2010 Making Media Connections Conference

Roger Kerson has more than two decades of experience as a communicator, researcher, writer and organizer for labor, community and non-profit organizations. Most recently, Roger was director of public relations at the United Auto Workers in Detroit, where he led the union’s efforts in media relations, advertising, polling and public opinion research, and supervised web, video, and print publications. Roger’s accomplishments at the UAW include: Leading the UAW’s response to the auto crisis in 2008 and 2009, as part of an industry coalition, which won federal aid for the industry. He supervised the “I am the UAW” brand advertising campaign, as well as UAW TV and radio advertising during the 2008 elections and produced web, print and video materials for successful UAW organizing campaigns, which brought tens of thousands of new members into the union.  He also successfully conducted and/or preparing for interviews with local, regional, national and international publications, including the NY Times, Wall Street Journal, USA Today, AP, Reuters, Bloomberg, CNN, CNBC, Fox Business Network, the Today Show, Good Morning America, NBC, ABC and CBS Nightly News, NPR, PBS Newshour,. He has written and placed  placed op-eds in the Wall St.Journal, Washington Post, Boston Globe, NY Daily News, Detroit News, Detroit Free Press, El Diario, Huffington Post, US News and World Report, and others.  In addition to his work at the UAW, Roger has provide communications, research and organizing services to a wide variety of organizations, including AFSCME, the Midwest Center for Labor Research, the Detroit Council of Newspaper Unions, the Ecology Center, the Chicago Rehab Network, the National Training and Information Center and the Chicago Affordable Housing Coalition.

Roger’s articles, essays and reviews have appeared in the Chicago Reader, the Chicago Sun Times, the Columbia Journalism Review, In These Times, the Michigan Voice, Technology Review, the Washington Monthly, and other publications. Roger lives in Ann Arbor, Michigan with his wife, Robin Kaplan, an attorney/counselor at the University of Michigan Law School, and their two daughters, Sarah and Astrid.