HGSU-UAW Executive Board
Executive Board
HGSU’s Executive Board, composed of thirteen of your fellow student workers, is primarily responsible for ensuring that membership decisions are duly executed. The Executive Board also oversees the day-to-day operations of our Union by keeping us informed during General Membership Meetings, managing staff and finances, and enforcing our contract rights to ensure our Union is strong and running smoothly.
Each and every board member has been integral to our fight for a safe and just campus for student workers, and brings a distinct set of skills, expertise and organizing experience that will inform their work and build our union.
Hello! My name is Denish and I am honored and excited to serve as HGSU president. I have been involved with the union since my first year in grad school (through all 3 of its strikes!) and have served as Steward, Contract Enforcement and Education Committee Chair, Trustee, and Bargaining Committee Member before coming on as President. Throughout my time, I have seen thousands of student workers choose to use their passion, brilliance, and courage to build better lives for themselves, their coworkers, and our community. As President, I look forward to working every day with our fiercely democratic membership as we continue to fight for a living wage and benefits, real protections against harassment and discrimination, and protections for our non-citizen and disabled workforce. Harvard might appear as a Goliath, but sometimes David wins. I commit to supporting our members every step of the way. Our union is the most inspiring organization I have ever been part of, and I am humbled to be part of its leadership.
My name is Evan, I joined HGSU in 2022 and was immediately excited to get involved with our union. I was a steward for the Public Health School between 2023 and 2025, and now serve as Vice President on the Executive Board. As VP I hope to foster a culture of trust, collective participation, and rank and file initiative in HGSU. I believe that our union shouldn’t be something that pops up every few years when the contract expires, or a distant provider of some set of services, but instead should be integrated into the social fabric of life at Harvard. Together we can build a strong, fighting union and win a fair contract that improves the lives of student workers.
Hi there – I’m Beau. I have been a part of HGSU as a member, steward at the School of Public Health, and now Financial Secretary. I oversee the financial health of our union and am responsible for communicating this information to our membership. I look forward to building a strong union community across campuses as a member of the executive board.
I’ve been a part of HGSU since my first year, where I helped review benefit fund applications for the Finance and Benefits Committee. I quickly found a community of supportive and passionate people who have become as integral to my experience here as my academic program itself. I joined the executive board as Treasurer in the summer of 2025 and I help the Financial Secretary oversee the financial health of our union. Outside of HGSU, I serve as an emotional support person to my needy beagle Mozart.
Sergeant-at-Arms
Grace Clements
G5, NELC
she/her
I joined HGSU when I first got to Cambridge and about two years later became the department representative for NELC. I’m happy that as rep and through the Libarts OC I’ve been able to meet so many people in the humanities, and since the beginning of the strike I’ve loved meeting people from disciplines I wouldn’t have worked with otherwise. It’s powerful to see workers across campus come together and fight for one another. As Sergeant-at-Arms for HGSU, I’m responsible for making sure those who attend Special and General Membership Meetings are members in good standing. Outside of the union, I teach Middle Egyptian hieroglyphs and enjoy playing music with friends and calling square dances.
HGSU’s Guide is the point-person for internal-facing organizing. This means that I get to work with our union’s wonderful stewards, department reps, and lab reps on building union involvement within their respective academic homes. If you’re having trouble connecting with your reps or stewards, or you want to share thoughts about the union’s presence or membership, let’s chat!
Three truths, no lies: I throw a mean porch dinner (New England weather permitting), dabble in teaching yoga, and want to be a philosopher when I grow up.
I’m Nate, a G2 in Chemistry and Chemical Biology. I joined the Union after a convincing orientation speech and following in the footsteps of my two parents in their teachers union. The growth of endowments and administrative bloat in academia requires a collective voice of the scholars who make higher education function. As Trustee, I am committed to organizing the scientists, teachers, and academics who are forced to accept inadmissible working conditions to provide the University the grants, academic acumen, and acclaim it needs to succeed. Outside of the Union, I take this fight to my chemical reactions and cheering for bad sports teams.
I’m delighted to be part of the Philosophy Department’s sinister yet cunning attempt to take over the HGSU Executive Board. Haters will say philosophers aren’t good for anything important, but we saw the Union putting the case that workers ought to have a safe workplace and a living wage and said: “hold our hemlock.”
Member-at-Large
Corinna Anderson
G3, GSD
they/them
I’m a third-year PhD student and was a steward at the GSD for two years before joining the Executive Board. As a Member-at-Large, I hope to help strengthen our social, caretaking, and organizing infrastructure to endure in the lulls between contract negotiations. Through past experience in transformative justice work, I’ve come to believe that external gains are only one measure of organizing success. As a vehicle for worker power on campus, our union can be a space of joy where we work together as equals on problems that matter.
Member-at-Large
Laura Chen
G5, Population Health Sciences
As Member-at-Large, I support the organizing efforts that keep HGSU strong and connected. I joined in 2022 at the start of my PhD, and became a steward in 2024. I have enjoyed getting to know people across the university, and hope to continue empowering workers to contribute to decisions that shape our lives here, making sure everyone knows their rights, protections, and power. Our union is not just a site of power-building, but also a community that makes the work enriching (and fun!)
Member-at-Large
Fernanda García
G5, Committee on the Study of Religion
Though I signed my HGSU membership card at my first-year orientation in 2022, I became an active organizer once I started teaching in 2024. The union gave me ––and can give all of us––a chance to effect real change in our workplace and support each other while we teach, research, work, and learn at Harvard. As Member at Large, I am looking forward to expanding rank-and-file involvement and investment in our union by creating opportunities for mutual support across turfs. Beyond my work in HGSU, I work as a teaching fellow at HDS and am in the process of writing my dissertation. You can find me ranting about public transit, medieval mysticism, and the state of the novel in various Cambridge / Somerville cafes!
