This is What Democracy Pays Like: a Black Women’s Equal Pay Day webinar
Concluded
Read our new report: A Wage Justice Agenda for Black Women
On July 21, Equal Rights Advocates and Equal Pay Today hosted a Black Women’s Equal Pay Day webinar conversation , “This is What Democracy Pays Like: A Conversation with Black Women Leaders on the Fight for Equitable Wages, Wealth, and Power Under Hostile Circumstances.”
Watch the recording
In a moment when Black women are fighting longstanding and systemic inequities in access to equal wages, wealth, and power, our basic rights are now under heightened attack. On Black Women’s Equal Pay Day, this webinar brought together a distinguished group of leaders and activists on the frontlines of empowering Black women and our communities at the state and national levels. Panelists discussed the current state of the wage inequity for Black women; key drivers and barriers; and national and state level actions to organize and mobilize our communities to break the status quo and counter federal attacks.
Featuring:
- Congresswoman Alma Adams (NC) – NEW!
- Senator Lisa Blunt Rochester (DE) – NEW!
- Melanie Campbell, President & CEO of the National Coalition on Black Civic Participation and Convener of the Black Women’s Roundtable
- Cherita Ellens, President and CEO, Women Employed,
- Jocelyn Frye, President of National Partnership for Women & Families
- Cassandra Welchlin, Executive Director & Co-Convener of the Mississippi Black Women’s Roundtable
- Seher Khawaja (Moderator), National Economic Justice Director at ERA
Speaker Bios
Congresswoman Alma Adams
After winning a special election in November 2014, Congresswoman Alma S. Adams, Ph.D. was sworn in immediately as the 100th woman elected to the 113th Congress. Congresswoman Adams was elected to her fifth full term representing the 12th Congressional District of North Carolina on November 8, 2022.
Representative Adams serves on the Committee on Education & the Workforce and the Committee on Agriculture. She holds several leadership roles; she serves as Ranking Member of the Committee on Education & Labor’s Subcommittee on Workforce Protections and co-chair of the Congressional Bipartisan HBCU Caucus, the Black Maternal Health Caucus, and the e-Learning Caucus. She has previously served on multiple committees including the House Committee on Financial Services and the House Committee on Small Business.
Her signature legislative accomplishment in Congress is the enactment of H.R. 5363, the Fostering Undergraduate Talent by Unlocking Resources for Education (FUTURE) Act which permanently provides funding totaling $255 million a year for all Minority-Serving Institutions, including $85 million for HBCUs.
Senator Lisa Blunt Rochester
Senator Lisa Blunt Rochester represents Delaware in the U.S. Senate. She was elected in 2024 after serving four terms as Delaware’s sole representative in the U.S. House of Representatives. In the House, she served on the House Committee on Energy and Commerce, which oversees health care, the environment, commerce and trade, energy policy, telecommunications, manufacturing, and consumer protection.
Senator Blunt Rochester is a leading voice in Congress on workforce issues, the future of work, and building an economy that works for everyone. As former Secretary of Labor and State Personnel Director, she leverages her expertise to advocate for policies that support growth and ensure working families earn a living wage. She founded and co-chaired the bipartisan Congressional Future of Work Caucus in the House. After seeing the impact of empty grocery shelves during the pandemic, she also led the charge in Congress to address the supply chain crisis and bring manufacturing jobs back to Delaware and the United States.
As a former statewide health official, Senator Blunt Rochester brings a broad perspective on health care policy. She has worked as an implementer at the Delaware Department of Health and Social Services, a negotiator as State Personnel Director, and an advocate as CEO of the Metropolitan Wilmington Urban League.
She has been committed to reducing health care and prescription drug costs for middle-class families, addressing health disparities in communities of color, and combating the opioid and addiction epidemic. When the Heroin epidemic devastated Delaware communities, she acted urgently and became a member of the Bipartisan Heroin and Opioid Task Force, a coalition of over 100 members dedicated to passing critical legislation to combat opioid addiction. Additionally, Senator Blunt Rochester has played a pivotal role in passing landmark legislation like the Inflation Reduction Act and the Telehealth Modernization Act – which both work to lower the cost of prescription drugs and increase access to healthcare for America’s seniors and those with disabilities.
A strong advocate for the nursing workforce, she championed the passage of the TRAIN Act, which protected a key nursing education pipeline to address the nursing shortage. Throughout her career, she has fought for underserved communities and is a leader on public health promotion and programs that help Americans live healthier and longer.
In the 115th Congress, Senator Blunt Rochester became the first Delawarean in over 120 years to serve on the House Committee on Agriculture. She played a key role in crafting the 2018 Farm Bill, a five-year reauthorization that supports the farm safety net, nutrition programs for vulnerable populations, land-grant universities, and agricultural research. A champion of criminal justice reform, she introduced the groundbreaking Clean Slate Act, which seals the federal records of nonviolent offenders. This legislation aims to provide individuals with opportunities to secure good-paying jobs, pursue education, and access housing after reentering society. Research uncovered by the Center for American Progress estimates individuals who are shut out of opportunities because of their criminal records costs the U.S. economy up to $87 billion annually. The Clean Slate Act would help boost the national economy while helping these individuals gain good paying jobs.
After hearing concerns from homeowners in North Bethany Beach about an error in the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service’s coastal mapping, Senator Blunt Rochester introduced the Strengthening Coastal Communities Act in her first term, which corrected the error, supported environmental preservation, and became her first bill enacted into law. She has since spearheaded the SHORRE Act to improve coastal resilience up and down Delaware’s coastlines, so communities and homeowners are protected from rising seas and extreme weather. She authored legislation that invested $100 million to decarbonize the Port of Wilmington. This federal investment came as part of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s Clean Ports Program in the Inflation Reduction Act, legislation passed by Congress and signed into law by President Biden in 2022. And in 2024, she co-led the bipartisan Bolstering Ecosystems Against Coastal Harm Act (BEACH Act). This legislation addresses climate-driven risks like flooding, storm surges, and sea level rise by amending and reauthorizing the Coastal Barrier Resources Act (CBRA) and updating critical coastal maps.
Born in Philadelphia and raised in Wilmington, Senator Blunt Rochester graduated from Padua Academy. She earned a degree in International Relations from Fairleigh Dickinson University and, as a working mother, completed her master’s degree in Urban Affairs and Public Policy at the University of Delaware. She resides in Wilmington, Delaware. She is the proud mother of two adult children, Alex and Alyssa, and mother-in-law to Ebony. She is also the grandmother of her first granddaughter, Lennox.
Melanie Campbell
Melanie L. Campbell is the President & CEO of the National Coalition on Black Civic Participation and Convener of the Black Women’s Roundtable. Ms. Campbell has nearly 30 years of experience as a civil and women's rights leader, coalition builder, youth empowerment and technology access advocate. She is known for her powerful ability to build diverse coalitions that bring people together for the common good.
Campbell serves on the Goldman Sachs One Million Black Women Initiative’s Advisory Council, Sephora Racial Equity Advisory Council, Lyft Safety Advisory Council, Delta Sigma Theta Sorority’s National Social Action Commission, Chair of the Board of Sisters Lead, Sisters Vote and board member for Family Values @ Work Action. She was featured in the Washingtonian as one of Washington DC’s Most Influential People for the past three years (2022 – 2024) and was featured on the Sephora Billboard in Times Square by Sephora for her voting rights, women’s empowerment and social justice leadership in 2023.
Campbell is a native of Mims, Florida, holds a B.A. in Business Administration & Finance from Clark Atlanta University, a certificate in non-profit executive management, Georgetown University and resident fellow alumni of the John F. Kennedy School of Government, Institute of Politics, Harvard University.
Cherita Ellens
Cherita Ellens is a native Chicagoan, longtime advocate for Chicago women, youth, and families, and a caregiver. As President and CEO of Women Employed, Cherita leads an organization that, for more than five decades, has been at the forefront of proposing, enacting, and shaping policies that improve the economic status and security of women. Cherita is boldly driving WE’s current focus on growing the economic power of women, with a particular focus on closing the wealth gap at the intersection of gender and race. Before joining Women Employed, Cherita led business operations and communications as the Executive Vice President for Skills for Chicagoland’s Future. She has also served as the VP of Marketing and Membership for the YMCA of Metropolitan Chicago, and later as the Executive Director of the South Side and Wabash YMCAs.
Cherita serves as Chair of the Illinois Labor Advisory Board, and Chair for the Board of Directors for Family Values at Work. She recently served as Chair of the City of Chicago’s Mayor’s Advisory Council on Women, on the Illinois Board of Higher Education Commission on Equitable Public University Funding, the Illinois Governor’s Commission on Workforce Access and Equity, Mayor Johnson’s Transition Subcommittee on Workers’ Rights and Labor, and the City of Chicago’s Advisory Group for the Chicago Resilient Communities Fund. Cherita holds an executive MBA from The University of Notre Dame, and a Bachelor of Science degree in Speech Communications from Illinois State University.
Cherita draws much of her passion from her lived experience as a caregiver to her mother, and as a single mom who is proud to see her now fully launched daughter living by a spirit and purpose of service.
Jocelyn Frye
Jocelyn Frye is President of the National Partnership for Women & Families—a policymaking and legal advocacy organization which works to advance health care, civil rights, economic justice, and racial equity in America. She is the first Black woman to head the National Partnership, which was founded 1971.
Prior to her current role, Jocelyn helped spearhead the Women’s Initiative at the Center for American Progress, one of the country’s leading progressive think tanks. Her work there spanned a wide range of issues, including narrowing the gender pay gap, improving women’s employment opportunities and economic stability, combating gender-based discrimination and gender-based violence, and addressing the Black maternal health crisis.
Before CAP, Jocelyn served in the White House during the administration of Barack Obama. She oversaw the broad issue portfolio of Michelle Obama, including the First Lady’s two signature initiatives—tackling childhood obesity and supporting military families. She also helped establish the first White House mentoring program for local high school students.
A lawyer by training, Jocelyn received her J.D. from Harvard Law School and her undergrad degree from the University of Michigan.
Jocelyn is a proud native of Washington, DC, and was raised by two loving parents who worked as federal civil servants. She still resides in the district with her husband, Brian Summers, and is a member of the Deacons Ministry of Shiloh Baptist Church of Washington, DC.
Cassandra Welchlin
Cassandra Welchlin is the executive director of MS Black Women’s Roundtable (MS-BWR) a movement building and policy advocacy organization that shifts power at the voting booth, policy table and in community with and for black women and girls. The statewide organization advances women’s economic security through policy advocacy, increases civic engagement and voter participation, develops transformational leaders for long-term movement building, and engages in community outreach and rapid response as care infrastructure.
As a licensed social worker, an advocate, organizer, and agent of change, her work spans over twenty-five years reforming public policy and organizing for power. Cassandra’s work has led to legislative & administrative policy wins in maternal health, wages, childcare, safety net programs, and juvenile justice reforms at local, state, and federal levels.
In 2015 she co-founded and launched the ambitious and progressive MS Women’s Economic Security Initiative (MWESI) a policy agenda rooted at the intersections of race, gender and economic justice that centers women at the center of policy. It was the first comprehensive policy agenda launched in the South supported by Ms. Foundation for Women in New York.
She has been featured in Oprah Dailey, Essence, Roland Martin, NBC, CNN, Forbs, PBS News Hour, USA Today, the Washington Post, BET News, The Hill, to name a few.
Cassandra is the recipient of several prestigious awards that include but not limited to the Gwendolyn Loper Leadership in Service Award, Black Voices for Black Justice Award, and the Ms. Foundation for Women New York -2022 Woman of Vision Award. Cassandra is a highly sought-after speaker on expert content such as racial and gender justice, poverty, and faith.
Cassandra holds membership in several organizations that include Delta Sigma Theta Sorority, Inc, State Chair of Women In NAACP (WIN) and 100 Black Women of Central Mississippi. She is a former planning board Commissioner for the City of Jackson. Her volunteerism is extensive and growing. She has completed fellowships with W.K. Kellogg Foundation, Ms. Foundation for Women Public Voices Fellow and Congressman Bennie Thompson’s MS Black Leadership Institute.
Cassandra is a graduate from the School of Social Work at Jackson State University with a bachelor’s in social work. In 2005, Cassandra received her Master’s in Sustainable International Development at the Heller School of Social Policy & Management from Brandies University. Cassandra is a member of Delta Sigma Theta Sorority, Inc, MS NAACP State Conference, and a former Commissioner on the City of Jackson Planning Board.
She is married to her “North Wind” Kass Welchlin from the cold state of Minnesota and he calls her his “South Wind”. Together they created “Three Winds” and on any given day they can be Gusty, Cold and Biting or Warm and Breezy.
Her Favorite Quote is by the late Mayor Chokwe Lumumba “If you don’t love the People, sooner or later you will betray the People”
Moderator: Seher Khawaja
Seher Khawaja is the Director of Equal Pay Today and National Economic Justice Director at Equal Rights Advocates. Her areas of expertise include legal and legislative advocacy on economic security, civil rights, worker rights and workplace equality, and gender justice. At ERA, Seher leads Equal Pay Today, a coalition of national, regional, and state organizations dedicated to achieving wage justice, eradicating the gender and race wage gaps, and advancing economic security for women, families, and communities of color. Seher also leads ERA’s wage justice advocacy efforts in New York State.
Before joining ERA, Seher was the Director of Economic Justice at Legal Momentum, where she led policy advocacy, litigation, and educational initiatives to advance women’s economic security, with a focus on underserved populations, including women of color, immigrant women, women in lower-wage work, and survivors of gender-based violence.
Seher has a background in economic justice and human rights and is dedicated to translating best practices from the local to the global and vice versa. She has worked in local, national, and international spheres from New York City to South Africa. She served on Mayor Mamdani’s transition team and has previously worked for the New York City Housing Authority, the Global Justice Center, the Institute for Global Policy, and the United Nations Development Program.
Seher regularly speaks and writes about gender equality, civil rights protections, and economic justice issues. Her work has been covered by Ms. Magazine, PBS, City Limits, HuffPost, Jurist, the Daily News, and The Hill.
She is an alum of Brooklyn Law School (J.D.), Sparer Public Interest Fellow; The London School of Economics (M.Sc. in International Relations with distinction); and The Johns Hopkins University (B.A. in International Relations with a minor in Economics)
Seher loves to travel and explore new and old places with her family and friends, to make and experience art, to go for runs in her neighborhood and hikes upstate, watch a soccer game, and read five pages of a book before running off to play with her kids.
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