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This database features alternative experts who are available to the press. Their authority derives from either lived experience or professional expertise or both. The current categories are Care, Disability, Drugs, Economics, History, Housing, Labor and Military with more to come. For additional information please visit the About page.

Lina Guzman

Care

From day-care providers to parent advocates

EXPERT SPOTLIGHT

Lina Guzman
Chief Strategy Officer, Child Trends, Director, Child Trends Hispanic Institute
Guzman is an expert on Latino children and families whose research on the diversity, experiences and strengths of Latino communities is used to help improve policy and programs. In addition to her work at Child Trends, which focuses on improving the lives of all children and youth, especially the vulnerable, she’s principal investigator at the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services’ National Research Center on Hispanic Children and Families (run by Child Trends). There, she oversees research across various areas of family well-being, including economic self-sufficiency, healthy marriages, and education.

FOCUS: Care
LANGUAGE: English
ORGANIZATION: Child Trends

Kristen Bottema-Beutel

Disability

From people on the autism spectrum to disability advocates

EXPERT SPOTLIGHT

Kristen Bottema-Beutel
Associate Professor, Lynch School of Education and Human Development, Boston College, and Autistic Communication, Engagement, and Relationships Lab (ACER)
Bottema-Beutel’s research at Lynch School of Education and Human Development uses quantitative and qualitative methods to understand social and language development, and social interaction dynamics in autistic children, youth and adults. She also explores meta-science topics such as researcher ethics and discourse about autism, and the quality of intervention research for autistic people.

FOCUS: Disability
LANGUAGE: English
ORGANIZATION: Autistic Communication, Engagement, and Relationships Lab

Terrell Jones

Drugs

From active drug users to pain experts

EXPERT SPOTLIGHT

Terrell Jones
Co-Director, Peer Network of New York (PNNY)
After years of self-destructive drug use, Jones initiated his own recovery and began his life in harm reduction as a peer worker. An original member of PNNY, he’s also outreach and advocacy program manager for New York Harm Reduction Educators, where he conducts street outreach, coordinates peer programs, provides training for medical students, and assists with advocacy initiatives and programming. Terrell has also worked with Drug Policy Alliance, National Harm Reduction Coalition, New York Academy of Medicine, and VOCAL-NY to discuss harm reduction policies and programs with elected officials, medical providers, social service providers, and community members. NOTE: Jones prefers to be contacted by phone: (929) 309-7320 (mobile)

FOCUS: Drugs
LANGUAGE: English
ORGANIZATION: Peer Network of New York

Monica Garcia-Perez

Economics

From solidarity economists to equal pay experts

EXPERT SPOTLIGHT

Monica Garcia-Perez
Professor, Department of Economics, School of Public Affairs, St. Cloud State University
García-Pérez, whose research concentrates on labor economics, immigration, and health economics, is also on the SCSTU Faculty Research Group on Immigrant Workers in Minnesota, which looks at immigrant workers’ experiences in Minnesota’s labor markets and their attempts to achieve full citizenship. She’s also a research fellow, Hubert H. Humphrey School of Public Affairs, University of Minnesota, and, in 2020, served as president, American Society of Hispanic Economists.

FOCUS: Economics
LANGUAGE: English
ORGANIZATION: St. Cloud University School of Public Affairs

Alphine W. Jefferson

History

From oral historians to witness accounts

EXPERT SPOTLIGHT

Alphine W. Jefferson
Professor Emeritus of Black Studies and History, Randolph-Macon College
Jefferson, an oral historian, author and workshop leader, has studied American colonial and Southern history, African diasporic history, Latin American and labor history in England and more. He is a self-described “far-left liberal” who opposes taking down monuments. He has also taught at Northern Illinois University in its Center for Black Studies and Southern Methodist University as director of Black studies. Jefferson is on the boards of several Ashland, Va.-based organizations, including the Ashland Museum.

FOCUS: History
LANGUAGE: English
ORGANIZATION: Randolph-Macon College

Josh Poe

Housing

From tenant organizers to affordable housing advocates

EXPERT SPOTLIGHT

Josh Poe
Tenant Organizer, Louisville Tenants Union
Poe, who has personal experience with housing insecurity, has spent over 20 years working with tenant organizing and housing policy. His research and community efforts focus on building powerful multiracial bases of tenants in the South. In addition to his tenure with the Louisville Tenants Union in Kentucky—a multiracial, multigenerational working-class organization—he co-founded the Root Cause Research Center, which helps build structured, renter-led campaigns in solidarity with communities under the threat of displacement, surveillance and police violence. He is originally from Eastern Kentucky.

FOCUS: Housing
LANGUAGE: English
ORGANIZATION: Louisville Tenants Union

Rebecca Givan

Labor

From gig work organizers to union researchers

EXPERT SPOTLIGHT

Rebecca Givan
Associate Professor, Labor Studies and Employment Relations, Rutgers’ School of Management and Labor Relations
Givan, who’s also co-director, Rutgers’ Center for Work and Health (CWH), focuses on employment relations in health care, comparative welfare states, and labor studies. Additionally, she’s president of Rutgers’ AAUP-AFT Union of graduate workers, faculty, and postdocs. Her books include Strike for the Common Good (co-editor), original essays written by teachers involved in strikes nationwide, the students and parents

FOCUS: Labor
LANGUAGE: English
ORGANIZATION: Labor Studies and Employment Relations, Rutgers’ School of Management and Labor Relations

Sofya Aptekar

Military

From Army veterans to conflict resolution specialists

EXPERT SPOTLIGHT

Sofya Aptekar
Associate Professor, Urban Studies, City University of New York (CUNY) School of Labor and Urban Studies
Aptekar is a sociologist who studies the U.S. military as well as immigration, gentrification and institutional debt. Her books include Green Card Soldier: Between Model Immigrant and Security Threat.

FOCUS: Military
LANGUAGE: English
ORGANIZATION: CUNY School of Labor and Urban Studies

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