Anna Burger

Hailed by Fortune Magazine as "the most powerful woman in the labor movement" Anna Burger retired in 2010 as both a top ranking officer at SEIU and the first chair of the labor federation, Change to Win. She brought together seven unions representing six million workers to develop a common agenda for working families, successfully negotiated with the White House on health care reform issues and negotiated the first bilateral agreement with the All-China Federation of Trade Unions.

A longtime strategist, Burger led SEIU’s grassroots election work through 2008, which helped elect President Barack Obama and worked across the movement in building a sustainable progressive infrastructure.

An outspoken voice on the critical role unions can play to restore economic fairness in America, she served on President Obama’s Economic Recovery Advisory Board from March 2009 – March 2011). As a Harvard University 2011 Advanced Leadership Initiative Fellow Burger focused her work on new models of civic engagement launching the Gettysburg Project on Civic Engagement which she co-chairs with Harvard University’s Kennedy School Academic Dean, Archon Fung.

Anna Burger serves as the New Conversations Project's Chair of the Board.