Meet CPR's New Workers' Rights Policy Analyst

Regular readers of this blog are already well acquainted with her, but for everyone else, CPR is pleased to introduce our new workers’ rights policy analyst, Katie Weatherford.

Weatherford joins CPR after several years with the Center for Effective Government, where she was a regulatory policy analyst and advocated for strong regulations to protect public health, safety, and the environment. “Katie is insightful, thorough, and poised to be a great fit for CPR,” says Executive Director Matthew Shudtz, “along with our Scholars, I’m looking forward to working with her to fight for stronger worker health and safety protections.”

Among her achievements at CEG, Weatherford produced a report examining OSHA’s whistleblower protection program and proposing model state legislation to protect workers from retaliation. Her expertise on the subject will be invaluable as she takes on the job of working with CPR’s allies to help promote the policy reforms outlined in our groundbreaking manual, Winning Safer Workplaces: A Model for State and Local Policy Reform.

“All workers deserve safe and healthy workplaces, job security, and a living wage,” notes Weatherford, “they should feel empowered to speak up about hazards or abusive practices at work, but too often remain silent because they fear retaliation.” According to Weatherford, “We need strong and well enforced laws and standards in place to protect workers and preserve these fundamental rights. I’m looking forward to working with CPR’s scholars and allies to achieve this important goal.”

Weatherford will be moderating an upcoming webinar co-sponsored by CPR and National COSH on holding scofflaw employers criminally accountable for injuring and killing workers by violating health and safety standards. Sign up here to join the webinar next week.

Weatherford is a graduate of the American University Washington College of Law, where she served as a Note and Comment Editor for the Administrative Law Review and as a Senior Editor for the Sustainable Development Law & Policy brief. She also worked as a legal intern in the office of a Maryland state senator, at Public Citizen, and at the Environmental Law Institute.