Kate Bronfenbrenner

After earning her undergraduate degree, Bronfenbrenner worked as a welfare rights coordinator for the Fremont Public Association (a nonprofit human services delivery group) in Seattle from 1978 to 1979.

Upon receipt of her Ph.D. in 1993, Bronfenbrenner left Penn State and was appointed director of labor education research at the Cornell ILR School in 1993.

Based on Bronfenbrenner's doctoral dissertation, the two papers were widely distributed throughout the labor movement and had a significant impact in promoting union organizing as a key issue in the 1995 AFL-CIO presidential race.

In 1995, Bronfenbrenner and Juravich co-wrote 'The Impact of Employer Opposition on Union Certification Win Rates: A Private/Public Sector Comparison.'

Previously, individual labor unions—and, to a lesser extent, the AFL-CIO—had collected anecdotal evidence on employer anti-union tactics and strategies.

[2] To a lesser extent, Bronfenbrenner conducted research and written on the impact of outsourcing and offshoring, and the effect they have on workers, wages, employment and unions in the United States and around the world.

[1] Bronfenbrenner's best-known work, however, is mostly likely Ravenswood: The Steelworkers' Victory and the Revival of American Labor, co-authored with Tom Juravich.