Tramontano to discuss equitable, sustainable approach to globalization

Karen Tramontano, founder and president of the Global Fairness Initiative, a nonprofit organization working to promote a more equitable, sustainable approach to globalization, will discuss the role of the informal economy in changing people’s lives at 6 p.m. Thursday, Nov. 8 in the DiStefano Lecture Hall.

Tramontano’s lecture is presented by the Pell Center for International Relations and Public Policy in conjunction with the Office of International Programs and the deans of arts and sciences and graduate and professional studies. To reserve a seat, contact the Pell Center at (401) 341-2927 or pellcenter@salve.edu.

It has been 40 years since the International Labour Organization first used the term “informal sector” to identify the now billions of unprotected workers engaged in legal but unregistered enterprises outside formal economic structures. Since then, the world’s economies, large and small, have undergone extreme booms and busts, and the most vulnerable have been those with the largest rates of informality. Today we face the challenge and opportunity to promote inclusive growth across interconnected and interdependent economies.

With four decades of successes and failures in integrating informal workers into mainstream markets, we have the knowledge to implement real and lasting change. Creating a larger deliberate framework for addressing the issue of informality will move the process beyond the theoretical. And including all stakeholders – workers, business and governments – will take us past short-term, immediate (and, ultimately, ineffective) fixes to a concerted approach for inclusive economic growth.

Before founding the Global Fairness Initiative, Tramontano served as deputy chief of staff to President Clinton and counselor to two chiefs of staff, Erskine Bowles and John Podesta. Her White House portfolio encompassed a wide range of issues, including international trade, transatlantic relations and economic and financial issues involving the U.S. Treasury and Commerce Departments.

Tramontano is currently the CEO and co-founder of Blue Star Strategies, LLC, which provides corporate, institutional and public sector clients with results-oriented strategies. Prior to founding Blue Star Strategies, she was a principal at Dutko Worldwide, where she developed comprehensive multi-level government advocacy strategies for complex global issues.