SPEAKER BIOS

 

GABBY SEAY

Gabby Seay has had many titles in her nearly 20 year career–Political Director, Facilitator, Trainer, Coach, Campaigner, Founder, Strategist–but the one she wears mostly proudly is Organizer. Her work centers on building political, social, and economic power in communities of color.

As the Founder and Principal of Seay Strategies, Gabby has supported the launch of organizations like BlackPAC and Grow Our Vote, two organizations that use elections to build long-term power in communities of color. She has partnered with organizations like Our Voice/Nuestra Voz and Community Voices Heard to chart their long-term strategic goals, and worked with organizations like AFROPUNK and Planned Parenthood to organize events and activations to engage and mobilize millennials and Gen Zers. Gabby has trained scientists and communicators to build advocacy campaigns in support of food security in developing countries with Cornell University and has trained hundreds of organizers, campaigners, and activists.

Gabby is the former Political Director for 1199SEIU United Healthcare Workers East, the nation’s largest local labor union, While at 1199, she led the union’s political, legislative, and policy work in New York, New Jersey, Massachusetts, Maryland, Washington DC, and Florida. Gabby managed a 50+ person team that also led the organization’s COVID response efforts including transitioning the organization to remote work, leading member education and awareness campaigns, and identifying private support for healthcare workers. Gabby’s team also managed large scale events, mobilizations and pockets on behalf of the union. 

Before 1199SEIU, Gabby led electoral, issue, and advocacy campaigns at the local state and national levels. She cut her teeth in politics organizing her fellow college students to support John Kerry for President. She went on to elect Democrats in her home state of Ohio from local mayors and county commissioners to Governor Ted Strickland and ultimately served as President Barack Obama’s Ohio Political Director in 2012.

Gabby serves on the boards of Workers Action Center and Fight for the Base. She has also been recognized as one of City & State Magazine’s 100 Most Powerful People in Brooklyn.

https://www.seaystrategies.com/about

 

MARIA STEPHAN

Dr. Maria J. Stephan is the Co-lead & Chief Organizer at the Horizons Project, an initiative focused on strengthening connections and collective action among US pro-democracy movements and sectors. Maria is an award-winning author and organizer whose work has focused on the role of nonviolent movements advancing human rights, democracy, and peace. She co-wrote (with Erica Chenoweth) Why Civil Resistance Works: The Strategic Logic of Nonviolent Conflict, which received the American Political Science Association’s award for the best book published in political science in 2012, and the Grawemeyer Award for Ideas Improving World Order.   

 Her other books include: The Role of External Support in Nonviolent Campaigns: Poisoned Chalice or Holy Grail? Bolstering Democracy: Lessons Learned and the Path Forward; Is Authoritarianism Staging a Comeback?; and Civilian Jihad: Nonviolent Struggle, Democratization and Governance in the Middle East. Stephan’s work has been featured in the New York Times, The Washington Post, NPR, Foreign Affairs, Just Security, Foreign Policy, and Waging Nonviolence, among other outlets.  

Before joining the Horizons Project, Stephan founded and directed the Program on Nonviolent Action at the U.S. Institute of Peace, overseeing applied research, a global training program, and work with policymakers to support activists, peacebuilders, and social movements in their struggles to advance more just, peaceful, and democratic societies around the world.    

Earlier, Stephan was lead foreign affairs officer in the U.S. State Department’s Bureau of Conflict and Stabilization Operations, receiving two Meritorious Service Awards for her work in Afghanistan and with Syrian activists in Turkey. She later co-directed the Future of Authoritarianism initiative at the Atlantic Council, which informed activists and practitioners about global democracy trends and strategies for confronting authoritarianism. Stephan directed policy and educational initiatives at the International Center on Nonviolent Conflict, supporting dissidents and movements globally. She has taught graduate and undergraduate courses on civil resistance and human rights at Georgetown University’s School of Foreign Service and American University’s School of International Service.  

Stephan received her BA in political science from Boston College and her MA and PhD from the Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy at Tufts University. She received a Harry S. Truman national scholarship for public service and was a Fulbright scholar to Germany. Stephan is a lifetime member of the Council on Foreign Relations, an advisor to the Catholic Nonviolence Initiative, a trainer with the Freedom Trainers, and an active member of Showing Up for Racial Justice (SURJ). Maria is a proud Vermonter who resides in New York City. 

https://www.mariajstephan.us/

 

ALETHIA JONES

Dr. Alethia Jones joined SLU as Distinguished Lecturer in Labor Studies in January 2023 and serves as director of Civic Engagement and Leadership Development at the Murphy Institute. For six years she directed the Education and Leadership Development Department of 1199SEIU United Healthcare Workers East, the largest union local in the United States serving 400,000 members in five states and DC. As a member of the union’s Executive Committee, she anchored the strategy development process for the senior leadership team and led collaborations with the political, communications, and research departments to ensure aligned implementation. She led curriculum development and “Train the Trainer” processes that enabled thousands of organizers, officers, and members to lead effective power building workshops.  She oversaw the Bread and Roses partnership with Harry Belafonte (the cultural arts program), developed programs with the 1199/League Training and Education Fund, and coordinated with SEIU’s national initiatives, such as the Rockwood Leadership Program.

She is an expert on transformative leadership development and a certified liberation coach. Her consulting, research, and publications address immigrant political incorporation, urban informal economies, health care worker organizing, intersectional black feminism, and social justice philanthropy. She co-authored an award-winning movement memoir with black feminist icon and co-founder of Combahee River Collective, Barbara Smith (Ain't Gonna Let Nobody Turn Me Around: Forty Years of Movement Building with Barbara Smith).

https://slu.cuny.edu/people/alethia-jones/

 

 

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This program is part of the series, "America 250:  Rebuilding Democracy for Worker Justice", part of the Civic Engagement and Leadership Development program at the Murphy Institute of the CUNY School of Labor and Urban Studies.

 

Series Overview

America 250:  Rebuilding Democracy for Worker Justice

Civic Engagement and Leadership Development - Spring 2026

 

As the USA nears its 250th anniversary, democracy itself feels brittle -- captured by money, hollowed by polarization, and distant from the people who make the country run. Yet beneath the fatigue, worker power and people power is stirring all over the country. Democracy is not a document but a daily discipline, practiced in the collective demand for dignity. This is a moment to think audaciously about the civic power sleeping inside everyday work. Organizing is the seedbed of a new social contract—one that links economic fairness to planetary survival and collective self-rule. We must rebuild a democratic spirit worthy of the next century. In an era of deep political and social division, we need effective strategies for building lasting, multiracial, and cross-sectoral solidarity among today’s diverse workforce who demand justice.

• What must we learn—and unlearn—from history to build an economy and society that works for all?
• Which buried stories of worker solidarity and struggle offer the most instructive blueprints for a more just future?
• Can we build solidarity strong enough to counter corporate power?

 

Fri. January 23

"Chaos, Crisis and Resistance: Lessons of 2025"

https://slucuny.swoogo.com/23January2026

Guest Speakers:

Daniel Hunter - Expert at Choose Democracy and Freedom Trainers

Steve Phillips - founder of Democracy in Color

Nsé Ufot - acclaimed author and strategist

 

Fri. February 20    

"Bold Visions & Durable Alliances in Minnesota & Beyond"

https://slucuny.swoogo.com/20February2026

Guest Speakers:

Rev. JaNaé Bates Imari, ISAIAH and Faith in Minnesota

Eric Ward, Race Forward and Overcoming the Wedge

 

Fri. March 20    

"Workers Strike Back:  A New Era for Democracy & Justice in New York?"

https://slucuny.swoogo.com/20March2026

Guest Speakers:

Gabby Seay, Seay Strategies

Maria Stephan, The Horizons Project

 

Fri. April 24    

"Governing New York City:  By, Of, & For Workers?"

Guest Speakers:

Fahd Ahmed, Desis Rising Up and Moving (DRUM) and DRUM Beats

Brandon Mancilla, United Auto Workers (UAW) Region 9A