Vernon interviews Melissa Hoover, founding Executive Director of the Democracy at Work Institute, and Anh-Thu Nguyen, Director of Special Projects for the Democracy at Work Institute. Vernon and his guests discuss the recent growth in worker cooperatives, worker cooperative initiatives being implemented at the city level across the country, the recent developments surrounding initiatives to develop cooperatives in New York City, and the many programs and resources that are offered through the Democracy at Work Institute. Melissa Hoover is the founding Executive Director of the Democracy at Work Institute, the think-and-do-tank that expands worker cooperatives as a strategy to address economic and racial inequality. A leader in the worker ownership movement for over fifteen years, Melissa helped start and grow the United States Federation of Worker Cooperatives, the national grassroots membership organization for worker-owned businesses. She was a cooperative business developer for many years with the Arizmendi Association of Cooperatives in Oakland, doing business and capital planning, training cooperative members, and serving asCFO in the first year of each startup’s operations. She currently sits on the Board of Directors of The ICA Group/Local Enterprise Assistance Fund and The Working World, and serves asa strategic advisor to foundations, investors, nonprofits, unions, local governments and other organizations that want to incorporate worker ownership into their economic development and community wealth-building programs. Originally from Kansas City, Melissa attended Stanford University on a full scholarship, earning a BA in History with a research focus on immigrant women’s role building cooperative movements in the U.S. Anh-Thu Nguyen is Director of Special Projects for the Democracy at Work Institute, where she leads the incubation of a transparent, ethical, and cooperative-led value chain within the textile and fashion industries. She was most recently Director at We See Beauty Foundation, where she supported women-led, worker-owned initiatives. Born and raised in Tampa Bay, Florida to Vietnamese parents, Anh-Thu early on developed a wide array of interests that led her to study Classics and Government at Georgetown University and earn her JD at the University of Texas School of Law. Her work experience includes luxury/artisan branding and marketing, international humanitarian law, transitional justice, and dental laboratory technology.

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