POI and Harry Bridges' research staff to learn and carry out grounded labor research. Working on building up data and information for local labor organizations to access and apply to organize, Andrea built up skills in organization research, power mapping, data analysis, and more. Some of her core issues are racial and gender justice within the labor movement. 

LABOR 480
Applied Labor Research

Explores current and past research practices within labor studies across a variety of disciplines and methodologies. Requires a major project on a current labor studies issue. Offered in _ quarters. View course details in MyPlan: LABOR 480.