Thirteen stars of the “2013 Women Working” calendar were paid tribute on January 23 at the Troy, headquarters of the New York Workforce Development Institute (WDI). Among them was Zola Brown, who works in the Rochester field office of the 1199SEIU National Benefit Fund (NBF).



Brown never pictured herself as a “calendar girl.” When she was asked to be the February 2013 model on a calendar sponsored by the WDI, she didn’t know what to think. “I soon realized it was a privilege,” she said.



The calendar displays a photograph of a different woman labor activist for each month of the year. It is the brainchild of former 1199 Bread and Roses Director Esther Cohen and part of WDI’s Women of the Workforce initiative, a program created by and focused on working women.



Zola was honored for her decades of leadership in her union and community. Formerly an 1199 Delegate at Strong Memorial Hospital, today she leads the NBF’s partnership with the University of Rochester’s Center for Community Health and organizes wellness programs at community-based organizations. She is an Executive Vice-President of her area chapter of the Coalition of Black Trade Unionists and a delegate to the Rochester Labor Council.



Last year, she organized “Sisters for Obama”, a group of women dedicated to the reelection of President Obama and Congresswoman Louise Slaughter. “We brought together a group of 200 women who had never before participated in electoral politics. The next step is to build our group and to focus on the issues that matter to us most, in our own communities,” Brown said.



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The Women of the Workforce Initiative was created to address the challenges to success that many women face in the workplace: a continuing earnings gap, gender-segregated industries, juggling of work and home responsibilities, persistent employment barriers (child care, transportation, language), deterrents to women’s leadership and discrimination.



Free copies of the calendar are available: shains@wdiny.org