Deborah Schwartz is the director of Workforce Equity and Innovation at the Healthcare Career Advancement Program (H-CAP). In this role, she leads H-CAP’s Center for Equity, a national hub focused on confronting occupational segregation in the healthcare industry and advancing high-quality caregiving jobs that center the majority BIPOC and women caregiving workforce. Deborah brings extensive experience working with unions, employers, labor-management training partnerships, and stakeholders to build equitable workforce development systems that advance worker power and quality care.
Before joining H-CAP, Deborah was elected vice president and home care director of SEIU District 1199NE in Connecticut. At the local union, she led bargaining, leadership development programs, policy, and legislative strategy to achieve breakthrough standards for over 10,000 home care workers. Deborah spearheaded workforce development programs as a trustee of the 1199NE Training & Upgrading Fund, co-chair of the labor-management initiative that established a first-time home care orientation and training program, and a legislative and gubernatorial appointee to a low-wage employer advisory board and human services policy committee respectively. Prior to serving as an elected officer at SEIU District 1199NE, Deborah led winning contract and field campaigns for 20,000 home care workers at SEIU Local 503 in Oregon.
Deborah earned her B.A. at Lewis & Clark College, where she graduated cum laude with a double major in History and Hispanic Studies, and a minor in Latin American Studies.