Our Leadership
Learn more about our elected union leadership.
Learn more about our elected union leadership.
Jamie Gulley joined SEIU as an organizer in 2002 and was elected President in 2012. Jamie has led some of the most important victories at SEIU Healthcare MN including organizing campaigns that brought in more than 30,000 new hospital, nursing home, and homecare workers–tripling the size of the union–and leading negotiations for a $15 minimum wage in all Twin Cities hospitals and clinics. In addition to serving as President of SEIU Healthcare Minnesota, Jamie represents our members on the SEIU International Executive Board, SEIU Minnesota State Council, Minnesota AFL-CIO Executive Committee, the Minnesota Community Measurement Board for Healthcare Disparities, and the Greater Twin Cities United Way. Jamie also chairs the Twin Cities Hospital Pension Fund that supports 12,000 current and retired members. Jamie graduated from the National Labor College and is currently pursuing a Master’s in Labor Studies at University of Massachusetts Amherst. He lives in West St. Paul with his wife and four daughters. Jamie hosts virtual office hours the third Wednesday of the month (unless otherwise noted) from 2pm – 6pm. Office hours are open to any member who wants to join. Join here: https://seiuhcmn.zoom.us/j/89868719375?pwd=cmtKSzJ1WVJRaFlheWtuYnJudks4dz09
Jigme Ugen is the first Tibetan refugee in the world to be elected as a US labor union leader. He worked in several non-profit organizations across the world before immigrating to the US in 2001 and joined the Late Sen Paul Wellstone's campaign. After Paul's death, he joined SEIU HCMN in 2002 as an organizer and in 2007, he was elected Executive Vice President. He handles the Union's finance and leads the digital communications. He was elected to the Board of Auditors for SEIU International and also represents the Local as a Trustee on the Minneapolis Regional Labor Federation; SEIU MN State Council and the Twin City Hospital Workers’ Pension Fund. He serves as the 1st Vice President the Asian Pacific Islanders Caucus of SEIU. He is also a board-member on the Minnesota AFL-CIO, the Working Partnerships, the Blue Green Alliance and 100% Climate. Jigme remains committed to fighting for and centering the voices and experiences of refugees, immigrants, and people of color around worker’s rights, environmental and racial justice across the world. His life story has been recorded and preserved by the Minnesota Historic Society. He was born in Kalimpong, India, and graduated from Delhi University. He is deeply engaged with the Tibetan community and Tibet’s independence movement. He has a daughter named Zenden.
Phillip Cryan (he/him) was first elected Executive Vice President of our union in 2015. He first joined the staff in 2009 as Assistant Organizing Director, then served as Organizing Director. He led the 2012-2013 campaign to win organizing rights for consumer-directed home care workers in Minnesota and the home care union election campaign in 2014. Currently he directs the Clinics and Home Care sectors of our union, as well as our legislative program. He also serves as a Trustee of the Twin City Hospital Workers Pension Fund. Phillip holds a Masters degree from the Goldman School of Public Policy at the University of California, Berkeley, and received his Bachelors from the same university. Before joining our union, he did organizing and advocacy work for a number of different community, faith-based, and political organizations in Iowa, California, and Colombia, and did public policy research and writing on a variety of issues. He lives in Minneapolis with his wife and two children.
Brenda Hilbrich began her work as an organizer with SEIU Healthcare Minnesota in 1998. She continued her work in SEIU with the international union and locals in Wisconsin and New York before returning home to HCMN in 2005. During her years with SEIU she has organized new members, led negotiations for pattern setting contracts and first contracts, designed and built the Member Action Center to effectively and efficiently address member grievances so that the union could also focus on organizing in worksites, and developed new and expanded leader programs to provide opportunities for any member to engage as a leader of our Union. She has served SEIU HCMN as an Organizer, Assistant Organizing Director, Director of the MAC and Education and Chief of Staff. She was elected Executive Vice President in 2020 and leads the Hospital Sector of our union. She will also represent SEIU HCMN as a Trustee of the Twin City Hospital Workers’ Pension Fund and as a member of the Saint Paul Regional Labor Federation board. She earned a B.A. from the University of Wisconsin-Madison, and an M.Ed from the University of Minnesota.
Rasha is a Lebanese/Syrian who immigrated to the US in 2007 to explore another chance in life. Her background in sports while working for Special Olympics in the Middle East and North Africa led her to pursue her BA in Sports Management from Lindenwood University. She traveled to Puebla Mexico where she dedicated her time to connecting with 1st and 2nd generation Lebanese Mexicans and teaching them the Arabic language and the Lebanese culture in Spanish. She also opened the first Arabic Language class in the Benemérita Universidad Autónoma de Puebla. After returning to the US her path led her to start organizing with SEIU in 2013 in Chicago. In 2014, she joined SEIU Healthcare Minnesota as an Internal Organizing in the Member Action Center. Then, in 2016 she became the MAC director. Rasha leads work on organizational equity and inclusion, leads the grievance leaders committee, and is a member on the senior leadership team. She is currently a 2nd year PhD student at the University of Minnesota on the organizational leadership and Policy Development Program focusing on Human Resource Development.
