Diversity in Labor Annual Awards

A Commitment to Diversity and Excellence

Each year since 2013, the City University of New York has supported the Joseph S. Murphy Scholarship for Diversity in Labor by providing an annual challenge-grant, encouraging yearly donations from numerous outside supporters. As a result, this scholarship program is able to provide generous scholarships to students pursuing their degrees at the CUNY School of Labor and Urban Studies.

The Joseph S. Murphy Scholarship for Diversity in Labor is unique in promoting leadership and diversity in labor, and in the scholarship amounts offered. Recipients receive up to $30,000 for graduate study toward an M.A. in Labor Studies or up to $20,000 for undergraduate study towards a B.A. in Labor Studies.

Recognized alongside the scholarship recipients at the Diversity in Labor gala is a rising leader in the labor and non-profit sectors who is advancing worker rights and advocating for social and economic justice.

This year’s recognition was awarded to Odetty Tineo, Political and Legislative Director at District Council 37. Tineo began her career in the labor movement as an intern with 32BJ SEIU’s Youth Brigade in college, returning as a coordinator and eventually serving as a 32BJ lead organizer. She later held key roles at the New York State Nurses Association, where she became the organization’s downstate political director and helped nurses win a major victory in the battle for more favorable staffing levels. As political and legislative director of District Council 37, she helped secure the first major labor contract agreement reached under the Adams administration, which set an $18 minimum wage and locked in future raises.

Katie Schools

MA Labor Studies

Growing up in a working-class family in rural Maine, Schools’s first job was on a farm working alongside migrant laborers. The inequities of the U.S. economy became clear to her early on and were solidified when she took courses on labor history and political theory as an undergraduate. Schools began her career in labor as an intern with the Maine AFL-CIO and later helped organize the Maine Restaurant Workers Coalition. She currently works for the Scontras Center for Labor and Community Education as part of the founding team to build out Maine’s new labor education center.

Terence Pyle

MA Labor Studies

Pyle’s interest in social justice and worker rights began at a young age, growing up and working with the Catholic Church in Guyana, one of the strongest voices for the poor and working class. After migrating to the U.S., Pyle joined the staff of DC37 Local 420 to continue his fight for the rights of workers. Pyle has been an active advocate for member-focused bargaining and modernizing collective bargaining agreements by incorporating stronger provisions for health and safety, adapting to technological changes, and addressing climate-related hazards.

Brianna Rodriguez

MA Labor Studies

Rodriguez’s activism began in high school when she mapped out heat vulnerability in her neighborhood and for the first time saw the hidden injustices that her community faced. During her first year as an undergraduate, Rodriguez joined NYPIRG, the student-led chapter of a statewide advocacy group, and eventually became its co-president where she led campaigns on higher education accessibility, consumer protection, voters’ rights, and environmental justice. Rodriguez aims to continue her advocacy through advanced study in labor history, law, and community organizing, further building the tools necessary to make systemic change.

Nicholas Simmons

MA Labor Studies

The son of two doctors, Simmons grew up hearing horror stories of his parents working grueling 36-hour shifts for less than minimum wage. This early sense of injustice fueled him to begin his career in the labor movement, starting in 2019 as an organizer in training with SEIU. Simmons has since organized alongside non-union hospital workers in Oregon, non-union nursing home workers in Chicago, and the newly unionized Resident Physicians at Montefiore Hospital in the Bronx while winning their historic first contract.

Mohammad Tipu Sultan

BA Labor Studies

Sultan has worked for more than 20 years as a licensed NYC taxi driver and advocate for workers’ rights. Since 2004, he volunteered and worked at the New York Taxi Workers Alliance, leading numerous campaigns including efforts to cap the number of for-hire vehicles, debt forgiveness for medallion owners, and fighting for the rights of app-based drivers. Sultan has also participated in advocacy movements alongside Tenant Associations, the Immigration Coalition, March for Education, the Street Vendor Project, and Fight for $15 and has worked alongside international human rights organizations to support global efforts for workers and human rights.

Tara Borth

MA Labor Studies

The daughter of a single parent, Borth began working to help support her family by age 14 and entered the service industry at 15. While an undergraduate in San Antonio, a local organizer introduced her to the labor movement. At 19, she took a job at a hotel where Unite Here was organizing with the goal of organizing to win a union and negotiate a contract. That first contract included some of the strongest protections against sexual harassment Unite Here had ever secured, and by the time Borth left San Antonio to join Culinary Union Local 226 in Las Vegas, the hotel had reached 95% union membership among Front of House staff and 60% overall—a huge achievement in a right-to-work state.