Coalition Partners

The mission of the AFL-CIO is to improve the lives of working families – bring economic justice to the workplace and social justice to the nation. To accomplish this mission, their goal is to build and change the American labor movement.

Visit AFL-CIO website

The mission of the AAP is to attain optimal physical, mental, and social health and well-being for all infants, children, adolescents, and young adults. To accomplish this mission, the AAP supports the professional needs of its members.

Visit AAP website

AASCU schools enroll more than three million students or 56 percent of the enrollment at all public four-year institutions. The American Association of State Colleges and Universities was established in 1961 in response to: "The growing impact of the federal government on higher education, particularly as it related to research grants and other grants-in-aid, had made it absolutely necessary that a strong national association be formed to represent the interests of students in state colleges and universities." AASCU grew out of the Association of Teacher Education Institutions organized in 1951 to serve public comprehensive institutions most of them having begun as single purpose institutions, most of them normal schools.

Visit AASCU website

The mission of the American College of Cardiology is to advocate for quality cardiovascular care – through education, research promotion, development and application of standards and guidelines – and to influence health care policy.

Visit American College of Cardiology website

 

     With roots dating to 1929, the American College of Nurse-Midwives (ACNM) is the oldest women's health care organization in the U.S. ACNM is the professional association that represents Certified Nurse-Midwives and Certified Midwives in the United States. ACNM provides research, administers and promotes continuing education programs, establishes clinical practice standards, creates liaisons with state and federal agencies and members of Congress.
     The mission of ACNM is to promote the health and well-being of women and infants within their families and communities through the development and support of the profession of midwifery as practiced by certified nurse-midwives, and certified midwives. The philosophy inherent in the profession states that nurse-midwives believe every individual has the right to safe, satisfying health care with respect for human dignity and cultural variations.

Vist ACNM website
 

ACE, the major coordinating body for all the nation's higher education institutions, seeks to provide leadership and a unifying voice on key higher education issues and to influence public policy through advocacy, research, and program initiatives.

Visit ACE website

The mission of the union includes:

Organizing workers in general, public employees in particular, promoting the welfare of AFSCME members and providing a voice in determining the terms and conditions of employment by using the collective bargaining process, as well as legislative and political action, promoting civil service legislation and career service in government, and assisting AFSCME members and affiliates through research and education.

Visit AFSCME website

The American Federation of Television and Radio Artists, is a national labor union of over 70,000 actors, singers and recording artists, dancers, announcers and other broadcast talent performers, journalists, and other artists working in the entertainment and news media. With more than 30 local chapters across the country, AFTRA promotes the success and welfare of members in a variety of ways, including contract negotiation and enforcement, advocating on legislative and public policy issues, supporting equal employment opportunities, and sponsoring or supporting health and retirement benefits and programs.

Visit AFTRA website

The national, independent public health Foundation was created in 1999 out of the landmark Master Settlement Agreement (MSA) between the tobacco industry, 46 state governments and five U.S. territories. It is located in Washington, D.C. and is a 501(c)(3) non-profit organization. The Foundation develops programs that address the health effects of tobacco use. The focus is on vulnerable populations – youth, low-income Americans, the less educated, and racial, ethnic and cultural minorities. The Foundation also works through grants, technical assistance and training, partnerships, youth activism, and counter-marketing and grassroots marketing campaigns.

Visit the American Legacy Foundation website

Now in its second century, the American Lung Association is the leading organization working to save lives, improve lung health and prevent lung disease. With your generous support, the American Lung Association is “Fighting for Air” through research, education and advocacy. The American Lung Association has many programs and strategies for fighting lung disease, such as tobacco control programs.

Visit American Lung Association website

The AAMC is a not-for-profit association representing all medical schools in the United States and Canada that grant the M.D. degree and are accredited by the Liaison Committee on Medical Education; major teaching hospitals and health systems, including Department of Veteran Affairs medical centers; and academic and professional societies. Through these institutions and organizations, the AAMC represents the leadership of the nation’s medical schools and teaching hospitals, as well as faculty members, medical students and resident physicians. The mission of the AAMC is to serve and lead the academic medicine community to improve the health of all.

Visit AAMC website

     Breast Cancer Network of Strength, formerly known as Y-ME National Breast Cancer Organization®, provides immediate emotional relief to anyone affected by breast cancer. The mission of Breast Cancer Network of Strength is to ensure, through information, empowerment and peer support, that no one faces breast cancer alone.
     YourShoes™ is Breast Cancer Network of Strength’s peer support program that includes a 24/7 breast cancer support center staffed by trained breast cancer survivors providing peer support through a toll-free hotline, e-mail and support groups.

Visit Breast Cancer Network of Strength website

CalPERS mission is to advance the financial and health security for all who participate in the system. They fulfill this mission by creating and maintaining an environment that produces responsiveness to all those they serve. CalPERS serves more than 1.4 million members and retirees.

Visit CalPERS website

Childbirth Connection is a national not-for-profit organization founded in 1918 as Maternity Center Association. Our mission is to improve the quality of maternity care through research, education, advocacy and policy. Childbirth Connection promotes safe, effective and satisfying evidence-based maternity care and is a voice for the needs and interests of childbearing families.

Visit Childbirth Connection website

The mission of CodeBlueNow is to create strong public will for change by engaging the public in designing, shaping and promoting a template for a new health care system.

Visit CodeBlueNow website

     Common Cause is a nonpartisan, nonprofit advocacy organization founded in 1970 by John Gardner as a vehicle for citizens to make their voices heard in the political process and to hold their elected leaders accountable to the public interest.  

     Today, Common Cause is one of the most active, effective, and respected nonprofit organizations working for political change in America.  Common Cause strives to strengthen our democracy by empowering our members, supporters and the general public to take action on critical policy issues.
Now with nearly 400,000 members and supporters and 36 state organizations, Common Cause remains committed to honest, open and accountable government, as well as encouraging citizen participation in democracy.  

Visit Common Cause Website
 

The Consortium for Citizens with Disabilities is a Coalition of national consumer, advocacy, provider and professional organizations headquartered in Washington, D.C. Since 1973, the CCD has advocated on behalf of people of all ages with physical and mental disabilities and their families. CCD has worked to achieve federal legislation and regulations that assure that the 54 million children and adults with disabilities are fully integrated into the mainstream of society. The Consortium for Citizens with Disabilities (CCD) envisions an American society in which all individuals, aided by an enabling government, have the freedom and opportunity to exercise individual decisions concerning their own lives, welfare and personal dignity.

CCD envisions a society in which communities are fully accessible to all individuals with disabilities and their families, where they are included and fully participate in all aspects of community life.

Visit CCD website

Duke’s mission is to make people’s lives better by providing gas and electric services in a sustainable way. This mission requires Duke to constantly look for ways to improve, to grow and to reduce their impact on the environment.

Visit Duke Energy website

     Easter Seals has been helping individuals with disabilities and special needs, and their families, live better lives for nearly 90 years. From child development centers to physical rehabilitation and job training for people with disabilities, Easter Seals offers a variety of services to help people with disabilities address life's challenges and achieve personal goals.
     Easter Seals offers help, hope and answers to more than a million children and adults living with autism and other disabilities or special needs and their families each year. Services and support are provided through a network of more than 550 sites in the U.S. and through Ability First Australia. Each center provides exceptional services that are individualized, innovative, family-focused and tailored to meet specific needs of the particular community served.

Visit Easter Seals website

Visit the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America website

Since 1910 Gross Electric has been one of Northwest Ohio & Southeast Michigan’s leading independent electrical and lighting distributors. Our lighting showrooms and electrical counters service a wide range of contractor, commercial, institutional and retail customers. Our product depth, breadth and the knowledge of our sales staff can provide you with the solutions for all your electrical needs. Gross Electric’s electrical supply division stocks over 35,000 products from 150 manufacturers.

Visit Gross Electric website

The International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers (IBEW) represents approximately 750,000 members who work in a wide variety of fields, including utilities, construction, telecommunications, broadcasting, manufacturing, railroads and government.

Visit IBEW website

The IFPTE’s mission is to allow tens of thousands of men and women working in professional and technical occupations a collective voice on the job. They give members an effective voice in the legislative process. All of their members are affected by our international, national, state and provincial legislatures in one manner or another. They advance issues that affect working families and assist candidates for government who advance those concerns unique to their membership. They raise the standards by which all professional and technical workers are employed.

Visit IFPTE website

On Dec. 27, 1918, the Iowa Farm Bureau was born. While much has changed since then, one thing hasn’t: the character of Farm Bureau and its more than 153,000-member families – a character rooted in timeless values like hard work, love of community, a passion for the land and a belief rooted in faith and family.

Farm Bureau is a unique and highly successful organization because it’s in business to serve members. The organization’s services, programs and benefits are developed based on the causes, concerns and needs important to members based on their beliefs and values – from leadership development, savings on preventative health care services and farm marketing seminars to programs to help young farmers thrive and prosper.

By reflecting the values of Iowans and its members and holding true to its mission of helping farm families prosper and improving their quality of life, Farm Bureau continues to grow stronger. Membership continues to grow, proof that Farm Bureau is offering the kind of programs and service that Iowans have come to expect and value.

Visit Iowa Farm Bureau website

The mission of Johns Hopkins Medicine is to improve the health of the community and the world by setting the standard of excellence in medical education, research and clinical care. Johns Hopkins educates medical students, scientists, health care professionals and the public; conducts biomedical research; and provides patient-centered medicine to prevent, diagnose and treat human illness.

Visit Johns Hopkins Medicine website

The Michigan Health & Hospital Association (MHA) is the statewide leader representing all of the 144 community hospitals in Michigan. Established in 1919, the MHA represents the interests of its member hospitals and health systems in both the legislative and regulatory arenas on key issues and supports their efforts to provide quality, cost-effective and accessible care.

The MHA continually provides a strategic assessment of emerging health care trends to help its members develop a framework to meet current and future needs of their communities.

Visit MHA website

Visit Motion Picture Association of America website

The National Association of Independent Colleges and Universities (NAICU) serves as the unified national voice of independent higher education. Since 1976, the association has represented private colleges and universities on policy issues with the federal government, such as those affecting student aid, taxation, and government regulation. Today, through new communication technologies, an improved governance structure, and increased member participation, NAICU has become an even more effective and respected participant in the political process.

The NAICU staff meets with policymakers, tracks campus trends, conducts research, analyzes higher education issues, publishes information, helps coordinate state-level activities, and advises members of legislative and regulatory developments with potential impact on their institutions. In addition, NAICU has spearheaded several major public initiatives, such as the Student Aid Alliance, an ambitious effort to enhance funding for existing student aid programs; and the nonpartisan National Campus Voter Registration Project that, in the last three congressional elections, has helped member institutions conduct both voter education programs and campaigns to register students and employees.

With nearly 1,000 members nationwide, NAICU reflects the diversity of private, nonprofit higher education in the United States. Members include traditional liberal arts colleges, major research universities, church- and faith-related institutions, historically black colleges and universities, women's colleges, performing and visual arts institutions, two-year colleges, and schools of law, medicine, engineering, business, and other professions. NAICU is committed to celebrating and protecting this diversity of the nation's private colleges and universities.

Visit NAICU website

The conference’s core missions are federal advocacy, conducting research vital to the public pension community, and education of pension trustees and officials.

Visit NCPERS website

The NCCMP's mission is to assure an environment in which multiemployer plans can continue in their vital role in providing benefits to working Americans with a minimum of regulatory or other interference.

Visit NCCMP website

The purposes of the Council are to: provide guidance in the development and management of financially sound and equitable retirement plans for qualified career public employees, and to promote benefit levels for members and beneficiaries that will assure economic security; and encourage plan directors, administrators, and trustees to: (a) provide progressive leadership and sound management to assure that plan objectives are attained; (b) identify problems that impact plan administration and devise solutions in those problems; (c) act as a catalyst in dealing with federal legislative and regulatory issues that impact plan administration.

Visit the National Council on Teacher Retirement website

The National MS Society is dedicated to helping individuals suffering from multiple sclerosis. The Society helps individuals address the challenges of living with MS through their 50-state network of chapters. In addition, the Society funds cutting-edge research, drives change through advocacy, facilitates professional education, and provides programs and services that help people with MS and their families move their lives forward.

Visit The National MS Society website

     The National Council of La Raza (NCLR) – the largest national Hispanic civil rights and advocacy organization in the United States – works to improve opportunities for Hispanic Americans. Through its network of nearly 300 affiliated community-based organizations (CBOs), NCLR reaches millions of Hispanics each year in 41 states, Puerto Rico, and the District of Columbia. To achieve its mission, NCLR conducts applied research, policy analysis, and advocacy, providing a Latino perspective in five key areas – assets/investments, civil rights/immigration, education, employment and economic status, and health. In addition, it provides capacity-building assistance to its Affiliates who work at the state and local level to advance opportunities for individuals and families.

     Founded in 1968, NCLR is a private, nonprofit, nonpartisan, tax-exempt organization headquartered in Washington, DC. NCLR serves all Hispanic subgroups in all regions of the country and has operations in Atlanta, Chicago, Los Angeles, New York, Phoenix, Sacramento, San Antonio, and San Juan, Puerto Rico.

Visit NCLR website

OCA is a national organization dedicated to advancing the social, political, and economic well-being of Asian Pacific Americans in the United States. Founded in 1973 as the Organization of Chinese Americans, OCA aims to embrace the hopes and aspirations Asian Pacific Americans in the United States.

OCA is engaged in organizing its over 80 chapters and college affiliates across the nation to develop both leadership and community involvement. OCA chapters and our college affiliates are establishing strong local programs in all parts of the country.

Visit OCA website

The Religious Action Center of Reform Judaism is the Washington office of the Union for Reform Judaism, whose more than 900 congregations across North America encompass 1.5 million Reform Jews, and the Central Conference of American Rabbis, whose membership includes more than 1,800 Reform rabbis.

Visit the Religious Action Center for Reform Judaism

Small Business Majority is a national nonprofit advocacy organization focused on solving the skyrocketing cost of providing healthcare to employees.

Small Business Majority is run by small business owners. The organization uses nonpartisan scientific research to understand and represent the interests of all small businesses, from sole proprietors to 100-person companies.

Visit Small Business Majority website

Teva Pharmaceutical Industries Ltd. is a global pharmaceutical company specializing in the development, production and marketing of generic and proprietary branded pharmaceuticals and active pharmaceutical ingredients. Teva is among the top 20 pharmaceutical companies and among the largest generic pharmaceutical companies in the world.

With more than a century of experience in the healthcare industry, the Company enjoys a firmly established international presence, operating through a carefully tailored network of worldwide subsidiaries. Headquartered in Israel, above 80% of Teva's sales, which totaled US$ 11.1 billion in 2008, are in North America and Europe. Teva has over 38,000 employees worldwide and production facilities in Israel, North America, Europe and Latin America.

Visit Teva website

U.S. PIRG is an advocate for the public interest. U.S. PIRG's mission is to deliver persistent, result-oriented public interest activism that protects our health, encourages a fair, sustainable economy, and fosters responsive, democratic government. The organization tackles pressing issues, such as product safety, political corruption, prescription drugs and voting rights. U.S. PIRG has a strong network of researchers, advocates, organizers and students in state capitols across the country.

Visit U.S. PIRG website

The United Food and Commercial Workers International Union is a labor union representing approximately 1.4 million workers in the United States and Canada in many industries, including agriculture, health care, meatpacking, poultry and food processing, manufacturing, textile, G4S Security, and chemical trades, and retail food.

Visit UFCW website

The United States Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB) is an assembly of the hierarchy of the United States and the U.S. Virgin Islands who jointly exercise certain pastoral functions on behalf of the Christian faithful of the United States. The purpose of the Conference is to promote the greater good which the Church offers humankind, especially through forms and programs of the apostolate fittingly adapted to the circumstances of time and place. This purpose is drawn from the universal law of the Church and applies to the Episcopal conferences which are established all over the world for the same purpose.

The bishops themselves constitute the membership of the Conference and are served by a staff of over 350 lay people, priests, deacons, and religious located at the Conference headquarters in Washington, DC. There is also a small Office of Film and Broadcasting in New York City and a branch office of Migration and Refugee Services in Miami.

Visit USCCB website