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Archives at Cornell

ILR School Extension Division Metropolitan District Office (New York, N.Y.), KC Wagner Papers

 Collection
Identifier: /4354/010

Collection Description

This collection documents the professional activities of KC Wagner, director emerita of Equity and Workplace Issues at Cornell University ILR School’s Extension Division Metropolitan District Office in New York City, from the mid-1970s through the late 2010s.

The papers in this collection document the work of KC Wagner in the areas of sexual harassment prevention, workplace and domestic violence prevention, women’s labor education, and community-based worker organizing. The papers also document Wagner’s work at the intersection of gender equity, labor rights, and workplace safety. The collection contains extensive documentation of Wagner’s collaborations with unions, government agencies, and community organizations, offering insight into evolving workplace policies and educational strategies. The collection consists of research files, reports, subject literature, policies, training curricula, documentation of legal cases that containing expert testimony from KC Wagner, publications, surveys, correspondence, and memorabilia. Also included in this collection are audiovisual training materials on sexual harassment, domestic violence as a workplace issue, and workplace violence across diverse industries. These resources focus on the experiences of mainly women, LGBTQ workers, immigrant workers, working parents, and their kids. They also include information on union responses to gender based violence.

The collection is arranged into five Series, and seven Sub-series.

Dates

  • 1975-2018

Creator

Language of Materials

Collection material in English, Spanish, Chinese, Polish.

Conditions Governing Access

Box 3 folder 12: “Program Development Committee”, box 4 folder 30: “Interviews” and box 2 folder 48: “Correspondence on a sexual harassment case” are restricted due to the presence of personally identifiable information. A researcher‑use, redacted copy of box 2 folder 48 can be found in box 2 folder 20, “Legal cases of sexual harassment”.

Conditions Governing Use

This collection must be used in keeping with the Kheel Center Information Sheet and Procedures for Document Use.

Conditions Governing Use

Due to the fragility and potential degradation of moving image and sound recordings, viewing and listening is limited to items that have been digitized. If an item is in another media format, you may request to have the item digitized for access. Information on ordering access copies may be found on the

Biographical / Historical

KC Wagner is a labor educator and workplace issues specialist with more than three decades of experience. She served as the director of Equity and Workplace Issues at Cornell University's ILR School Extension Division Metropolitan District Office in New York City, where her work focused on preventing sexual harassment, gender bias, bullying, and workplace violence across a wide range of industries, unions, nonprofit organizations, educational institutions, and government agencies. A longtime member of the Cornell ILR School faculty, Wagner is the former Director of the Working Women’s Institute and has served as co chair of The Worker Institute’s Equity at Work Initiative at Cornell University. She holds a Master of Social Work from CUNY Hunter College’s School of Social Work and a Master of Labor and Industrial Relations from Rutgers University. Throughout her career, Wagner developed curricula and educational programs related to labor, workplace, and employment-related issues, addressing sexual harassment, domestic violence, workplace violence issues, leadership development, and inclusive organizational practices. She had a long-standing collaboration with labor unions, community based organizations, and academic partners. Her professional activities included serving as an expert witness in landmark sexual harassment cases.

Wagner has been recognized for her contributions to workplace equity and gender justice initiatives. Among other recognitions, she received the Alice H. Cook and Constance E. Cook Award from Cornell University in 2000 for her work on women’s issues, a certificate of appreciation from the Silberman School of Social Work (2013), and the Ed Donnelly award presented to KC Wagner by Cornell ILR Extension Programs in 2008. In April 2008, she was recognized as one of thirty influential leaders across the state in the area of domestic violence prevention for her innovative workplace initiatives by the New York State Coalition Against Domestic Violence. Her public facing work is reflected in media appearances on "PBS Channel 13", “The Oprah Winfrey Show”, “The CBS Morning News”, “The Today Show”, “CNN National Cable Network News”, as well as interviews in The New York Times and The Wall Street Journal.

Extent

7.9 cubic feet

Abstract

This collection consists of records, memorabilia, and audio-visual materials from KC Wagner, documenting her professional work in areas such as domestic violence as a workplace issue, sexual harassment, and other intersections of gender and labor.

Provenance note

This collection was deposited in the Kheel Center as part of records transfer from the Cornell University's ILR School Extension Division Metropolitan District Office in New York City in 2018 when the office moved its previous location at 16 East 34th Street to the new Cornell building at 570 Lexington Avenue. Other collections from this office may be found using the collection identifier prefix /4354.

Related Materials

Related Collections: /4354: ILR School Extension Division Metropolitan District Office (New York, N.Y.) Collections

Title
ILR School Extension Division Metropolitan District Office (New York, N.Y.), KC Wagner Papers
Status
Completed
Author
Compiled by, Kheel Center Staff
Date
March 2026
Description rules
Describing Archives: A Content Standard
Language of description
English
Script of description
Latin

Repository Details

Part of the Kheel Center for Labor-Management Documentation & Archives Repository

Contact:
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