In 2020, we started a conversation about fair pay and wage transparency in museums (check out the program description here, and the video recording of the program here), and we are back to revisit this topic five years later. What have we accomplished in that time and what challenges do we still face as a community of practice?

Meet our panelists:

Marie Angel: I was born and raised in the East Bay, and have been a Curatorial Assistant in the Geology collection at the California Academy of Sciences (CAS) since 2018.

In the wake of pandemic-era layoffs and furloughs at CAS in 2020, a group of colleagues began meeting to discuss unionizing our workplace to ensure job security, better wages and benefits, and workplace safety, among other issues. As a founding member of CalAcademy Workers United, I served on our Organizing Committee for 18 months, talking with my colleagues to build solidarity and worker power. I was elected to our Bargaining Team, and we have been bargaining our first union contract for 16 months; hopefully we will win our contract soon!

Rita Haronian: Rita Haronian co-founded Nonprofit Compensation Associates in 2010. Her experience in producing compensation and benefits surveys began in 1983, when she worked on one of the first local nonprofit surveys developed by the Management Center in San Francisco. Along with her work on the annual surveys for Northern and Southern California, Rita has worked with local sponsoring organizations around the country to produce compensation and benefits surveys for their nonprofit communities since 2002. Other custom work include national and regional surveys for nonprofits in the fields of sexual assault/domestic violence prevention, nonprofit housing development, and services for people with vision loss.

Kara Newport: Kara Newport came to Filoli as the CEO in 2016 and since that time she has worked with exceptionally talented staff to ensure that Filoli is a place of beauty and refuge for the broadest community. With a shared passion for plants and history, she seeks to create resonant programming that connects people to this incredible place. Kara was first a professional fundraiser at diverse organizations including a science museum, a zoo and historic properties. She is committed to elevating the experience for all visitors through contributions from the community. She is most connected to the public gardens community as a director of a garden for over a decade and serving on the national public gardens board.