Meet the Make It Work Team

Tracy Sturdivant co-founded and co-led the Make It Work Campaign, weaving together culture and political advocacy, using an inventive mix of tactics (from a short film produced by Issa Rae to real-life experiences at the Iowa State Fair) that received national media attention and a Pollie Award for Best Field Campaign. And it worked. As one Newsweek headline declared: “Long ignored, child care and paid leave take center stage in 2016.” Tracy is a long-time social justice organizer and innovator who works at the intersection of strategy and creativity. For more than two decades, she has pushed the envelope with ideas that ensure our work for social change keeps pace with the changing world around us. She founded The League in 2017 and currently serves as President & CEO. Tracy has been called a “one-woman coalition” for her ability to bring people together across differences to make big ideas happen. As executive director of State Voices, she raised millions of dollars to support state and local organizations engaging Americans in our democracy and pioneered a model that got cutting-edge data and technology into the hands of grassroots organizers. She has also worked in philanthropy, advising individuals and foundations on their giving.

Tracy’s experience—from on-the-ground organizing to training women to run for elected office, to serving as a funder—has all focused on one goal: making America a place where women, people of color, and young people can thrive. She is a sought-after speaker and has appeared at a variety of events, including SXSW, Netroots Nation, and Glassdoor’s Equal Pay Roundtable alongside Secretary of State Hillary Clinton. Tracy has been a guest on Sirius XM News, NPR, and Women’s Radio Network, has been quoted in outlets like The Washington Post, The New York Times, and Vogue, and has been published in Essence, Ebony, Huffington Post, and Ms. Magazine, among others. Tracy has served on a variety of boards, including the National Domestic Workers Alliance and Greenpeace USA. She is currently the board chair of Higher Heights Leadership Fund.

Vivien Labaton co-founded and served as Co-Executive Director of Make It Work and Make It Work Action, with the goal of making issues like affordable child care, paid leave, and equal pay unavoidable in the run-up to the 2016 election. For the past two decades, Vivien has been a leader, strategist, and social entrepreneur working at the intersection of philanthropy, advocacy, and social change. Trained as a lawyer, her work has spanned issues ranging from gender and racial equity to civic engagement and democracy reform. Vivien is currently Chief Policy Advisor at a family office where she advises on philanthropic and political giving and is a Senior Director at Athletes Unlimited, a new network of next-generation professional sports leagues. Vivien began her career working with Gloria Steinem and as the founding Director of the Third Wave Foundation, an organization that supported young feminist activists nationwide with a focus on young women of color, LGBTQ, and low-income young women.

After attending NYU Law School, Vivien clerked for Judge Constance Baker Motley in the Southern District of New York and was a Blackmun Fellow and Staff Attorney at the Center for Reproductive Rights, where she litigated issues including access to emergency contraception and restrictions on abortion. She subsequently worked at the Atlantic Philanthropies as the Director of Strategic Initiatives, where she created and oversaw the foundation’s first-ever multi-million dollar grantmaking program to support civic engagement and supported a number of national advocacy campaigns on issues ranging from health care reform to immigration. Vivien is a graduate of Barnard College. Her writings have appeared in The Washington Post, Politico, Fast Company, MSNBC, CNBC, and The New Republic among others.

Ai-jen Poo co-founded and served as a Senior Advisor to the Make It Work Campaign. She is the Co-Founder & Executive Director of National Domestic Workers Alliance, a non-profit organization working to bring quality work, dignity, and fairness to the growing numbers of workers who care and clean in our homes, the majority of whom are immigrants and women of color. In 12 short years, with the help of more than 70 local affiliate organizations and chapters and over 200,000 members, the National Domestic Workers Alliance has passed Domestic Worker Bills of Rights in 9 states and the city of Seattle and brought over 2 million home care workers under minimum wage protections.

Alicia Jay co-founded and served as the Managing Director of the Make It Work campaign from 2014-2017, overseeing the ins and outs of a national advocacy campaign to drive change on the economic security issues that matter most to women, and making issues like affordable child care and paid family leave prominent in the run-up to the 2016 election. This role also included creating a first-of-its-kind pilot program to train thousands of organizers across the country to use a race and gender lens in their civic engagement work. Alicia is a certified coach, multifaceted advocate, former grantmaker, and experienced manager who has spent the last 16 years driving change on behalf of social justice activists and organizations, with a focus on helping women and young people to reach their highest levels of leadership and impact. Additionally, through large-scale coalition management and event production, Alicia has helped demonstrate that intersectionality is an undeniable approach—and a winning one—within mainstream feminist organizing. These include The Survivors’ Agenda, a coalition of 22 organizations creating a first-of-its-kind policy platform in 2020 to achieve survivor justice; We Won’t Wait in 2016, a coalition that reached over 3.1 million people in 36 states; and United State of Women, a summit of over 7,500 people in 2018.

Alicia McMullen served as Make It Work’s Communications Director where she oversaw innovative and culture driven communications strategies that consistently exceeded industry engagement standards. Alicia is a seasoned communications manager and strategist with a passion for social justice and pop culture. During her nearly two decades crafting communications campaigns focused on advancing a progressive agenda, Alicia has worked on nearly every issue related to a thriving democracy. She has worked to educate and inspire audiences on issues including: reproductive justice, women’s rights, LGBT rights, racial justice and pocketbook issues like affordable, quality child care and equal pay. Alicia joined The League in 2019 and currently serves as Chief Communications Officer. Prior to her role at Make It Work, Alicia was a Senior Communications Strategist at the American Civil Liberties Union. There she was proud to help shape the public narratives around some of the most crucial social justice issues of our time, including marriage equality, a woman’s right to abortion care, domestic violence and ending segregation in our nation’s schools. Alicia honed her strategy and media relations skills at Fenton Communications where she worked with a wide variety of clients including The Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, SodaStream, The Tavis Smiley Show, Phoenix House and The Foundation for Child Development. Alicia is a graduate of Brown University, with a B.A. in Public Policy.

Becca Rueble ran digital and culture campaigns for the Make It Work Campaign, reaching close to 30 million people and drawing media attention for their unique approach that mixed pop culture and politics. With Make It Work, she oversaw the production of creative content that helped change how Americans think about issues like affordable child care, paid family leave, and equal pay, shifting them from personal issues to political ones. She is a versatile strategist and creative producer who has spent her career working for social change. Her background as a writer, designer, and organizer informs her work, which weaves together culture, communications, and technology. Becca helped launch The League in 2017 and currently serves as Chief Strategy Officer. Her work has always focused on involving people in and strengthening our democracy. As communications and technology director at State Voices, she worked with a network of over 600 state and local civic engagement organizations across the country to increase voter turnout and engage people on the issues impacting their lives. While there, she helped pioneer an innovative model to put leading technology and data in the hands of grassroots organizers, providing them with resources to transform their organizing and saving them millions of dollars. Becca has worked with a variety of clients nationally and in Detroit, where she lives. Her work has been recognized by the International Association of Business Communicators and the Society of Professional Journalists. She graduated with highest honors from the University of Michigan with a dual degree in Women’s Studies and Spanish.

Jordan Fitzgerald served as Make It Work’s Organizing and Political Director. For over 20 years, she has been an activist and advocate for women and progressive issues. She has launched campaigns, developed programs, recruited and organized volunteers, and fostered coalitions. Most recently, Jordan spent 15 years at Planned Parenthood Federation of America where she held several senior leadership positions and was responsible for the organization’s national ballot measure program. Jordan is currently a Voting Rights Organizing Consultant at The Leadership Conference on Civil and Human Rights, where she provides organizing and grasstops engagement perspective, develops organizing strategies and action plans to engage impacted voters.

JT Johnson served as Make It Work’s Communications Manager where she oversaw digital content that wove together policy and pop culture, reaching millions. JT is a creative producer and digital strategist who combines creativity with sharp cultural insight. She brings significant experience working with nonprofits, philanthropy, city governments, and media, focusing her work on justice, gender and racial equity. JT helped launch The League in 2017 and currently serves as Director of Cultural Strategy. She has wide-ranging media experience, having worked in broadcast news, media relations, and PR. She worked for CNN and Discovery Communications as an assistant to on-air talent, as a photographer for Washington, DC's CBS affiliate, as a writer and content producer for NBC Washington, and finally, as a TV & film reviewer and how-to writer. She has served as a public relations generalist and content creator for major nonprofits and foundations, including the ACLU of Maryland, the Open Society Institute of Baltimore, Baltimore City Health Department, Howard County Health Department, the Nathan Cummings Foundation, and Higher Heights. She’s also put her content creation skills to work for grassroots efforts, such as supporting local organizers in Maryland as they pushed for community oversight of policing following the death of Freddie Gray and publishing a popular listicle entitled "5 Reasons Feminists Should Join the Fight for Justice in Ferguson” in 2014.

Julie Kashen helped direct the policy work at Make It Work. She is currently the director for women’s economic justice and a senior fellow at The Century Foundation, with expertise in work and family, caregiving, economic mobility, and labor issues. She also serves as a policy advisor to the National Domestic Workers Alliance. Julie has spent her career working for more just and equitable public policies and has more than two decades of experience forwarding women’s economic justice issues in federal and state government, including as Labor Policy Advisor to the late Senator Ted Kennedy (D-MA) and Deputy Policy Director for Governor Jon S. Corzine (D-NJ). Her previous advocacy and nonprofit work also includes her work as Senior Vice President at Single Stop USA. She has helped to draft and build momentum for three major pieces of national legislation: the first national paid sick days bill (the Healthy Families Act), major child care legislation and the national Domestic Workers Bill of Rights. Her writing has appeared in Ms. Magazine, Politico, Medium, CNBC and The Hill. Julie holds a master’s in public policy from Harvard University’s Kennedy School of Government and a bachelor’s with highest honors in political science from the University of Michigan.

Kia Woods served as the Make It Work Campaign’s Operations Associate, strengthening campaign operations, creating organizational policy, managing workflow, and handling meetings and events. Kia is currently the Director of Culture and Administration for the Community Justice Action Fund (CJAF). She partners with the Executive Director to create an agile, collaborative, and high-functioning workplace that reflects CJAF’s core values. She is a seasoned operations professional who creates organizational policy, builds sustainable systems, and specializes in connecting people. For years, she has leveraged these skills to help social change groups create the solid foundations they need in order to make big things happen. Kia’s approach is people-first. She’s skilled at meeting and event curation, creating memorable but mission-focused experiences. Her eye for talent acquisition has helped build nimble teams for a host of civic engagement organizations, media and production companies, and national think tanks including State Voices, @TeamPeopleTv, Third Way, and of course, with the Make It Work Campaign. She is passionate about developing organizational cultures that encourage creativity, agency, and action. She believes operations is ultimately about optimizing. She develops strategies and structures that support big goals, integrates technology that keeps work flowing, and is a cool head in a crisis. Most recently, Kia oversaw operations for The League, keeping the trains running with a fast-paced, high-impact performance. Kia is a graduate of Messiah College with a B.A. in Journalism, an MBA candidate and a life-long learner.

Terrysa Guerra served as Make It Work’s National Organizing Manager. As a Texas-to-California transplant, she has over 16 years of political organizing and management experience, having managed tough competitive campaigns in Texas and worked for labor groups and national organizations. As the current National Political Director at United for Respect, Terrysa oversees the development of political power for retail workers and people who work low-wage jobs. Her work at United for Respect has led to two signature pieces of legislation for working families, the introduction of the Stop Wall Street Looting Act and the passage of New Jersey’s Guaranteed Severance Pay Act, a new labor standard for low wage workers displaced by Wall Street driven bankruptcies. In December, Terrysa was appointed to the Mojave Desert Land Trust’s board of directors. She also serves on the American for Financial Reform and All Due Respect boards as well.