Biography

At NELP, Irene’s work focuses on labor markets, wage standards, worker organizing, racial justice, corporate power, the financial sector, and changing employment relationships. Her research on wages and working conditions has been used by policymakers and advocates across the country, and she has testified in several states on policy issues facing low-wage workers. She is the lead author of “Curbing Stock Buybacks: A Crucial Step to Raising Worker Pay and Reducing Inequality,” “Occupational Wage Declines Since the Great Recession,” and “The Growing Movement for $15.”

Irene came to NELP with over a decade of public policy, research, organizing, and advocacy experience. Before NELP, she analyzed labor market trends and data for the Heldrich Center for Workforce Development. Previously, she served as the Director of Organizing at Make the Road New York, a New York City organization that builds the power of immigrant and working class communities, where she played a key role in winning groundbreaking new policies on paid sick leave and public agency language access and in strengthening enforcement of protections against gender identity employment discrimination.

Her work has been featured by The New York Times, PBS NewsHour, USA Today, The Atlantic, NPR’s Marketplace, CNN/Money, NBC News, The Nation, and Fortune.