Ai-jen Poo is executive director of the National Domestic Workers Alliance and co-director of Caring Across Generations. She is an award-winning activist, thought leader, and social innovator, and a leading voice in domestic workers’ rights and family care advocacy. As co-founder of the Domestic Workers United, a city-wide, multiracial organization of domestic workers, she helped lead the way to the passage of the nation’s first Domestic Workers Bill of Rights in 2010, historic legislation that extends basic labor protections to over 200,000 domestic workers in New York state. In 2011, Poo co-created the national Caring Across Generations campaign to ensure access to affordable care for the nation’s aging population and access to quality jobs for the caregiving workforce. 

 

Poo is a 2014 MacArthur Foundation “genius” fellow, a 2013 World Economic Forum Young Global Leader, and was named to TIME magazine’s list of the 100 Most Influential People in the World in 2012, as well as Newsweek’s 150 Fearless Women list that same year. She was recognized as one of Fortune.com’s World’s 50 Greatest Leaders in 2015 and named to the Non-Profit Times Power & Influence Top 50 lists in 2015 and 2016. Her work has been featured in many publications, including Marie Claire, The New York Times, The Washington Post, TIME, Glamour, and CNN.com. She is author of "The Age of Dignity: Preparing for the Elder Boom in a Changing America."

 

Ai-jen Poo is visiting the School as this year's Conor D. Reilly Distinguished Visitor.