Michele Mulroney is running for president of the Writers Guild of America West — unopposed, at least for now — after current president Meredith Stiehm termed out after nearly four years at the helm.
The union announced the news alongside the names of other initial candidates running for officer and board positions in its 2025 elections on Monday. Crucially, the election will determine the leaders that will guide the WGA West through its 2026 contract negotiations, its first with major film and television studios since the 148-day strike in 2023.
Though Mulroney is at present running without a challenger, that situation could change. Other union members can throw their hats in the ring for both officer and board positions by obtaining a minimum number of member signatures on a petition. Members have until July 23 to submit petitions.
Beyond Mulroney, the initial candidate list shows Jeffrey Thompson and Travis Donnelly are both running for vice president, while Peter Murrieta and Van Robichaux are running for secretary-treasurer.
Seventeen candidates, meanwhile, are vying for eight open seats on the union’s board of directors. Rob Forman, Maggie Levin, Adam Conover, Dante Harper and Molly Nussbaum are running for re-election to the board. Non-incumbents Evan Mirzai, Matt Ross, Marguerite MacIntyre, Myles Warden, Mike Royce, Gia King, Jill Goldsmith, Elliott Kalan, Dahéli Hall, Christina Walker, Cathryn Humphris and Kevin L. Miller are also running.
After union members receive voting materials on August 29, they will have until September 23 to cast their votes.
New leadership, when elected, will be faced with a union in flux. During the 2023-2024 season, the number of television writing jobs declined about 42 percent compared with the previous year, a recent internal union report found. Data for the 2025-2025 season has not yet been crunched, but writers are still finding themselves in a cost-conscious, contractionary environment.
The labor group was also recently been buffeted by controversial strike disciplinary proceedings, with members only narrowly voting to uphold three out of four punishments handed down by the board in a recent vote.
And the union has faced its own unionization campaign, with staffers going public with an organizing drive — and claims of union-busting — in April. The union was voluntarily recognized later that month, with management and staffers likely to begin negotiating a first contract in the coming year.
