Episode 211: The Need For Paid Family Leave

Episodes
Written By June Moses

Work. We all do it because we have bills to pay. But what happens when an unexpected emergency occurs and you need time away from work-hopefully paid time? To discuss work, the Family and Medical Leave Act (FMLA), paid leave, and the possibilities of disconnecting work from benefits, L. Joy brings Executive Director of Family Values @ Work, Josephine Kalepini to the front of the class. 

Homework:

Our Guest:

A national leader, social worker, organizer and vocal advocate for justice and liberation for Black and Indigenous people, immigrants and people of color, Josephine Kalipeni has served as the executive director of Family Values @ Work (FV@W) since October 2021.

Kalipeni is an expert on care with a race- and gender-equity lens and believes that the future of work must center the caregiving infrastructure. Under her leadership, the economic justice-focused FV@W nationwide network of more than two dozen organizations is mobilizing to address the most pressing issues facing working families. This includes paid family and medical leave, earned sick days and affordable, high-quality childcare. To date, as a result of FV@W and its partner organizations’ state and federal efforts, more than 55 million workers have been impacted positively by paid sick days and family leave wins.

Born in Malawi, in southeast Africa, Kalipeni has witnessed firsthand the inequities and systemic failures that plague both the poorest and wealthiest countries in the world and believes that those most impacted by the problems are closest to the solutions. As a millennial caregiver herself, Kalipeni is committed to advancing a culture of care that recognizes and values caregiving and caregivers, and fostering a society and economy in which all people have the rights and supports they need to live and thrive with dignity.

The oldest of six children, Kalipeni and her family moved from Malawi to the United States when she was a child and her father, an academic focused on geography and infectious disease, joined the faculty of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.

Kalipeni attended the University of Illinois-Urbana as an undergraduate, studying sociology and political science, with the intention of becoming a lawyer. Her career trajectory changed when she began working with Generations of Hope, an innovative nonprofit that facilitates diverse, intergenerational, “intentional neighboring” communities that provide support for vulnerable children and youth and families — particularly those with adopted foster children — and purposeful lives for elders.

Driven by her experience, Kalipeni then earned a masters degree in social justice and community development at Loyola University in Chicago and launched a successful career in policy and organizing that centers on the most marginalized and seeks to dismantle racism and the narratives of individualism, scarcity and “the deserving.”

Prior to her leadership appointment, Kalipeni served as deputy director of the organization. She previously worked as a strategy consultant and was director of policy and federal affairs for Caring Across Generations and has published several policy research briefs. Kalipeni has served on outreach and policy committees for political campaigns and the board of directors for a number of organizations, including the National Academy for Social Insurance, American Association of Caregiving Youth, and Maryland Legislative Agenda for Women.

Kalipeni is a communications fellow at The Opportunity Agenda.

June Moses
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Episode 212 Engaging & Base Building
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Episode 210:A Plan For Basic Human Rights