LERA Fellow Awards (Academic and Practitioner)

The Labor and Employment Relations Association annually bestows the LERA Fellows Award. The LERA Fellows designation is meant to recognize scholars and practitioners who have made contributions of unusual distinction to the field and have been in the profession and field for longer than ten years. The selection committee for the Fellow scholar title considered contributions from all disciplines such as Industrial Relations, Labor Law, Economics, Human Resources, Business, Sociology, Political Science, and Organizational Behavior.

Academic Fellows in 2019: John Budd, Joel Cutcher-Gershenfeld, Eileen Appelbaum, and David Lewin

John Budd
University of Minnesota

... for his prolific scholarship in the field of Labor and Employment Relations, including the publication of several books and leading textbooks in employment relations, and innumerable articles in scholarly journals.

His work has had real impact in the field. This, combined with the leadership he have provided as Chair of the Department of Work and Organizations and Director of the Center for Human Resources and Labor Studies at one of the leading university programs in our field, and his contributions over the years to LERA, make him deserving of this honor.

Joel Cutcher-Gershenfeld
Brandeis University 

... for expertise in large-scale systems change, high performance work systems, negotiation and dispute resolution, cyberinfrastructure, labor-management relations, new technology, and related matters.

... for leading change initiatives at team, enterprise, industry, and national levels.

... for advancing theory and methodology in industrial relations, negotiations, institutional analysis, organizational behavior, information systems, and other areas of social science.

... for providing leadership as the Dean of one of the leading university programs in our field. And as a LERA member and past LERA President, he is seen an exemplar citizen of the organization, and an engine for change, including the creation of the LERA Industry Councils, and a major contributor to LERA’s most recent strategic review process.

Eileen Appelbaum
Center for Economic Policy and Research 

...for her distinguished contributions to both this organization, as past program committee chair for the LERA@ASSA program and past LERA President, and to the field of LER. In fact, LERA recognized both the quality and impact of her work in 2004 when she received the inaugural Susan C. Eaton Scholar-Practitioner Award, and again in 2017 when she received the LERA Lifetime Achievement Award. Her research has focused on organizational restructuring and outcomes for firms and workers; private equity and financialization; and work-family policies. Her work and its implications have been widely cited in discussions of national paid family and medical leave policy, and she has contributed many books and articles to the field. In addition, she has acted as a trailblazer and exemplar for other talented female researchers the field of LER and labor economics.

 David Lewin
University of California, Los Angeles

...for his distinguished contributions to both this organization and to the field of LER. He has served as past LERA President and Program Committee Chair, ably led our last strategic review, and also successfully guided LERA through a transitional period when we radically changed our meeting infrastructure. LERA has already recognized both the quality and far-reaching impact of his body of research in 2015, when he received the LERA Lifetime Achievement Award. He has authored many published works on human resource strategy, management practices and business performance, workplace and organizational dispute resolution, unionism and collective bargaining, compensation and reward systems, and much more. His publications are key resources for the field of LER, and he has been recognized for not only the quality of his research, but also the quality of his teaching.

Practitioner Fellows in 2019: Jim Pruitt, Owen Herrnstadt, Frances Benson, Bonnie Summers

Jim Pruitt
Kaiser Permanente

... for his long record of accomplishments for the Permanente Federation within Kaiser Permanente, spanning four decades, where he currently holds the position of Vice President of Labor Relations. In addition to his stellar career, he has also made time to support the field by serving as board member for the LERA in 2011, and again being elected as Regional Vice President in 2018. He has co-chaired the LERA Health Care Industry Council between 2007 and 2011, and served as an advisory board member at the University of Oregon.

Owen Herrnstadt
IAMAW 

... for the breadth of his expertise in labor relations and labor law as demonstrated by the positions held in his twenty-five years with the International Association of Machinists, where he focused on policy initiatives. In particular, the committee cited his role on behalf of the American labor movement, where he has been an eloquent and persuasive spokesperson in both domestic and international forums on issues of foreign trade and globalization which impact workers. For a full-time practitioner, his commitment to teaching has been exemplary and your scholarly articles have explored critical issues, often overlooked by others, such as his work on international framework agreements and corporate behavior. 

 Frances Benson
ILR Press at Cornell University

... for her contributions to the field of labor and employment relations and to LERA. The opportunity she has provided to multiple generations of academic and practitioner authors to publish their work with the leading publisher in the field has greatly facilitated the creation and dissemination of knowledge and information on the critical issues of work, employment, labor, and labor relations.

Bonnie Summers
Blue Cross Blue Shield Assoc. National Labor Office

... for her longtime work as the Executive Director of Blue Cross Blue Shield Association’s National Labor Office and her involvement over the years with LERA. As the Director of the NLO she has worked closely with unions to provide health care for America’s working people. As a LERA member she served as a member of the National Executive Board from 2008-2011 and as a long-term Management Co-Chair of LERA’s Health Care Industry Council.

Myron C. Taylor Management Award

2019 Recipient: William P. Dirksen

The award recognizes outstanding contributions to management within the industrial relations profession consistent with the values and the mission of the LERA. The award commemorates Myron Taylor, Chairman of U.S. Steel in 1937, who signed a collective bargaining agreement with the Steel Workers’ Organizing Committee (SWOC). Myron did not endorse that unions were essential, but instead an unavoidable reality, and his decision to recognize SWOC blazed the trail for the rest of the steel industry.

William P. Dirksen, Ford Motor Company

The awards committee is most impressed with his significant contributions to global labor policy at Ford, which covers 65 plants worldwide and affects more than 115,000 unionized employees in the United States. The committee highlights his key role in leading the company’s negotiations with the UAW in 2007, 2009 and 2011 – a most tumultuous period of the auto industry. He exhibited not only great skill but also firm commitment to a fair, principled approach to maintaining sound labor relations at Ford. This constructive relationship permitted a collaborative approach which resulted in Ford avoiding bankruptcy and provided a path forward for the future.

John T. Dunlop Outstanding Scholar Awards

The Labor and Employment Relations Association annually recognizes outstanding academic contributions to research by recent entrants to the field (recent is defined as receiving terminal degree within the last ten years) with the John T. Dunlop Outstanding Scholar Awards. One award recognizes the research contributions of international and/or comparative labor and employment research, and one award recognizes the research addressing industrial relations/employment issues of national significance.

2019 Recipients: Maite Tapia and J. Adam Cobb

For outstanding contributions to research that address industrial relations/employment problems of national significance:

For outstanding contributions to research that address industrial relations/employment problems of international significance:

Maite Tapia, Michigan State University

The committee commends her work on the cutting edge of contemporary research “that expands the scope of labor relations analysis to include the rich diversity of organizations – from unions to alt-labor, community and identity-based groups – that advocate for workers and their families, at home and abroad.” Her work is especially noteworthy for its international component that sets U.S. cases in comparative perspective.

J. Adam Cobb, University of Texas at Austin 

The committee was especially impressed with the quality and impact of his work. He has shown how different aspects of organizational change have re-shaped employment relationships and inequality in the U.S. He has also explored how the changing ownership of U.S. organizations has helped to drive risk shifting onto employees, and accelerated the move away from defined benefit pensions. He has also examined how the decline of large organizations through outsourcing has increased inequality, while those large organizations themselves play less of a role in protecting low wage workers than before.

LERA Outstanding Practitioner Award

2019 Recipient: Lisa Jordan and Lu-Ann Glaser

The Labor and Employment Relations Association annually confers the LERA Outstanding Practitioner Award. This award recognizes a distinguished practitioner for unique contributions to labor and employment relations practice over her/his career, consistent with the values and the mission of the LERA.

Lisa Jordan
United Steelworkers of America

The awards committee was most impressed with her work at the United Steelworkers of America to promote conversations around workplace issues, to insure human rights in the workplace, to facilitate positive labor-management engagement, and to bring research out of academia to practice and improve the quality and scope of the education USW members receive.

Lu-Ann Glaser
American Water

The awards committee was most impressed with her long history in the labor relations profession beginning with her work as a labor leader in the American Postal Workers Union, AFL-CIO, followed by a long career at the FMCS as manager of national programs and initiatives, and more recent work as Labor Relations Manager at American Water.  The committee also recognizes her long-time contributions to this organization and lauds her current involvement with VLERA, our first virtual chapter, as its inaugural President.

James G. Scoville Best International/Comparative IR/HR Paper Award

The Labor and Employment Relations Association annually selects the most outstanding international and comparative employment issues paper as the winner of the James G. Scoville Best International Paper Award, which carries a cash prize. The Award was established in conjunction with the Center for Human Resources and Labor Studies at the University of Minnesota to honor retiring professor and long-time member of the LERA, James G. Scoville. Eligible published papers on international and comparative employment issues are considered, including those with empirical material on employment issues from two or more countries, that examine transnational employment-relations phenomena, or that make theoretical contributions using empirical material from a single country with implicit international comparisons.

2019 Recipient: Guglielmo Meardi

"Economic integration and state responses: Change in European industrial relations since Maastricht" authored by Guglielmo Meardi, University of Warwick

“The members of the committee chose it because it makes an important argument about what is happening overall in European industrial relations. It does so with subtlety and a multi-level analysis, drawing on qualitative and quantitative sources.” –Ian Greer, Committee Chair

Kenneth May Media Award

2019 Recipients: Moshe Z. Marvitt, Sarah Kessler, and Dave Jamieson

The Labor and Employment Relations Association annually recognizes superior reporting regarding issues of importance to our labor-management community including academics, practitioners, industries, and dispute resolution professionals. In the past, the LERA has awarded Steven Greenhouse of the New York Times, the Boston Globe, and Ken May of Bloomberg BNA as its recipients for their respective contributions. This award carries the distinction of the recipient being invited to present at the LERA Annual Meeting on their journalistic body of work.

Moshe Z. Marvitt
The Century Foundation

He has been selected to receive a LERA Media Award based on his reporting on labor and employment law, public policy, labor organizations, excluded workers, and employment and civil rights. His work has been published in several law reviews as well as The New York Times, The Washington Post, Slate and The New Republic.

Sarah Kessler
Quartz

She has been selected to receive a LERA Media Award for her reporting at Quartz on employment and labor topics & the future of work and for  her recent book, Gigged: The End of the Job and the Future of Work. She focuses on the impact of changing work relations on public policy.

Dave Jamieson
The Huffington Post

He has been selected to receive a LERA Media Award for his reporting on labor organizing and workplace health issues. He serves as the labor reporter for the Huffington Post, and his articles have also appeared in Slate, The New Republic, The Washington Post, and Outside. He received the Livingston Award for Young Journalists and the Hillman Foundation's Sidney Award.

Thomas A. Kochan & Stephen R. Sleigh Best Dissertation Award

The Labor and Employment Relations Association has established an annual competition for post-doctoral students in the field of industrial relations or related fields such as history, political science, economics, sociology, etc., as long as they are broadly related to employment relations as reflected in the publications and membership of the LERA. The purpose is twofold: (1) to stimulate greater awareness and interest among doctoral students at colleges and universities of the field of industrial  relations, and (2) to provide a vehicle by which an outstanding thesis by a doctoral student can be made more widely known to scholars in the field. Each year, the Thomas A. Kochan & Stephen R. Sleigh Best Dissertation Award committee reads thousands of pages of dissertations and determines which papers are the most significant contributions to the body of research in the field.

2019 Recipient: Phillippe J. Scrimger, Sean O'Brady, and Paulo Marzionna