Vanka Lecture Series

Heidi Cook is Assistant Professor of Art History at Truman State University and received her PhD in the history of art and architecture at the University of Pittsburgh. Her research focuses on the relationship of tradition, especially folk culture, to modernism and modernity in the art, design, and museum history of Central and Eastern Europe. Her recent work highlights visual constructions of immigrant identity in the United States. She recently published the essay “Maksimilijan Vanka’s Beautiful Jela Wove Three Wreaths,” in Art and State in Modern Central Europe published by the University of Zagreb in 2024.

John Lepley has worked in the United Steelworkers’ Department of Education and Membership Development since 2010. He earned a BA in History and an MA in Industrial and Labor Relations from Indiana University of Pennsylvania and an MA in History from Indiana State University where he received the Gertrude and Theodore Debs Memorial Fellowship. Born in Minot Air Force Base, North Dakota, and raised in Jennerstown, Pennsylvania, John now calls Pittsburgh home.

Sabrina Yow-chyi Liu has been working at the United Steelworkers (USW) union in the Strategic Campaigns Department since December 2014. She conducts leverage research and works with USW members to build power against corporate greed during contract negotiations and labor disputes. She is the president and co-founder of APALA Pittsburgh (Asian Pacific American Labor Alliance Pittsburgh Chapter) which promotes immigrants’ and workers’ rights. She is also the president of KITA Foundation which focuses on community story-telling and oral history interview of Taiwanese freedom fighters and human rights defenders who lived in Pittsburgh from 1960s-1980s. Sabrina is an immigrant and a native of Taipei, Taiwan.

Jessica Rios Viner was born and raised in Puerto Rico, where she was an award-winning journalist for a Union-represented newspaper. She moved to Pittsburgh in 2019 to work for the United Steelworkers Union. She travels the country to help workers prepare contract negotiations and build power among their membership. She serves as the president of the Pittsburgh Chapter for the Labor Council for Latin American Advancement (LCLAA) and represents the USW in LCLAA’s National Executive Board. Jessica is a fierce advocate for immigrant rights and language access.

Moderator: Meredith Stepp has worked in the labor movement and for various labor unions for over twenty-five years. Currently, Meredith works as a labor educator within the United Steelworker’s Education and Membership Development Department. Prior to joining the USW, Meredith worked as a labor educator for the University of Arkansas at Little Rock for eight years where she taught topics in union building and contract administration to union representatives, officers, and members across the U.S. and Canada. Meredith is Board Chair of the Society to Preserve the Millvale Murals of Maxo Vanka and has a love for all things social justice and art.

Dr. Kirsten L. Paine is an educator and researcher with over a decade of experience in higher education and public humanities. She holds a PhD from the University of Pittsburgh and specializes in 19th-century industrial labor, American literature, and the Civil War. At Rivers of Steel, Kirsten creates programs that bring the National Heritage Area’s history to life through archival study and primary sources. A dedicated public historian, she is currently authoring a book on female Civil War nurses, soldiers, and spies.