Christopher Michael, Director of Employee Ownership at the Newark Community Economic Development Corporation, will lecture on “Employee Ownership and Urban Economic Development,” as part of the Center for Urban Research and Education’s (CURE) Seminar Series.  The event will take place on Thursday, March 22nd, at 12:30 p.m. in Armitage Hall’s Faculty Lounge.  Lunch will be served.  All are welcome to this free event. 

Questions may be directed to Dr. Natasha Fletcher, Associate Director of CURE.

The abstract of the talk is as follows:

“To date, cities have not fully utilized employee ownership as an economic development strategy – as a means to retain businesses, improve the quality of jobs, and expand the local tax base.  In this lecture, Chris Michael will share personal experiences with initiatives in New York City and Newark, New Jersey, that aim to increase the number and size of employee-owned businesses in the local region.  As context, he will also relate findings from dissertation research on the history of employee ownership in the United States.”