New Organizing Staff

The AAUP welcomed three new staff members in the Department of Organizing and Services in January.

Ursula Lawrence, Midwest lead organizer, is based in Madison, Wisconsin, and will be supporting external organizing in the Midwest as well as assisting the organizing programs of collective bargaining and advocacy chapters in the region. Lawrence has spent more than a decade working in arts and entertainment labor unions in various capacities, including as a lead organizer for the Writers Guild of America, East, where she led the successful campaign to organize Gawker Media. She was previously active in the graduate employee labor movement as a shop steward and organizing committee member at the University of Michigan Graduate Employees’ Organization. In addition to her labor movement work, Lawrence has written for television and is a proud member of the Writers Guild of America, West. As a former academic and sometime professional writer, Lawrence understands the unique challenges of intellectual labor and is passionate about protecting the rights of academic workers.

Malori Musselman, an organizer, will be working closely with AAUP collective bargaining and advocacy chapters to respond to campus crises, create member-led organizations, and build membership. As a graduate student at the University of Oregon, Musselman became an active member of the Graduate Teaching Fellows Federation, where they served as a steward, caucus and committee chair, and vice president for political education. They began their career in the labor movement as a faculty organizer with United Academics of Oregon State University but have worked in higher education and political organizing for over a decade. They are excited to continue to shape change, foster connectivity, and organize for more just futures with the AAUP.

Jerome Thompson will also be working as an organizer with collective bargaining and advocacy chapters. Thompson has previously organized airport workers, health-care workers, auto plan workers, election campaign staff, educators, and educational support staff. He played an integral role in the successful unionizing effort that helped seventeen thousand Cablevision workers in the New York tristate area obtain significant raises and improved benefits despite a tough antiunion campaign. Thompson is passionate about empowering and uniting workers around the issues that improve their lives.