Candidates + Supporters
What’s your name and what’s your role at UW?
My name is Levin Kim, and I am an international ASE in the Information School. I currently work as a Teaching Assistant, and have worked as a Predoc Instructor and Research Assistant while at UW.
What position are you running for?
I’m running for my second term as 4121 President.
How did you get involved with 4121? (What’s your origin story?)
I first got involved in our union as a rank-and-file member through the International Solidarity Workgroup in 2020 during Trump 1.0 to protest ICE's haphazard policies and the lack for meaningful support from UW. Through this experience I saw firsthand how 1-1 organizing conversations, direct actions, and strategic communications lead to structural change. We successfully fought back UW Admin's attempts to fire international students stuck outside of the country, and beat back the Trump Admin's attempts to deport international students en masse during the COVID pandemic.
As I got more involved in our Local through bargaining in 2021, I found many opportunities to improve internal structures & communications to facilitate membership empowerment at scale, which led me to develop materials and structures to help onboard members. But ultimately, there truly are no shortcuts to building democratic empowerment at scale -- power is wielded through mass participation. With this lesson in mind, I ran for VP during the last triennial elections determined to grow our power at UW through increasing membership and strengthening our relationships with other progressive unions and community organizations.
What do you want 4121 to win in the next 3 years?
Over the last two years, I've been proud to lead the Local through an unprecedented growth our 20 year history in terms of size, membership rates, and our footprint within the broader labor movement. We expanded our membership to 1,400 Research Scientists and Engineers after the first-ever researchers' strike in the US. Working with the RSE & PD organizing committees to design an effective strike strategy incorporating direct actions, legal strategy, and organizing & comms. Following the RSE/PD strike, I worked with organizing committees & staff to get all three bargaining units to majority membership for the first time ever in our union's history.
Ultimately, getting involved in our union was how I found a political voice in a structure that is not designed to give political agency to people like me. It's no mistake that Trump 2.0 is waging an all-out war against higher ed, specifically as a way to target immigrants by using federal funding as leverage to further his own political agenda.
What’s your name and what’s your role at UW?
My name is Abby Gambrill (she/her). As a graduate student, I was a member of the Neuroscience program from 2006-2011. After a postdoc down at the Scripps Research Institute, I returned to UW as a Research Scientist in 2018 in what is now called the Neurobiology & Biophysics department. I was an RSE from 2018-2024, after which I left to take an organizing position at UAW Local 4121.
What position are you running for?
I’m running for Vice President.
How did you get involved with 4121? (What’s your origin story?)
I was a member of our union as a grad student, but was never really involved in the organizing side of things. When I returned to UW in 2018, Research Scientists were not yet unionized – we also had incredibly stagnant wages, and nobody I talked to seemed to know what it would take for me to earn a promotion – including my PI. The Covid pandemic exacerbated my frustrations because I was being told I needed to continue to come into work in person, even when there was very little for me to do. So when a UAW organizer asked me, “Would you like to have more control over your own working conditions?” I was absolutely game to make that happen.
I began organizing in my own department to help form the RSE union, and eventually became a member of our Organizing Committee and Bargaining Team. I currently work 20 hours/week for our Local as a Staff Organizer with a focus on the RSE unit, and 20 hours/week for UAW International as a Temp Organizer, with a focus on the Research Coordinator & Consultant campaign. I have previously held the elected positions of the RSE Unit Recording Secretary and the Executive Board Recording Secretary.
What do you want 4121 to win in the next 3 years?
I want us to win more power! Whether it is enforcing our current contract or bargaining for our next one, we need power to accomplish our goals. Power comes from a strong, engaged, and confident membership. I want every worker at UW to understand why they should join their union, and every union member to know exactly how to get more involved. Specifically, I would like us to build out a lab- and department-level network of leaders who feel confident developing their own campaigns and vehicles, as well as organizing around membership. I want our RSE and Postdoc units to be at 60% membership going into bargaining, and I want Research Coordinators & Consultants under contract with 4121!
-
FounderIt all begins with an idea. Maybe you want to launch a business. Maybe you want to turn a hobby into something more.
-
Description text goes here
What’s your name and what’s your role at UW?
My name is Iván Cruz and I am a research scientist in the Department of Otolaryngology and Neurobiology & Biophysics studying regeneration of mechanosensory hair cells in zebrafish. I am also the current Unit Chair for the RSE Unit.
What position are you running for?
I am running for the position of Unit Chair for the Research Scientist/Engineer unit.
How did you get involved with 4121? (What’s your origin story?)
I first got involved with 4121 during the final stages of the Postdoc negotiations in 2019, supporting the bargaining team by taking notes and assisting with essential tasks. That experience opened my eyes to the power of collective action, and I became involved in the initial membership drive and contract enforcement efforts.
When I transitioned to a research scientist role, the Research Scientist/Engineer (RSE) unionization campaign was just beginning and I knew I wanted to be part of it. The opportunity to help build a union from the ground up was really exciting. From 2020 to 2023, I played a leading role in coordinating the RSE unionization effort by helping guide the campaign through every stage, from the first card check to drafting and negotiating our first RSE collective bargaining agreement.
Since the ratification of our contract, I’ve remained committed to strengthening our union. I’ve actively worked on membership drives to grow our collective power ahead of the 2026 contract expiration and have participated in multiple grievances to ensure our hard-won rights and benefits are enforced. My journey with 4121 has been driven by a deep belief in the power of solidarity and a commitment to ensuring every member’s voice is heard and respected.
What do you want 4121 to win in the next 3 years?
My goal is to ensure that every member of UAW 4121 not only works, but thrives in Seattle. This starts with fighting for salaries that keep pace with the rising cost of living and keep pace with peer institutions for each of our units. Competitive pay is essential to retaining and supporting the brilliant researchers, scholars, and staff who drive innovation at UW.
For Research Scientists and Engineers (RSEs), I want to streamline the position review (promotion) process by ensuring it is clearly defined and accessible in our contract. No one should be left wondering how to advance their career, and I will work to ensure more members can successfully navigate and benefit from this process.
I will push for a simplified, transparent reimbursement system—one that ensures members are paid accurately and on time without the current administrative hurdles. When members incur expenses, they deserve a process that works for them, not against them.
I am eager to collaborate with other UW workers to expand access to affordable, reliable child care support at UW as this is a critical necessity for all of our UAW4121 members.
Finally, I am dedicated to expanding the rights and protections for international workers across all three units. UW should be a welcoming place for the brightest minds from around the world, and strengthening these protections will help us attract and retain global talent while safeguarding their ability to work and thrive without unnecessary obstacles.
I am running to build a stronger, more equitable future for all UAW 4121 members—one where every worker, regardless of their role or background, is supported, valued, and empowered to succeed.
I'm an ASE in the Information School and have been an active member of our union since 2020, when I joined the Housing Justice and Communications Working Groups, and eventually became the co-chair of Comms. In 2022, I joined the Joint Council as an ASE Head Steward and served as a member of the 2024 ASE Bargaining Team last year.
Communications and organizing are fundamentally linked, and in the last five years I've learned that our traditional mass communication channels should always be considered a supplement to on-the-ground, 1:1 organizing. While the Comms WG has evolved since I've joined it, seeing the possibilities and limitations it affords has led me to better value the importance of structured organizing for strong membership, strong leaders, and strong contracts. As a Head Steward and in the role of ASE-at-Large, I have and will continue to be involved in this organizing work that includes education, campaigns, and empowering leaders across our union to grow our collective power.
Activating more members and leaders and organizing new units across UW will put us in a position to win and enforce strong contracts, and to make a powerful impact in the 2028 General Strike. Based on my experience as a Head Steward, I believe that elected union leadership needs to be on the same page with shared priorities in order to efficiently enact these goals.
-
Description text goes here
What’s your name and what’s your role at UW?
My name is Valerie Bentivegna, and I am a RSE (Research Scientist and Engineer) in the Biology Department. I was one of the founding members of my lab, where I play a supportive role as lab manager while also leading my own research projects.
What position are you running for?
I am running for the position of RSE rep-at-large
How did you get involved with 4121? (What’s your origin story?)
I joined UW in October 2022, right as the RSEs were in the thick of bargaining. It quickly became clear to me that organizing and collective action were key to securing a fair contract for myself and my colleagues. I supported both RSEs and Postdocs in my department in preparing for the June 2023 strike, signing folks up for strike assistance, and documenting rallies through photography. That experience was incredibly energizing; seeing how we could come together and create real change inspired me to stay involved. Since then, I’ve served as a department steward and am now excited to continue advocating for RSEs as Rep-at-Large.
What do you want 4121 to win in the next 3 years?
It feels scary and demotivating to think about the next couple years but I am hopeful that we will be able to continue to make a difference at our institution, in our state, and in our country as a united labor movement. I want to make sure that RSEs are paid fairly for their work and the (expensive) city we live in, without having to worry about tracking hours. I want to build more security and protections for our international colleagues, so they don't have to worry about speaking out against injustices, or spending their own time and money on visa renewals.
I’m proud of the work we’ve done and excited to continue improving the working conditions for all academic employees and create an equitable future for all of us!
Pic + bio coming soon!
-
Description text goes here
-
Description text goes here
Pic + Bio coming soon!
What’s your name and what’s your role at UW?
My name is Shane Patrick. I'm an RSE4 working for the Washington Nanofabrication Facility as the Manager for Lab Operations and Safety among many other hats within the unit.
What position are you running for?
Head RSE Steward
How did you get involved with 4121? (What’s your origin story?)
I participated in the RSE strike that was necessary to win our first CBA, initially remotely via phone banking and then on-the-ground. After winning our CBA, I volunteered to take my knowledge of UW's safety systems and mechanisms to bat and became UAW4121's representative to the University-Wide Health and Safety Committee along with supporting our contract enforcement team where health and safety issues occur.
What do you want 4121 to win in the next 3 years?
Stronger, better defined protections against retaliation for filing a safety incident report or safety concern
Better coverage for healthcare
Childcare resources
My name is Erin Heiniger, and I grew up in a suburb of Milwaukee, Wisconsin. My first job was working at a public library, where I enjoyed the protections and increased pay rate of being a union member. I went on to study Bacteriology at University of Wisconsin Madison for my B.S., then got my Ph.D. in Microbiology at UW Seattle in 2012. I completed my post doc in the Yager lab in the UW department of Bioengineering, then have stayed on as a research scientist for the past five years. In 2023,
I joined the UW Institutional Biosafety Committee as an expert in at-the-bench laboratory safety. When RSEs unionized, I joined right away and have been volunteering as a steward in my department for the past year. Outside of work, I enjoy reading and crafting, and live with my family, including two school-aged kids.
I believe that everyone is entitled to collective bargaining as a union, and that participating in a union is one of the ways we can protect democracy and equality. I became a steward for bioengineering because I believe in growing our power as a union and bringing in as many viewpoints as possible. This year I am running as a head steward so I can keep helping build our unit and make life better for my colleagues. Over the next three years, I want to increase RSE membership to 75% and win increased wages, increased job security, and better education for the unit on what it means to be unionized.
-
Description text goes here
