Join us Friday, March 5th at 12:30 pm central time for a special webinar presentation from Sheila Cochran and Dr. Michael Rosen in a discussion about the rise and fall of Black Milwaukee’s Blue Collar Middle Class. The event will hosted via Zoom and streamed live to our department’s Facebook page. 

This event is sponsored by UWM’s Department of African and African Diaspora Studies and is part of the 2020-21 AADS Webinar Series. 

Free registration required to join via Zoom:
Click Here to Register

About the Guest Speakers

Sheila D. Cochran is the retired Secretary-Treasurer/COO of the Milwaukee Area Labor Council, AFL-CIO, having served in the position for almost 20 years. Sheila was an employee of then Delco Electronics where she worked in electronics assembly, and was the elected Recording Secretary of Local 438 UAW, when she was elected into AFL-CIO service at the MALC.  She was the first African American and woman to serve in the position.  Over the course of 40 plus years she has served in civic, nonprofit and private Boards of Directors, has numerous political and civic accomplishments and awards.  In retirement she has  worked with organizations and causes of political, civic and is a devoted mother and grandmother.

Michael David Rosen taught economics at MATC for twenty-nine years, retiring in 2017. He served as the faculty union President for his last seventeen years of employment at MATC. He also served on the Wisconsin Technical College System state board from 2004 through 2010.

Dr. Rosen is an expert on Wisconsin labor history, student housing and food insecurity, student debt, the labor market, tax policy and the automobile industry.

He is currently the Director of the Local 212/MATC FAST Fund, a non-profit organization that provides quick financial assistance to Milwaukee Area Technical College (MATC) students experiencing economic emergencies.

He is a frequent contributor to Milwaukee Public Radio and has had columns published in the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, Wisconsin Examiner, Capitol Times and Urban Milwaukee. He recently contributed a chapter to the Johns Hopkins University Press’ book, Food Insecurity on Campus.

Dr. Rosen served on the Mayor’s (Milwaukee) Task Force on Tax Incremental Districts and African American Unemployment.

Dr. Rosen earned his BA from the University of Wisconsin Madison and his PhD from the University of Wisconsin Milwaukee.