Jessica Ramey Stender
Policy Director, Deputy Legal Director
Area of expertise: Laws and public policies on equal pay, sexual harassment, gender discrimination and economic security; Legislative advocacy; Coalition-building; Workplace justice and workers' rights
You want to get to know her because:
- Jessica leads ERA’s policy advocacy with a focus on sexual harassment, pay and pregnancy discrimination and represents workers in employment discrimination cases.
- Jessica Co-Chairs the Stronger California Women’s Agenda, a statewide network of organizations and coalitions advancing policy reform to improve the economic security of women and families in California.
- She is Co-Chair of the Women’s Rights Committee of the American Bar Association’s Section on Civil Rights and Social Justice and Co-Chair of the Policy Committee of the National Taskforce on Tradeswomen Issues, and is a member of the Policy Committee of the national Equal Pay Today campaign.
- Before coming to ERA, as Legal Director of Centro de los Derechos del Migrante, Inc., Jessica worked on behalf of low-wage migrant workers in U.S. courts and before U.S. government agencies and worked with U.S.-based advocates to facilitate representation of migrant worker clients in Mexico. She was also a Civil Rights Fellow at the public interest class action firm Goldstein, Borgen, Dardarian & Ho, where she represented workers in civil rights and employment class action cases.
- Before law school, Jessica worked as a paralegal at Friends of Farmworkers in Philadelphia, providing legal assistance to migrant farmworkers throughout Pennsylvania.
- In 2018, the Daily Journal named Jessica one of the Top Labor & Employment Lawyers in California.
Alumna of:
- U.C. Berkeley School of Law in 2009, where she served as Senior Executive Editor of the Berkeley Journal of Employment and Labor Law and Co-Chair of the Boalt Hall Chapter of the National Lawyers Guild
Outside of work:
- Jessica is a dedicated yoga practitioner.