Public Employee Press

Staff hires and promotions to strengthen service to members

Recent staff hires and promotions have strengthened DC 37's depth chart of talented workers who provide services to members.

Stephanie Miller, promoted to assistant director of the Professional Division, has been standing up for union members for the past 30 years. Miller started in the union's Municipal Employees Legal Services and soon became a Council Rep in the Schools and Professional divisions. She lives in East New York with her husband and is a die-hard New York Knicks fan. "I am part of the same community as our members, and I care that they receive the best protection we can provide," Miller said.

A 30-year MELS veteran, Harlem native David Boyd has been named assistant director of the Schools Division, which services members of Board of Education Employees Local 372. Seeing his parents work at grueling jobs their whole lives through with no union representation - which he knows would have helped - inspired Boyd to work with the labor movement. He calls the members of Local 372 "dedicated, salt-of-the-earth people" and says he is honored to fight for them.

Wilifredia Cadet, who started with DC 37 in 1998 as a summer intern, now heads the Membership Records Dept. She deals with dozens of members daily on important matters, such as enrollment and dues. Originally from Brooklyn, Cadet now lives in New Jersey and has a background in nursing.

New Research and Negotiations Dept. Assistant Director Maria Elena-Cortez is from Los Angeles, where she was the executive director of University Council -American Federation of Teachers - which represents over 3,000 academic employees on campuses of the statewide University of California. "Working for labor appeals to my personal sense of fairness and justice," said Elena-Cortez, who discovered her interest in unions as a law student at UC Los Angeles. She and her husband now live in Jersey City, N.J.

A former intern with Social Service Employees Union Local 371, Liam Lynch has joined DC 37's Safety and Health Dept. as an outreach specialist focused on the World Trade Center Health Program. Lynch is working with Local 1549's NextWave committee to spread the word about the program, which provides medical monitoring and treatment for responders and survivors of the 9/11 disaster. Now studying for a master's degree at the City University's Murphy Institute, Lynch hails from Ledyard, Conn., and holds a black belt in Shorin-ryu, one of the oldest styles of karate.