Millions of Americans rely on caregivers to look after their children and aging parents. The demand for care is rising and often out of reach, forcing individuals to look within and provide the necessary care themselves to their loved ones. When you combine the 53 million unpaid caregivers with the nearly 5.7 million people working in the care sector — primarily women of color earning low wages and devoid of benefits and protections — and the people who benefit from that care, this issue impacts everyone.
The care economy — historically undervalued and underfunded– is an intersectional and intergenerational issue encompassing childcare, early childhood education, home-based care for older adults and people with disabilities as well as the caregivers who provide the associated services. COVID-19 put a spotlight on the critical need to build an infrastructure with policies in place that will appropriately address care on multiple fronts for care workers who provide the services we all need.
Join AFN and EOF
As they release a new report designed to deepen the funder’s understanding of the intersectional/intergenerational issues related to the care economy and lift up key public policies while providing innovative strategies and opportunities for greater funder collaboration to build equitable care infrastructure.
Speakers
Dena Jackson, Chief Operating Officer, Texas Women’s Foundation
Dena L. Jackson, Ph.D. is Chief Operating Officer at Texas Women’s Foundation where she has served since 2012. In this role, she oversees effective business operations, ensuring a strong and capable team is in place to transform the lives of women, girls, and their families across Texas while also driving Foundations research initiatives. Following 14 years in healthcare administration and consulting, Dr. Jackson joined the nonprofit arena in 2001 starting with the Susan G. Komen Foundation training staff and volunteers around the U.S. to develop, manage, and evaluate local breast cancer programs. Later, Dr. Jackson opened both the Foundation Relations and Research Development offices at the University of Texas at Dallas during five years as Assistant VP of Research Development. A native Texan, Dr. Jackson earned her Doctoral degree in Health Studies at Texas Women’s University. She is a graduate of both Leadership Texas and Leadership North Texas. Currently, she serves as co-chair of Asset Funder’s Network, Membership co-chair for Philanthropy SW, and Advisory boards of Early Matters Dallas and AFN North Texas. She spends her free time cooking, reading, playing with her two cats and one dog, and traveling with her husband, Bob.
Julie Kashen, Director for Women’s Economic Justice and Senior Fellow, The Century Foundation
Julie Kashen is the director for women’s economic justice and a senior fellow at The Century Foundation, with expertise in care, work and family, 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).
Julie's previous advocacy and nonprofit work include directing the policy work at the Make It Work Campaign and 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), the Child Care for Working Families Act, 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. She is an avid fiction reader, a Brooklynite, and the Mom of a seven-year-old.
Anna Wadia, Senior Program Officer, Ford Foundation
Anna Shireen Wadia is a senior program officer in the foundation’s Future of Work(ers) program, which seeks to ensure that there is a meaningful future of work that places workers and their well-being at the center. Anna has been with Ford since 2009. Her grant-making has focused on improving economic security and the quality of jobs for low-wage workers and their families by supporting efforts to raise the minimum wage, guarantee paid sick days, and develop new paid family and medical leave programs.
Anna was previously a consultant for the Annie E. Casey Foundation and Ms. Foundation for Women, the National Council for Research on Women, and MDRC. Prior to launching her consulting business, she was co-director of programs for the Ms. Foundation for Women, where she managed a funder collaborative focused on women’s economic development. Earlier in her career, she carried out the community and economic development programming for the Ford Foundation and Catholic Relief Services in Africa. Anna co-authored Kitchen Table Entrepreneurs: How Eleven Women Escaped Poverty and Became Their Own Bosses (Westview, 2002), as well as several reports on best practices in grantmaking and women's economic empowerment. Anna holds a master’s degree in public affairs from the Woodrow Wilson School of Public and International Affairs at Princeton University, and a bachelor’s degree from Yale University.
Tiffany Younger, Director, Closing the Women’s Wealth Gap (CWWG)
Tiffany is Director of Policy and Advocacy at Closing the Women’s Wealth Gap (CWWG). She was born and raised in the South Bronx. Prior to working at CWWG, she served as the Founder of the Social Change Agents Institute(SCAI), a project that brings social workers, professionals, and educators to offer free mental health services and social change workshops in developing countries of the African Diaspora such as South Africa, Ghana, Kenya, and Brazil.
Tiffany worked as a Policy Fellow for the United States Senator Kirsten Gillibrand where she focused on issues of criminal justice, gender and race equity. She also served as a T32 Clinical Research Science Fellow at the National Institute of Health(NIH) where her research interests focused on heart disease and health disparities among Black women. Tiffany obtained her Master of Science degree in Social Policy at the University of Pennsylvania’s School of Social Policy and Practice. She is a Lecturer at Columbia University School of Social Work and New York University where she teaches Social Welfare Policy and Decolonizing Social Work. Currently, she is obtaining a dual doctoral degree in Clinical Epidemiology at Weill Cornell Medical College and Social Welfare at the Silberman School of Social Work. She resides in Harlem, New York with her three-year-old daughter.
Target Audience
This event is open to all.
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