State Senator Lola Smallwood-Cuevas (D-Los Angeles) convened more than 75 leaders of labor, business and the public sectors at LA Trade Technical College on Friday for a first-of-its-kind summit focused on expanding equitable access to good paying jobs in three emerging industries – Green Infrastructure, Cannabis, and Artificial Intelligence (AI).
Led by Smallwood-Cuevas, the summit served as a call-to-action to develop a long-term workforce equity strategy tailored to California’s rapidly changing economy. Co-hosted by the UCLA Labor Center, the event featured workforce equity experts who led discussions on finding actionable solutions for driving job growth and economic mobility across California, particularly in underserved communities.
The summit opened with a workforce equity panel discussion featuring Senator Smallwood-Cuevas and notable guest speakers Capri Maddox, executive director of the LA Civil Rights Department; Dr. Manuel Pastor, professor of Sociology and American Studies & Ethnicity at USC; Dr. Steven Pitts, former associate director of the UC Berkeley Labor Center; and Saba Waheed, director of the UCLA Labor Center.