09/24/2025: Work Futures Initiative: Lessons Learned from Sandbox Conversations and Next Steps

Recorded on Wednesday, September 24, 2025

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Work Futures Initiative: Lessons Learned from Sandbox Conversations and Next Steps

About the webinar:

The project organized a series of 16 “Sandbox” meetings in 2024 and 2025, which brought together diverse thought leaders and stakeholders from multiple, work-relevant fields and occupations. These participants were asked to offer their best thinking and perspectives about the current state of work and living, as well as predictions of the future. These virtual conversations were conducted without predetermined agendas so that we could capture “unfiltered views” about our country’s current and future state. The Sandbox summaries are being collated into a two-volume book.

This webinar will present some lessons learned from the Sandboxes and provide information about the next phases of the Work Futures Initiative: the Mixer and the Summit.

The next phase of the Initiative is an in-person Mixer event, where a diverse set of experts will synthesize the information gathered from the Sandboxes to forge a new, collaborative, and interdisciplinary vision for the future of work, workers, and workplaces. Following the framework development, a contracted cohort of experts will transform these ideas into tangible outputs, thus translating the future of work vision into actionable strategies.

Learning Objectives

By the end of this activity, learners will be able to: 

  • Describe diverse perspectives on work, worker health, and workplaces from different occupational groups
  • Identify current challenges in the workplace and emerging opportunities for improvement
  • Explain the methodology and goals of the Work Futures Initiative
  • Recognize the interconnected nature of work-related issues across multiple disciplines

Speaker: Cristina Banks, PhD

Dr. Banks is Director of the Outreach Core for the California Labor Laboratory, a NIOSH Total Worker Health Center of Excellence at UCSF. She is also Director of the Interdisciplinary Center for Healthy Workplaces at UC Berkeley. In these roles, Dr. Banks leads the translation and dissemination of research into practice for the CA Labor Lab and facilitates collaboration with 20+ researchers and affiliates across multiple disciplines, integrating known sciences and practices underlying healthy workplaces.

ACCREDITATION

The Center for Occupational and Environmental Health designates this activity for a maximum of 1.0 Contact Hour. Participants should claim only the credit commensurate with the extent of their participation.

Certificates of Completion

Certificates of Completion will be available to webinar participants who are present for the complete, live webinar, and logged in with their registered email address. Call-in attendees are not eligible for certificates at this time - Please download the Zoom app to log in via email on your smartphone whenever possible.

In order to receive your Certificate of Completion, qualified learners must complete the post-webinar evaluation within 7 days of the webinar. A link to the evaluation will be emailed to qualified learners 24 hours after the webinar via no-reply@zoom.us. Qualified learners who submit their evaluation will receive a Certificate of Completion via email, and can also print/save the certificate from their browser after submitting their evaluation.

If you're not able to attend the live presentation, no problem! We record most presentations and will host them on our website provided we have permission to do so. Presentation recordings are not eligible for Certificates of Completion.

ACCESSIBILITY:

If you require an accommodation for effective communication (ASL interpreting/CART captioning, alternative media formats, etc.) to fully participate in this event, please contact Will Bellamy at (510) 642-8365 or wbellamy@berkeley.edu with as much advance notice as possible and at least 7-10 days in advance of the event.

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About the California Labor Lab

The California Labor Lab is a collaboration among investigators at UCSF, UC Berkeley, and the California Department of Public Health. The Lab is housed at the Philip R Lee Institute for Health Policy Studies at UCSF. Our mission is to extend the pursuit of health and safety for workers in traditional employment to those in a wide range of alternative arrangements in partnership with affected communities.