Beth Berendsen
Beth Berendsen is the Policy Director of Chicago Women in Trades through their National Center for Women’s Equity in Apprenticeship and Employment, where she leads advocacy efforts in the City of Chicago and State of Illinois to increase gender equity in the construction trades on publicly funded projects. She has more than 16 years of experience in community organizing, policy analysis, and issue-based advocacy. Before coming to Chicago Women in Trades, Beth conducted strategic research for SEIU Healthcare Illinois Indiana, and most recently was the policy analyst for the Chicago Department of Family and Support Services. She has also been a part of successful campaigns to end the death penalty in Illinois and raise the minimum wage in Ohio. She graduated from Northwestern University with her Master’s in Public Policy and Administration in 2013.
She is a member of A. Philip Randolph Institute, American Association of University Women (AAUW), and NAACP, Coalition of Black Trade Unionists. Vonda is active in a variety of organizations. She is a life member of Alpha Kappa Alpha Sorority Inc. and a member of the Tennessee State University National Alumni Association. Finally, Vonda is a Cabinet member of EMERGE TN, a program that recruits and trains Democratic women who want to run for office.
Vonda is the Vice Chair of the Music City Center Authority. The mission of the Music City Center is to create significant economic benefit for the citizens of the greater Nashville region by attracting local and national events while focusing on community inclusion, sustainability and exceptional customer service. She was re-elected to the Executive Council of the AFL-CIO in June of 2022. She was appointed by Nashville Mayor John Cooper, as a member of the Financial Oversight Committee for both CARES Act and ARP funds.
As a native Nashvillian, Vonda’s activism was sparked by the history of the church she grew up in. First Baptist Church, Capitol Hill was an early center of student organizing during the lunch counter sit- in movements. In her church, the seeds of revolution were planted in a church fellowship hall. The Nashville student movement leaders produced the likes of Reverend James Lawson, Congressman John Lewis and Diane Nash; they changed the course of history. They sat at lunch counters. They rode buses. They marched. Vonda learned growing up that Nashville history provides an important roadmap for the fusion politics/ Union/Community organizing that we need today. It is her belief that working at the intersections of labor, civil rights, faith and community organizing can bring us closer to the promise of equality for all and build real power for transformative change.