Our New Executive Director, Lisa Cooks

On behalf of the board and staff of the New Orleans Workers’ Center for Racial Justice, we are delighted to welcome Lisa Cook into the role of Executive Director of the organization.

Lisa has served NOWCRJ since 2013, most recently as Interim Executive Director and previously as Director of Administration and Finance. Her leadership is grounded in collaborative power: building power *with* our members and staff, and *alongside* the community and workers we serve, rather than over or on behalf of them. In practice, that means modeling the kind of workplace we advocate for, one where staff and workers are valued and have a meaningful voice in the organization's direction and in their own work, and where we listen and stay responsive to the priorities of our members and community to guide what we do.

For Lisa, this work has never been theoretical. The year she walked across the stage at her high school graduation, minimum wage was $3.35 an hour. That was nearly 40 years ago. Today, Louisiana's minimum wage sits at $7.25. Four decades of rent increases, grocery bills, gas prices, and a wage floor that barely moved. That is not a statistic to Lisa; it is a lived math problem she watched play out across an entire working life, and it is the reason she has spent over a decade building power with workers instead of talking about it from a distance.

That leadership is also shared. Lisa works alongside a team she is proud to name and celebrate: Jordan Bridges, Organizing Director, and Matt Olson, Director of Research and Policy, who together with Lisa form NOWCRJ's executive team; Magali Ortiz, our Bilingual Organizer, expanding the reach of our organizing work; Sahara Jama, our Research and Organizing Coordinator, bridging the work of research and organizing so that our campaigns are grounded in both; and Nykia Rodriguez, our Administrative Coordinator, whose work keeps NOWCRJ running.

Under this leadership, NOWCRJ remains committed to the fight for workers' rights and economic justice: to organizing alongside workers for material conditions that allow people not just to survive, but to live with dignity. That commitment does not end with any single campaign or legislative session; it is ongoing and the standard by which we measure our work.

None of this is possible without the continued partnership of funders, allies, and community members like you. We look forward to deepening our relationship in the months and years ahead, and we welcome the opportunity to connect and share more about where NOWCRJ is headed under Lisa's leadership.

Thank you for your continued support and solidarity.

In solidarity,

New Orleans Workers' Center for Racial Justice