About Us

Turning Basin Labs (TBL) was conceived when the founders were asked to quickly hire staff. They were reminded about how little workers were paid, how much staffing agencies earned and how little voice workers had in the process.

Determined to make a change, a cooperative agency was formed that would tackle these inequalities and offer workers in the Bay Area a more inclusive and equitable work experience.

Meet the team

  • Jason Hale

    Chief Executive Officer

  • Michael Howe

    Michael Howe

    Board Director

    Michael is the past Executive Director of the RP Group serving California’s 116 community colleges, past Chair of the National Task Force On Community Leadership at Stanford University, past President of the East Bay Community Foundation, past Founding Education Officer & Director of Evaluation at the Marin Community Foundation, Dean of Faculty at College of Marin, and past and founding Dean of the College of Professional Studies and tenured faculty member at the University of San Francisco. As a practicing sociologist he has, amongst other important professional and volunteer activities, dedicated his professional career to assisting California's justice impacted residents succeed once they have been paroled, have been released on probation or exonerated.

  • Marci Harper-Lawyer

    Operations Officer

  • Michael Getzler

    Research and Project Coordinator

    Michael has worked for several organizations that support and engage with workers facing barriers to employment. At TBL, Michael provides targeted support for worker research projects in collaboration with workers and relevant stakeholders. He develops project plans, monitors progress, and manages risk and issues. He is constantly improving research methodologies and approaches to ensure that worker research is effective and sustainable.

  • Marti Shaw

    Lead Worker Researcher

    Marti started as a Worker Researcher in 2020. She has had a 35-year career as a Personal Trainer. As a Worker Researcher she helped develop new training programs for workers to gain new skills in research, data collection and analysis. This has allowed workers to grow in their current roles, and or allow them to move onto new opportunities. Making a positive impact is at the heart of what she does. Her people facing experience has made it easy to interact and relate to workers while developing support services that ensure success in TBL programs