Each year, the Twink Frey Visiting Social Activist Program brings to CEW a social justice activist whose work affects women and recognizes gender equity issues. 

One goal of the program is to build the capacity and effectiveness of social activists, accomplished by giving the TFVSA time, space and support to work on a project that would not be possible under the activist’s usual working circumstances. 

This March, CEW welcomes Cortney Sanders to campus.

Sanders, who holds a master’s degree in public policy from the Gerald R. Ford School of Public Policy, serves as the institute director of the National Jobs for All Network housed at the Institute on Race, Power and Political Economy at The New School in New York.

She previously held senior roles at the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities in Washington, D.C., where she focused on state fiscal policy, and at the U.S. Social Security Administration, where she led efforts to examine labor market barriers and retirement outcomes.

Her TFVSA project, titled “The Future She Deserves: Collectively Confronting Labor Market Discrimination to Improve Women’s Retirement Security & Longevity,” expands on these efforts. At the SSA, “our research started to shine a light on the real barriers to retirement. That work affirmed what I had long believed: Women’s economic security is foundational to justice,” she said.

“This is an urgent issue: No one should have to work until they die, yet that is the reality for many women,” Sanders said. “My work aims to shift this paradigm by fostering an honest national dialogue about the labor market’s role in retirement inequality, society’s role and responsibility in addressing longevity, and the policy actions needed at state and local levels.”

TFVSAs are selected by a national selection committee. Its members are: 

• Fatima Goss Graves, president and CEO of the National Women’s Law Center.
• Anne Magro, deputy dean and senior associate dean for Strategy Impact at George Mason University’s School of Business.
• Portia Polk, director of learning and advocacy at Generation Hope.
• Julie Ridenour, retired president of Steelcase Foundation.
• Laurita Thomas, president, American Research Universities Human Resources Institute.
• Mary Caroline “Twink” Frey, philanthropist.

The application for next year’s TFVSA is open. For more information, email [email protected] or on the CEW website.