Empower Work is thrilled to welcome Tina Wie to our Board of Directors during this pivotal moment in scaling our mission. As we celebrate Tina's addition, we also celebrate Jyot Bawa and Emily Kramer, who will transition to Board Emeritus roles. Their contributions have been invaluable in driving our growth and impact.

Additions deepen strategic expertise in scaling Empower Work’s approach that improves economic mobility and emotional well-being for vulnerable workers. Empower Work is excited to add two new members to our Board of Directors, Suprita Makh and Nancy Heinen at a pivotal growth inflection point for Empower Work. Simultaneously, we celebrate the longstanding commitment of Julie Lein, who helped get us to this point, and who will be stepping into Board Emeritus.

Over the past year, Empower Work collaborated  with the Office of the Surgeon General (OSG) as they explored a critical question: “How can workplaces be an engine for well-being?” Our team had the pleasure of working with Dr. Vivek Murthy’s research team, including Ashleigh Reeves, Project Lead, OSG Innovation and Design Team, as they explored new recommendations for workplaces rooted in worker voice. And our founder, Jaime-Alexis Fowler, was honored to be part of the launch for the new framework this fall.

In December 2022, Jaime-Alexis sat down with Ashleigh for a digital “fireside chat” with the Empower Work community to dig into the research behind the framework. This is a transcript of their Q&A as they took a look behind the scenes at how the pieces came together.

Here from Leigh Honeywell, who founded Tall Poppy, a company focused on fighting online harassment by working with employers to protect employees, on what she has to say about Empower Work and supporting each other in the workplace: “I’ve worked to understand the web of organizations whose missions touch the work we do. One of the most exciting organizations I’ve gotten to know in the field: Empower Work.”

We’re excited to announce a partnership with Omidyar Network to reach more people across the tech industry with our immediate, anonymous text support for challenging work situations.

Omidyar Network is a philanthropic investment firm dedicated to harnessing the power of markets to create opportunity for people to improve their lives. Tech and Society Solutions Lab is a new effort that draws on the organization’s long-standing belief in both the promise of technology to create opportunity and social good, as well as concern about negative outcomes that can result from this innovation.

This week, Empower Work received a game-changing $100,000 donation from the Pineapple Fund. The fund was started by an anonymous donor, “Pine,” who is making “bold, smart bets that hopefully impact everyone in the world” by giving away $86 million in Bitcoin.

Pineapple Fund’s transformative gifts to 30+ organizations have been highlighted by the New York Times, CNBC, Mashable not just for the impact, but for the intriguing new way that cryptocurrency is influencing philanthropy. Pine’s contribution is our largest individual gift to date — and our first Bitcoin donation.

It’s a powerful reminder of how a seemingly simple moment can be a turning point, and that’s core to our mission.