Executive Council - Overview

The Executive Council is the executive body for the Union. It consists of a President, a Vice President, a Secretary, a Treasurer, a Grievance Officer, and four (4) Lead Organizers who represent the graduate workers in a different area of the University. Members of the Executive Council are responsible for the following tasks:

1) The President is the principal executive officer of the Union. They preside over all meetings of the Executive Council. They are one of the responsible financial officers of the Union with the authority to co-sign financial instruments and make regular and usual disbursement of funds. They are responsible for signing all official documents of the Union with the authority to delegate this authority to a deputy with the approval of the Executive Council. They shall represent the Union as necessary to other organizations or assign a designee. The President serves as a delegate to the AFT National Convention.
Email: president@wearegage.org

2) The Vice President works with the President to oversee the operations of the Union. They chair the Organizers’ Council and inform the Executive Council of the work of the Organizers’ Council. They also supervise the non-financial responsibilities of the staff. If the President becomes unable to perform their duties for any reason, the Vice President shall assume their responsibilities. The Vice President serves as a delegate to the AFT National Convention.
Email: vicepresident@wearegage.org

3) The Secretary is the principal information officer of the Union with the responsibility for maintaining all non-financial files and records, including the minutes of meetings of the Membership, the Organizers’ Council, and the Executive Council. They provide support to the Elections Committee with all elections and referenda of the Union.
Email: secretary@wearegage.org

4) The Treasurer is the principal financial officer of the Union. They receive, record, and deposit all dues monies and other income in the name of the Union. They are one of the responsible financial officers of the Union with the authority to co-sign financial instruments and make regular and usual disbursements of funds.
Email: treasurer@wearegage.org

5) The Grievance Officer oversees the grievance process on behalf of the Union. They chair the Grievance Committee and inform the Executive Council of the work of the Grievance Committee. They are responsible for originating, reviewing, or editing all correspondence with Georgetown University or its agents in connection with all grievances. They keep records of potential problems which may require changes to be made in the language of the collective bargaining agreement between the Union and Georgetown University in future contract negotiations. They accompany the President in meetings regarding the administration of the contract. They serve as the Union’s representative to all committees convened in accordance with the procedure outlined in the collective bargaining agreement between the Union and Georgetown University or their designee.
Email: grievances@wearegage.org

6) Each Lead Organizer is responsible for advising, supporting, and overseeing Department Organizers within their area. Each Lead Organizer reports regularly on the status of their area to the Executive Council. They oversee the recruitment and training of new Department Organizers in their area. They meet at least once per semester with all Department Organizers in their assigned area to review organizing goals, needs, and issues. Together with the Vice President, they schedule and set the agenda for all meetings of the Organizers’ Council. The Lead Organizers are:

The Lead Organizer for Natural and Biomedical Sciences Degree Programs.
Email: sciences.lead@wearegage.org

The Lead Organizer for Humanities and Languages Degree Programs.
Email: humanities.lead@wearegage.org

The Lead Organizer for Social Sciences Degree Programs.
Email: socialsciences.lead@wearegage.org

The Lead Organizer for Graduate Student Assistants serving in Hourly Positions.
Email: gradassistants.lead@wearegage.org

Maggie Weng (she/her) is a 5th year PhD candidate in the Biology department. Her research focuses on how microbes survive in extremely salty environments. She has been organizing with GAGE since her first year at Georgetown and feels lucky to be surrounded by fellow grad workers who are passionate about fighting for equitable working conditions. She has been involved in GAGE's first contract negotiation, the negotiation for COVID-19 protections, the racial justice teach-in held in September 2020, and most recently in GAGE's successful second contract campaign. In her time as President she has been proud to help secure better wages and protections for graduate workers, and she hopes to help build a strong foundation for GAGE as part of DC's organized labor community.

Sidhant Saraogi is a rising 4th year Ph.D. student in the Computer Science department. Being the Lead Organizer for the Sciences last year plugged him into the multiple issues faced by fellow graduate students.

Making sure that everyone makes enough to live comfortably is something that can only be guaranteed by our collective efforts. These efforts have ensured our progress towards a living wage with our new contract. As the Vice President, Sidhant aims to expand GAGE’s organizing efforts to ensure that all graduate students at Georgetown feel part of our union. It will also be important to build solidarity with other unions and the wider community.

As a student, Sidhant is primarily interested in studying the limits of computation. He is also interested in examining how technology and policy influence each other. In my free time, he likes to climb and bike.

Thy Le (she/her) is a Ph.D. student in the Department of Physics at Georgetown, with a B.S. in Physics from Ithaca College in Ithaca, NY. She started her first year of graduate school during the height of the COVID pandemic, when nothing was normal, classes were online and offices were closed. But most importantly, COVID protections for graduate workers at Georgetown were non-existent, even as COVID ravaged through every single community in the District of Columbia as well as the whole world. It was this experience that motivated Thy to become involved with GAGE, first with the Grievance Committee, then with Organizer’s Council and eventually with the Bargaining Team. Outside of the Bargaining team, Thy is an Organizer within her department because she fundamentally believes that grad workers at Georgetown, and workers everywhere, all deserve ethical, fair and just working conditions.

In her research, Thy investigates the effects of quantum confinements on low-dimensional photodetector materials. When not on campus, Thy enjoys baking a lot of pastries, taking long walks through different neighborhoods in DC and visiting the Smithsonian Museum of Asian Art.

Ellen Jacobs (she/her) is a rising 4th year PhD candidate in the biology department. She began as a department organizer in her first semester at Georgetown at Fall 2019, and has been involved with GAGE ever since. During her time with GAGE she has been a member of the Communications Committee, Bargaining and Research Committee, Solidarity and Education Action Committee, and the Elections Committee. She served as the Communications Committee chair during the 2020-2021 academic year and administered GAGE’s first contract ratification election and first executive committee election in 2020. 

Ellen believes that GAGE is the most powerful way for graduate workers to advocate for themselves and others at Georgetown. As Secretary of GAGE, she hopes to implement data management policies that will allow for easy and accurate management of GAGE’s data, and believes that good data management is a necessary foundation for successful organizing.

Ellen grew up in California and did her Bachelor’s in Ecology, Behavior, and Evolution at the University of California, San Diego before moving on to Aarhus University to do a Master’s in Zoophysiology. At Georgetown, she studies the behavioral ecology of bottlenose dolphins in the Potomac River and in Shark Bay, Australia.

Hannah Fedder Williams (she/her) is a Ph.D. student and graduate worker in the Linguistics Department. She is originally from Denmark (although she lived in Seattle, Washington as a kid), where she got her B.A. in Linguistics and Arabic and Islamic Studies.

Union organizing is something that has always been salient in Hannah’s life as someone who grew up in a country that more openly encourages union organization. When looking for Ph.D. programs, Hannah specifically looked for universities with strong unions, knowing that they are essential to ensure graduate workers’ rights. As someone who is pursuing a Ph.D. in sociolinguistics specifically, issues of social importance permeate her life and life choices. Studying how people display their identities in their language use inevitably leads to reflection on societal values, so when she heard about GAGE, Hannah knew she wanted to bring her skills to the table.

Hannah joined the union in her first semester of her program as a department organizer and plans on staying on board for the duration of her program. Her research focuses on discourse analysis of institutional encounters, particularly in legal settings. Her current research projects include analyses of courtroom interactions and narratives told by police officers and civilians about encounters with one another in the D.C. area. In her free time, Hannah enjoys spending time with her one-eyed cat, Peach, and caring for tropical houseplants.

Emma (she/her) is a third year PhD student in the Biology Department where her research focuses on community ecology and insect behavior. Emma became a department organizer in 2022 and eventually joined the Bargaining Team where she contributed to negotiations and securing GAGE's second contract in the Fall of 2023. Now, as a lead organizer, she's excited to keep fellow graduate employees in the natural and biomedical sciences engaged and informed about their union.

Rachel is a second year doctoral student in the Department of Spanish and Portuguese. She has been involved in labor activism since her undergraduate years, when she was involved in a unionization campaign for the campus dining hall workers and taught survival English and wage theft prevention strategies to day laborers in Washington, DC. She was excited to be involved with GAGE during the most recent contract renewal campaign and is proud to always advocate for the dignity of all types of workers. As Lead Humanities Organizer she is hoping to inspire more graduate workers to organize and have an active voice in determining their working conditions.

Anna Wright (she/her) is a 3rd year PhD student in the psychology department and a recent MPP graduate from the McCourt school of Public Policy. She first got involved with GAGE as a department organizer in 2022, and is excited to serve as the lead organizer for social sciences during the 2023-2024 school year. In her role as an organizer, Anna hopes to support, advocate for, and help foster a sense of solidarity and collective efficacy among graduate workers in the social sciences departments at Georgetown. Anna is excited to connect with fellow graduate workers and is always up for grabbing coffee or tea to chat about the needs and concerns of grad workers in the social sciences. Her email is amw382@georgetown.edu.

Open position, please contact vicepresident@wearegage.org if you are interested.