Award Recipients 2020

LERA 2020 Award Recipients

Please congratulate these deserving and accomplished LERA 2020 Award Recipients! 

If award winners submitted recorded acceptance remarks their comments are linked to their names below their picture!

You are invited to personally nominate someone deserving to receive a LERA Award at the
LERA 73rd Annual Meeting, in Detroit, MI, on June 2-6, 2021.

Please visit the LERA Deadlines page for complete information about each award, lists of past award recipients,
and nomination forms, which are due by January 15, 2021, or download the "Calls for Awards" below:

Call for Practitioner Award Nominations: https://lera.memberclicks.net/assets/docs/awardscall-practitioners2021.pdf
Call for Scholar Award Nominations: https://lera.memberclicks.net/assets/docs/awardscall-scholars2021.pdf
Call for Student Award Nominations: https://lera.memberclicks.net/assets/docs/awardscall-students2021.pdf

2020 Lifetime Achievement Award

The Labor and Employment Relations Association Lifetime Achievement Award is a capstone achievement for lifelong contributors to the field of Industrial Relations and Human Resources, from all perspectives. This award was established in 2000, and awardees are recognized at the LERA Annual Meeting, in conjunction with the Presidential Luncheon.

Joel Cutcher-Gershenfeld

Joel Cutcher-Gershenfeld
Brandeis University

2020 LERA Fellow Awards (Academic and Practitioner)

The Labor and Employment Relations Association annually bestows the LERA Fellows Award. The LERA Fellows designation is meant to recognize scholars and practitioners who have made contributions of unusual distinction to the field and have been in the profession and field for longer than ten years. The selection committee for the Fellow scholar title considered contributions from all disciplines such as Industrial Relations, Labor Law, Economics, Human Resources, Business, Sociology, Political Science, and Organizational Behavior.

2020 Academic Fellows

Kim LaFevor
David Weil
Katharine Abraham
Dan Mitchell
 Kim LaFevor
Athens State University
David Weil
Brandeis University

Katharine Abraham
University of Maryland

Daniel JB Mitchell
University of California-LA

2020 Practitioner Fellows

Burton White
Jonathan Cohen
 Burton White
Arbitrator
 Jonathan Cohen
Plosia Cohen LLC 

2020 Susan C. Eaton Outstanding Scholar-Practitioner Award

The Labor and Employment Relations Association has established an award in honor of Susan C. Eaton, scholar and practitioner and LERA member who passed away in 2003. The Susan C. Eaton Outstanding Scholar-Practitioner Award is given annually to a member of the LERA for achievements of distinction as both an academic and practitioner in our field, emphasizing the value of bringing together the academic and practitioner communities. 

Saul Rubinstein
Matthew Finkin

Saul Rubinstein
Rutgers University 

Matthew Finkin
University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign

2020 Myron C. Taylor Management Award

The award recognizes outstanding contributions to management within the industrial relations profession consistent with the values and the mission of the LERA. The award commemorates Myron Taylor, Chairman of U.S. Steel in 1937, who signed a collective bargaining agreement with the Steel Workers’ Organizing Committee (SWOC). Myron did not endorse that unions were essential, but instead an unavoidable reality, and his decision to recognize SWOC blazed the trail for the rest of the steel industry.

Cindi Furseth

 Cyndi Furseth
Portland General Electric (ret.)

2020 John T. Dunlop Outstanding Scholar Awards

The Labor and Employment Relations Association annually recognizes outstanding academic contributions to research by recent entrants to the field (recent is defined as receiving terminal degree within the last ten years) with the John T. Dunlop Outstanding Scholar Awards. One award recognizes the research contributions of international and/or comparative labor and employment research, and one award recognizes the research addressing industrial relations/employment issues of national significance.

John McCarthy
Jonathan Booth

John McCarthy, Cornell University

For outstanding contributions to research that address industrial relations/employment problems of national significance.

Jonathan Booth, London School of Economics and Political Science  

For outstanding contributions to research that address industrial relations/employment problems of international significance.

2020 LERA Outstanding Practitioner Award

The Labor and Employment Relations Association annually confers the LERA Outstanding Practitioner Award. This award recognizes a distinguished practitioner for unique contributions to labor and employment relations practice over her/his career, consistent with the values and the mission of the LERA.

Christy Yoshitomi

Christy Yoshitomi
FMCS

2020 James G. Scoville Best International/Comparative IR/HR Paper Award

The Labor and Employment Relations Association annually selects the most outstanding international and comparative employment issues paper as the winner of the James G. Scoville Best International Paper Award, which carries a cash prize. The Award was established in conjunction with the Center for Human Resources and Labor Studies at the University of Minnesota to honor retiring professor and long-time member of the LERA, James G. Scoville. Eligible published papers on international and comparative employment issues are considered, including those with empirical material on employment issues from two or more countries, that examine transnational employment-relations phenomena, or that make theoretical contributions using empirical material from a single country with implicit international comparisons.

Sean O'Brady

"Rethinking precariousness and its evolution: A four-country study of work in food retail" authored by Sean O'Brady, McMaster University.


2020 Kenneth May Media Award

The Labor and Employment Relations Association annually recognizes superior reporting regarding issues of importance to our labor-management community including academics, practitioners, industries, and dispute resolution professionals. In the past, the LERA has awarded Steven Greenhouse of the New York Times, the Boston Globe, and Ken May of Bloomberg BNA as its recipients for their respective contributions. This award carries the distinction of the recipient being invited to present at the LERA Annual Meeting on their journalistic body of work.

Josh Eidelson
Juliana Reyes

Josh Eidelson
Bloomberg News

Juliana Feliciano Reyes 
The Philadelphia Inquirer

2020 Thomas A. Kochan & Stephen R. Sleigh Best Dissertation Award

The Labor and Employment Relations Association has established an annual competition for post-doctoral students in the field of industrial relations or related fields such as history, political science, economics, sociology, etc., as long as they are broadly related to employment relations as reflected in the publications and membership of the LERA. The purpose is twofold: (1) to stimulate greater awareness and interest among doctoral students at colleges and universities of the field of industrial  relations, and (2) to provide a vehicle by which an outstanding thesis by a doctoral student can be made more widely known to scholars in the field. Each year, the Thomas A. Kochan & Stephen R. Sleigh Best Dissertation Award committee reads thousands of pages of dissertations and determines which papers are the most significant contributions to the body of research in the field.

Joey Soehardjojo

"Knowledge and HRM Practice Transfer in Emerging Economies: The Case of Japanese Joint Ventures in Indonesia"  authored by Joey Soehardjojo, Cardiff University


2020 UCIRHRP Best Paper Award

The University Council of Industrial Relations and Human Resource Programs, UCIRHRP, sponsors a student paper competition at the LERA Annual Meeting. New developments in employment relations, organizational behavior, and social movements call for a closer look at emergent processes, outcomes and organizational forms. The motivation for this special award is to reflect the diversity of theoretical and methodological approaches to researching emergent phenomena in the field. Examples include, but are by no means restricted to new forms of labor market institutions; diversity in organizations; social movements; and international/transnational actors and organizations.

Yao Yao
 Yao Yao
University of Toronto

2020 Susan C. Eaton Research Grant Award

This award is granted annually to the most promising and relevant proposal for research or research-in-action consistent with the values and principles of the work of Susan C. Eaton and that best honors her legacy as an outstanding scholar-practitioner. 
Christine Riordan
Christine Riordan
University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign

Hye Jin Rho
Hye Jin Rho
Michigan State University


2020 LERA Chapter Awards

The Labor and Employment Relations Association annually recognizes the accomplishments and contributions of local LERA chapters with three levels of LERA Chapter Awards including Chapter Merit Awards, Outstanding Chapter Awards, and Chapter Star Awards.

 

2020 LERA Chapter Star Award

  • Long Island LERA was awarded the most prestigious LERA Chapter Award in 2020 for its significant contributions in the areas of Outstanding Programming, Member Innovation, Chapters Helping Chapters, Consistent Chapter Excellence, Chapter Communications, and Chapter to National Relations.

2020 LERA Outstanding Chapter Awards

  • Central PA LERA was awarded the Outstanding Chapter Award in 2020 for its significant contributions in the areas of Member Innovation, Consistent Chapter Excellence, Chapter Communications, and Chapter to National Relations.

  • NE Ohio LERA was awarded the Outstanding Chapter Award in 2020 for its significant contributions in the areas of Outstanding Programming, Consistent Chapter Excellence, Chapter Communications, and Chapter to National Relations.

  • New Jersey LERA was awarded the Outstanding Chapter Award in 2020 for its significant contributions in the areas of Outstanding Programming, Member Innovation, Consistent Chapter Excellence, Chapter Communications, and Chapter to National Relations.

  • NorCal LERA was awarded the Outstanding Chapter Award in 2020 for its significant contributions in the areas of Chapter Turnaround, Chapter to National Relations, Chapter Communications, Membership Growth or Development.

  • RU LERA was awarded the Outstanding Chapter Award in 2020 for its significant contributions in the areas of Chapter Communications, Membership Growth or Development, and Consistent Chapter Excellence.

  • Oregon LERA was awarded the Outstanding Chapter Award in 2020 for its significant contributions in the areas of Member Innovation, Consistent Chapter Excellence, Chapter Communications, and Chapter to National Relations.

  • TERRA was awarded the Outstanding Chapter Award in 2020 for its significant contributions in the areas of Outstanding Programming, Community Involvement, Consistent Chapter Excellence, Chapter Communications, and Chapter to National Relations.

2020 LERA Chapter Merit Awards

  • Chicago LERA Chapter received Merit Awards for Consistent Chapter Excellence, Chapter Communications, and Chapter to National Relations.

  • DC LERA Chapter received Merit Awards for Consistent Chapter Excellence, Chapter Communications, and Chapter to National Relations.

  • Detroit LERA Chapter received Merit Awards for Consistent Chapter Excellence, Chapter Communications, Chapter to National Relations.

  • Greater Rhode Island LERA Chapter received Merit Awards for Consistent Chapter Excellence, Chapter Communications, Chapter to National Relations.

  • Greater Houston LERA Chapter received Merit Awards for Consistent Chapter Excellence, Chapter Communications, Chapter to National Relations.

  • Maryland LERA Chapter received Merit Awards for Consistent Chapter Excellence, Chapter Communications, Chapter to National Relations.

  • VLERA Chapter received Merit Awards for Member Innovation, Chapter Communications, Chapter to National Relations.

  • Wisconsin LERA Chapter received Merit Awards for Outstanding Programming, Consistent Chapter Excellence, Chapter to National Relations.