Heather Sponenburg has been hired by NYSUT as a labor relations specialist (LRS) assigned to UUP.

A former LRS with the Syracuse Teachers Association, Sponenburg will be working with the UUP chapters at Brockport, Morrisville, Oswego and Utica/Rome. Longtime LRS Jack Procita will take over the chapters at ESF, Geneseo and Upstate Medical University, to replace the retiring Fred Wooley.

Prior to working as an LRS, Sponenburg was in-house counsel for the Service Employees International Union and was employed in private legal practice as a litigation attorney concentrating in employment discrimination and insurance defense matters.

Sponenburg holds a bachelor’s degree from SUNY Albany and a Juris Doctor from Syracuse University College of Law.

Sponenburg is secretary of the Labor and Employment Research Association of Central New York, as well as co-chair of the Employment and Labor Law Committee of the Women’s Bar Association of the State of New York and co-chair of the Central New York Women’s Bar Association Judicial Screening Committee. She sits on the boards of directors of the Onondaga County Bar Association Foundation and the Central New York Council on Occupational Safety and Health.

— Karen L. Mattison