July 1, 2022

Academic Fellows in Employee Ownership: 2022 to 2023

Executive Director

The Institute for the Study of Employee Ownership and Profit Sharing at Rutgers University announced the latest scholars awarded fellowships to study employee ownership and related topics for the coming academic year.

The 34 scholars, listed below, are from eight countries and a variety of disciplines, including sociology, public policy, law, business, and American studies, as well as a number of scholars from nonprofit organizations, including the NCEO’s research director, Nancy Wiefek, who is the Joseph Cabral Distinguished Scholar and Fellow. The Fellowship supports her work in measuring the impact of employee ownership on employees and their well-being.

The Corey Rosen fellow this year is Mark Hand of the University of Texas at Austin, who is studying the emergence of employee ownership trusts.

Please join the NCEO in congratulating these 34 scholars. I look forward to learning about their findings and how they advance our understanding of the world of employee ownership. Please also join us in congratulating the Rutgers Institute for assembling a global community of Fellows supporting employee ownership.

Rutger Academic Fellows for 2022–2023

1. Dr. Rina Agarwala, Johns Hopkins University, Kendeda Fellowship

Present position: Associate Professor, Department of Sociology

Topic: Employee ownership and empowerment in the Self-Employed Women’s Association (SAWA) cooperatives in India

2. Yifat Aran, University of Haifa School of Law, Institute Fellowship

Present position: Assistant Professor, Faculty of Law

Topic: How start-up employees think about equity compensation

3. Dr. Filippo Belloc, University of Siena (Italy), Nachson and Arieh Mimran Fellowship

Present position: Professor of Economic Policy, Department of Economics and Statistics

Topic: Hierarchical control under profit-sharing programs in the Italian Longitudinal Company Database on Labor (RIL-INAPP)

4. Dr. Tanya Smith Brice, Council on Social Work Education, Kendeda Fellowship

Present position: Vice President

Topic: Employee share ownership programs as a tool to close the racial wealth gap

5. Adriane Clomax, University of Southern California, Kendeda Fellowship

Present position: Ph.D. candidate, Suzanne Dworak-Peck School of Social Work

Topic: How are workers of color faring in ESOP jobs? How do HR social networks affect the applicant pool's diversity?

6. James De Le Vigne, B.A., Nottingham Trent University, Executive Fellow

Present position: Chief Executive Officer, Employee Ownership Association (EOA) of the UK; board member of Ownership at Work, the UK’s new think tank on employee ownership.

Topic: Evaluation of the function and performance of UK employee-owned firms

7. David Finegold, Senior Fellow

Experience: President, Chatham University

Topic: Development of the Pittsburgh-wide initiative on employee ownership conversions, research on the initiative, and the Western Pennsylvania Employee Ownership Center based at Chatham University

8. Matthew Fisher-Post, Paris School of Economics

Present position: Ph.D. candidate, Paris School of Economics; Research Fellow and Coordinator of the World Inequality Lab, Paris School of Economics; Research Fellow, Center for International Development, Kennedy School of Government, Harvard University

Topic: Do firms with a higher labor share (or employees in a more equal income distribution) perform better?

9. Dr. Fred Freundlich, Mondragon University (Spain), Kendeda Fellowship

Present position: Professor, Faculty of Business & Faculty of Humanities and Education

Topic: The effects of shared ownership education on employee-owners in the employee-owned Mondragon cooperatives

10. Dr. Mark Hand, University of Texas at Austin, Institute Fellowship and Corey Rosen Fellowship

Present position: Research Associate, University of Texas at Austin

Topic: Early research and data-gathering on employee ownership trusts

11. Jayasri (Joyce) Hart, Executive Fellow

Experience: Filmmaker

Topic: Researching the film OWN IT!: Louis O. Kelso’s Macroeconomic Fix for presentation in the Public Broadcasting System for the sponsors Women Make Movies and Northern California Public Media (a PBS station)

12. Renee C. Hatcher, University of Illinois at Chicago, Kendeda Fellowship

Present position: Assistant Professor of Law and Director, Solidarity Economy Ticket

Topic: Analyzing and reimagining the legal Infrastructure for worker cooperatives in the United States, the Law of Solidarity

13. Molly Helmstreet, B.A. in Spanish and Latin American Studies, Duke University, Executive Fellow

Present position: Co-Executive Director of the Industrial Commons, which promotes worker ownership in North Carolina. She also founded Opportunity Threads, a worker-owned textile factory that is revivifying textile manufacturing.

Topic: Local economic development and worker ownership.

14. Denise Kasparian, University of Buenos Aires, Kendeda Fellowship

Present position: Assistant Professor of Sociology of Social and Solidarity Economy, Faculty of Social Sciences

Topic: Social empowerment in the economy within worker cooperatives of platform cooperativism

15. Esteban Kelly, B.S., Political Ecology and Global Development from the University of California, Berkeley; former Adjunct Professor, Hunter College. Executive Fellow

Present position: Executive Director, United States Federation of Worker Cooperatives

Topic: The development of worker cooperatives in the United States

16. Jungook Kim, Rutgers University SMLR, Louis O. Kelso Fellowship

Present position (position during fellowship, January 2023-June 2023): Assistant Professor, Chatham University

Topic: Continuation of the monthly brief research studies for the Employee Ownership Foundation and the Institute’s website

17. Kyoung Yong Kim, Villanova University, Louis O. Kelso Fellowship

Present position: Assistant Professor, Villanova University, Villanova School of Business

Topic: Are higher-quality employees more or less attracted to firms with employee ownership plans?

18. Dr. Felice Klein, Boise State University, J. Robert Beyster Fellowship

Present position: Assistant Professor, College of Business and Economics

Topic: Gender, race, and employee equity awards

19. Dr. Fabio Landini, University of Parma, Nachson and Arieh Mimran Fellowship

Present position: Professor of Applied Economics

Topic: Hierarchical Control under Profit Sharing Scheme in the Italian Longitudinal Database on Labor (RIL-INAPP)

20. Alison Lingane, Executive Fellow

Experience: Founder of the nonprofit Project Equity

Topic: Buyouts of retiring business owners using employee ownership

21. Jens Lowitzsch, Europa-Universität Viadrina Frankfurt (Oder), Faculty Fellow and Mentor of the Institute

Present position: Kelso Professorship of Comparative Law, East European Business Law and European Legal Policy at Europa-Universität Viadrina Frankfurt (Oder); Executive Director, Kelso Institute, Frankfurt

Topic: Analysis of new firms in Germany that represent hybrid worker-consumer cooperatives in sustainable energy as part of German energy policy with other pilot projects in the Czech Republic, Italy, Bulgaria, and Poland

22. Dr. Christopher Mackin, Harvard Labor and Worklife Program, Harvard Law School, Ray Carey Fellowship

Present position: Program Faculty

Topic: Analysis of credit enhancement and government guarantee policies to develop employee ownership of companies

23. Campbell MacDonald, Ownership at Work, Executive Fellow

Present position: Chief Executive Officer, Ownership at Work (OAW), UK’s new think tank on employee ownership

Topic: Evaluation of the function and performance of UK employee-owned firms

24. Dr. Cian McMahon, St. Mary’s University (Halifax). Patrick J. McGovern Fellowship

Present position: Postdoctoral Research Fellow, International Center for Co-Operative Management (ICCM)

Topic: What is the role for labor unions in governing worker cooperatives?

25. Jack Moriarty, Ownership America, Institute Policy Analysis Fellowship

Present position: Founder and Executive Director

Topic: Policy Analysis of Employee Ownership Legislative Initiatives

26. Eve O’Connor, Harvard University, Institute Fellowship

Present position: Ph.D. candidate, American Studies

Topic: Why cooperatives thrived in the early twentieth-century United States

27. Simon Pek, Gustavson School of Business, University of Victoria, Social Capital Partners Fellowship

Present position: Assistant Professor, Sustainability and Organization Theory, Gustavson School of Business, University of Victoria

Topic: Case studies of ESOP-like employee-owned firms in Canada

28. Sarah Reibstein, Princeton University, Institute Fellowship

Present position: Ph.D. candidate, Department of Sociology

Topic: A sociological case study of the Alaska Permanent Fund Dividend

29. Andrew Robinson, Leeds University Business School, Faculty Fellow and Mentor of the Institute

Present position: Professor of Accounting and Performance, Leeds University Business School; One of three project leads at the White Rose Employee Ownership Center set up by the Universities of Leeds, Sheffield, and York; Academic advisor on the UK’s new research institute, Ownership at Work

Topic: Performance of employee-owned firms

30. Adria Scharf, Rutgers University School of Management and Labor Relations, Institute Fellowship and Louis O. Kelso Fellowship

Present position: Adjunct Lecturer, Human Resource Management; Director of Education and Collaboration and Project Director, Curriculum Library for Employee Ownership (CLEO); and J Robert Beyster Fellow, Institute for the Study of Employee Ownership and Profit Sharing, Rutgers SMLR

Topic: Case studies of ESOP firms

31. Aquilina Soriano, graduate of UCLA in Asian Studies, Executive Fellow

Present position: Executive Director of the Pilipino Worker's Center, a resource and advocacy organization that empowers the Filipino community in Southern California

Topic: Home care worker cooperatives

32. Dr. Valerie Whitcomb, Salisbury University School of Business, Louis O. Kelso Fellowship

Present position: Instructor, Perdue School of Business, Salisbury University

Topic: Case studies of ESOP companies.

33. Nancy Wiefek, National Center for Employee Ownership, Joseph Cabral Distinguished Scholar and Fellow (second year of a two-year fellowship).

Present position: Research Director

Topic: The impact of ESOPs on employees

34. Trevor Young-Hyman, University of Pittsburgh, Louis O. Kelso Fellowship

Present position: Assistant Professor, Katz School of Business

Topic: The decision-making process of retiring business owners in considering an ESOP or a worker coop