Richard Koubek is Community Outreach Coordinator for Long Island Jobs with Justice. As a public-policy advocate, he has focused on issues related to the working poor. He facilitates the LI Jobs with Justice AMOS Project that brings together unions, religious congregations and community-service organizations to support workers’ rights, immigrants’ rights and economic justice on Long Island. He is also chair of Abraham’s Table of Long Island which, since 2015, has brought together Jews, Christians and Muslims in dialogue around their common values. In addition, he is a founding member of the social justice committee of his parish, Or Lady of the Miraculous medal Church in Wyandanch.
Dr. Koubek is Chair of the Welfare to Work Commission of the Suffolk County Legislature which advises the Legislature on policy issues related to people on public assistance as well as working-poor people. The Commission has held pubic hearings and released reports to the Legislature on poverty in Suffolk County, unregulated sober homes, the need for supportive housing, underfunding of child care, and the negative impacts of federal budget and immigration policies on Suffolk County.
Dr. Koubek is a member of Board of Directors the Vision Long Island Board of Directors, an agency that promotes smart growth as well as the Wyandanch Homes and Property Development Corporation which shelters homeless families.
Dr. Koubek is Vice President of the Huntington Township Housing Coalition, an advocacy group focused on the expansion of affordable housing in Huntington.
Prior to his being hired by LI Jobs with Justice, Dr. Koubek was administrator of the Public Policy Education Network at Catholic Charities from 1996 until 2008 where he coordinated numerous faith-based advocacy efforts around economic justice issues here on Long Island, including founding the Mobilized Interfaith Campaign Against Hunger (MICAH) campaign. Prior to Catholic Charities, he taught American History and Government at John F. Kennedy High School in Plainview-Old Bethpage where he served as President and Vice President of the Plainview Congress of Teachers, 1986 to 1996. Dr. Koubek holds a PhD in American Government from the Graduate Center of the City University of New York.
