Our Team
WHO WE ARE
Meet the officers and staff on Michigan AFL-CIO’s team. The Michigan AFL-CIO is staffed by a team of folks dedicated to improving the lives of working families, bringing economic justice to the workplace and social justice to our state and the nation.
Ron Bieber
PRESIDENT
Daryl Newman
SECRETARY-TREASURER
Derek Dobies
CHIEF OF STAFF
Conner Wood
DEPUTY CHIEF OF STAFF
Stephanie Brown
OFFICE ADMINISTRATOR
Ryan Sebolt
DIRECTOR OF GOVERNMENT AFFAIRS
Dylan Jordan
HUMAN RESOURCES DIRECTOR

Courtney Towsley
HUMAN RESOURCES SPECIALIST
Michael Kohler
CAMPAIGNS DIRECTOR
Veronica Martinez
COMMUNICATIONS DIRECTOR
Payton Ferris
DIGITAL DIRECTOR

Bill Elliot
FACILITIES MANAGER

Chris Palette
NATIONAL AFL-CIO SENIOR STRATEGIST & DATA TEAM LEAD

Luke Canfora
NATIONAL AFL-CIO SENIOR FIELD REPRESENTATIVE

Kelsey Heck Wood
WORKING MICHIGAN DIRECTOR
John Taylor
ORGANIZING SPECIALIST
Trent Varva
REGIONAL FIELD COORDINATOR (HURON VALLEY & MONROE-LENAWEE)
Maxwell Lewis
FIELD DIRECTOR
Joseph Bellgowan
SENIOR ORGANIZING SPECIALIST
Carly Rose
ORGANIZING SPECIALIST
Dana LaLonde
ORGANIZING SPECIALIST
Spencer Calhoun
ORGANIZING SPECIALIST
Isaiah Minor
TRAINING SPECIALIST
Advocates
Michigan AFL-CIO Advocates is our public advocacy nonprofit organization. Our mission is to unite labor leaders, policy makers, and the general public to educate and advocate around policies, programs and projects that can bring economic justice to the workplace and social justice to communities across Michigan.

Jasmine Kaltenbach
Executive Director
Jasmine Kaltenbach was born and raised in Dearborn, Michigan where she comes from a family of union members. While attending the University of Michigan, Jasmine participated in student activist movements on campus, in College Democrats, and wrote for the MichiganEnsian yearbook. She graduated from the Ford School with a BA in Public Policy, focusing on the Economics of Poverty and Inequality.
She ran a competitive mayoral race in Jackson, Michigan and has experience in sales, field organizing, event planning, and fundraising. She continues to consult campaigns on field, finance, and communications. Jasmine is also a presenter at Great Lakes Political academy on Coalition Building, Coordinating, and Outreach to Partner Organizations and Progressive Internship Programs: Best Practices.
She is excited to work at the Michigan AFL-CIO advancing pro-labor municipal policies that will help Michigan’s working families. Jasmine is a member of the National Writers Union.

Labor Foundation
The Michigan AFL-CIO Labor Foundation is our affiliated charitable nonprofit organization. Our mission is to curtail generational economic and social injustice through long-term investment in the memorialization, education, and association of the Michigan labor movement within our communities.


Workforce Development Institute
The Michigan AFL-CIO Workforce Development Institute is our affiliated nonprofit developing the next generation of Michigan workers. Our mission is to combat economic and environmental injustice by connecting the unemployed or underemployed with the training and resources necessary to find gainful employment and transition to a cleaner, greener economy.

Chong-Anna Canfora
Chief Executive Officer
As the Executive Director of the Workforce Development Institute (WDI), Chong-Anna and her colleagues work closely with the WDI Board of Directors to provide direction and leadership on a variety of workforce development grant programs and supportive services. Before joining WDI, Chong-Anna served as Executive Director of the Michigan Community Action Association, representing a statewide network of anti-poverty non-profit organizations.
Chong-Anna served as US Senator Debbie Stabenow’s Mid-Michigan Regional Representative, where she acted as liaison to provide strategic coordination of federal resources supporting workforce development programs, energy, environment, and higher education issues.
She later served as the Director of Rapid Response for the Michigan Department of Labor, leading the state’s Dislocated Worker Team to deploy a mix of public and private resources, including Trade Adjustment Assistance, Workforce Investment Act funding and Emergency Grants to assist workers impacted by mass layoffs during the Great Recession. She and her team partnered with local workforce development boards throughout Michigan to successfully usher more than 100,000 workers through the No Worker Left Behind re-training program.
From her years as a union member and working on both the state and federal level with organized labor advocates, policy makers, and forward-thinking business leaders, she knows how labor standards contribute to thriving communities by raising workers’ pay and benefits and improves their safety on the job.
Chong-Anna is part of an expert team of workforce development professionals committed to collaborating with communities to meet the challenges of emerging workforce issues and implementing innovative solutions that help bring people out of poverty, back into the workforce, and into the middle class.
She is proud to be a part of the Michigan AFL-CIO WDI’s efforts to stand with industry leaders and policy makers who support family-sustaining jobs.
Colleen Sullivan
DEPUTY EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR
Annette Donnelly
FISCAL / CONTRACT MANAGER
Walter R. Lodes
DIRECTOR APPRENTICESHIP & TRAINING
Southwest
Battle Creek, Coldwater, Kalamazoo, and Three Rivers
Samuel Dougherty
DIRECTOR OF OPERATIONS, SOUTHWEST
Blaine Farr
PROGRAM MANAGER
Sandra Payne
PROGRAM TECH III
Julie L. Gregory
Program Tech III
Michelle Fowler
PROGRAM TECH III / CAREER COACH
Karen Knox
CAREER COACH
Megan Tappenden
CAREER COACH
Nikki Lumsden-Romeri
CAREER COACH
Brianna Ward
CAREER COACH
Tina Ferguson
CAREER COACH
Trent Bronsink
CAREER COACH
Southeast
Highland Park and Detroit
Kevin Weeks
DIRECTOR OF OPERATIONS, SOUTHEAST
Sherry White
PROGRAM MANAGER

Beverly A. Hogan
CASE MANAGER
Kenneth Miller
BUSINESS SERVICES REPRESENTATIVE
Regina Jones
BUSINESS SERVICES REPRESENTATIVE
Training Division
Kiah Esaw
ACCESS FOR ALL PROGRAM MANAGER
Shandra Dunn
RECRUITER
Ron Merritt
SENIOR CASE MANAGER
Daniel Mahoney
ACCESS FOR ALL CASE MANAGER JACKSON
Theresa Olvera
CASE MANAGER
Si’Eirria Edmonds
LEAD RECRUITER
Vanessa Lee
CASE MANAGER
Courtney Alexander
RECRUITER
Errin Whitaker
CASE MANAGER
Ivy Chandler
CASE MANAGER
Instruction Division
JoAnn Bailey
INSTRUCTIONAL DESIGNER
David Gregory
INSTRUCTOR
Malik Rollins
INSTRUCTOR
Tyrese West
INSTRUCTOR
Zachary El Amin
INSTRUCTOR
Theodore Spencer
INSTRUCTOR
Jim Dravenstatt-Moceri
INSTRUCTOR
John Perkins
INSTRUCTOR
LaTasha Smith
INSTRUCTOR
Carol Cool
INSTRUCTOR
Larry Tolbert
INSTRUCTOR
Linwood Bailey
INSTRUCTOR
Community Services
The Michigan AFL-CIO Community Services Department represents the partnership between the Michigan AFL-CIO and the Michigan Association of United Ways. The convening provides education, training, and service opportunities for union members to join with local United Ways in developing powerful responses to challenges faced in communities across Michigan.

Michele Basemore
METRO-DETROIT AFL-CIO
Tiffany Bush
UW SOUTHEASTERN MI
Jesse Cloman Sr.
UW GENESEE COUNTY
Alicia Dennis
UW SOUTHEASTERN MI
Richard Franz
TRI-COUNTY LABOR AGENCY
Tanise Hill
SE MICHIGAN UW
Steve Lamb
UW SAGINAW COUNTY
Teresa McGinnis
UW GENESEE COUNTY
Rella Bittner
UW WASHTENAW COUNTY
David Pawloski
UW BATTLE CREEK/KALAMAZOO
Dan TenHoopen
HEART OF WEST MI UW
Nikkia Hurlbert
UW JACKSON COUNTY
Robert Cramer
MI ASSOCIATION UW
Janavive Routt
UW LAKESHORE