Sarah McKenzie – Secretary
Sarah is one of the foremost thought leaders and subject matter experts in campaign strategy and more specifically union organizing. Specializing in empowering and improving the lives of working people, her record of professional accomplishments spans nearly three (3) decades in the labor movement. Having led, advised on, volunteered for, and directed hundreds of campaigns, she successfully organized more than 100,000 working people into local labor unions from public- and private-sector industries throughout the US. On the global stage, Sarah’s leadership and strategies have led not only to the empowering and organizing of tens of thousands of working people across various sectors and economies in more than 30 countries to form and maintain their own labor unions, but her work has also affected labor policy and practices across these sectors and economies.
Currently, Sarah serves as the Director of Program Coordination at the Solidarity Center and a member of the Executive team. In this capacity, she coordinates global cross-regional, cross-department and thematic programming, leading a staff of 200 both in the US and around the world. Her tenure at the Solidarity Center includes leading her global team to organize workers on a global scale and developing education support programs.
Prior to her Solidarity Center tenure, Sarah served as director of the AFL-CIO Organizing Institute, where she developed organizer training and recruitment programs and led a staff who trained thousands of organizers and affiliate members to build strong unions across the United States and around the world. While at the AFL-CIO she also directed the Union Summer internship program. In collaboration with the Solidarity Center, she began her international labor work by assisting the Nigerian Labour Congress to organize hotel workers into a union in Lagos, Nigeria. She also worked with the Liberian Labour Congress and developed a leadership training program and supported its implementation with the agricultural and mining workers unions. Earlier in her career, Sarah served to recruit and train organizers for the American Federation of State, County Municipal Employees (AFSCME) and led successful organizing drives for the Service Employees International Union (SEIU).
Sarah’s work in social justice began as an educator for at-risk youth for the Urban League of Central New York. Thereafter, she engaged in political work in an upstate New York congressional campaign. This experience led to her extensive experience in union building and standing with workers to fight for change. In support of her mission, Sarah currently serves as Treasure on the Board of Directors for 9to5, co-chair of the Global Empowerment Committee of the Black Women’s Roundtable (BWR) and is a member of the Coalition of Black Trade Unionists (CBTU). Sarah holds a degree in Political Science from St. John Fisher College.
