ITHACA, N.Y. – Cathy Creighton, who has served multiple roles with the Cornell University ILR School’s Buffalo Co-Lab for more than a decade, will become its director on Jan. 1, 2021. She succeeds Lou Jean Fleron.
For eight years, Creighton taught classes to workers interested in becoming union representatives through the ILR Extension’s Labor Studies Program. A graduate of the ILR School, she has also been involved with ILR’s High Road Fellowship program since its inception in 2009, serving on the program’s advisory board.
“Having Cathy take over the program is like passing the baton to a teammate in a relay race – you feel exhilarated, relieved and actively optimistic,” said Fleron, who has directed ILR programs in Buffalo since 1976. “Her preparation to run the next leg of the race for ILR in Buffalo assures wins in reaching the ultimate team prize – a more equitable, vibrant and sustainable economy.”
Creighton, a co-founding partner of the law firm Creighton, Pearce, Johnsen & Giroux, helped draft Buffalo’s living wage ordinance, is former chair of the city’s Living Wage Commission and is director of the Erie County Fiscal Stability Authority.
She serves on the Coalition for Economic Justice Workers’ Rights Board and is a former board member of the Lawyers Coordinating Committee of the AFL-CIO and the Labor and Employment Relations Association of Western New York.
“My commitment to labor stems not from something radical, but from common decency,” she said, “the belief that people should have a voice in their workplace and be treated fairly.”
For additional information, see this Cornell Chronicle story.
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