James Joseph Heckman is an American economist and Nobel laureate who serves as the Henry Schultz Distinguished Service Professor in Economics at the University of Chicago, where he is also a professor at the College, a professor at the Harris School of Public Policy, Director of the Center for the Economics of Human Development (CEHD), and Co-Director of Human Capital and Economic Opportunity (HCEO) Global Working Group. He is also a professor of law at the Law School, a senior research fellow at the American Bar Foundation, and a research associate at the NBER. He received the John Bates Clark Medal in 1983, and the Nobel Memorial Prize in Economic Sciences in 2000, which he shared with Daniel McFadden. He is known principally for his pioneering work in econometrics and microeconomics.
The New York State School of Industrial and Labor Relations at Cornell University (ILR) is an industrial relations school and one of Cornell University's four statutory colleges. The School has five academic departments which include: Labor Economics, Human Resource Management, Global Labor and Work, Organizational Behavior, and Statistics & Data Science.
Alan Bennett Krueger was an American economist who was the James Madison Professor of Political Economy at Princeton University and Research Associate at the National Bureau of Economic Research. He served as Assistant Secretary of the Treasury for Economic Policy, nominated by President Barack Obama, from May 2009 to October 2010, when he returned to Princeton. He was nominated in 2011 by Obama as chair of the White House Council of Economic Advisers, and served in that office from November 2011 to August 2013.
The Labor and Employment Relations Association (LERA), was founded in 1947 as the Industrial Relations Research Association. LERA is an organization for professionals in industrial relations and human resources. Headquartered at the School of Labor and Employment Relations at the University of Illinois at Urbana–Champaign, the organization has more than 3,000 members at the national level and in its local chapters. LERA is a non-profit, non-partisan organization that draws its members from the ranks of academia, management, labor and "neutrals".
Cynthia Estlund is the Catherine A. Rein Professor of Law at the New York University School of Law.
Supported employment refers to service provisions wherein people with disabilities, including intellectual disabilities, mental health, and traumatic brain injury, among others, are assisted with obtaining and maintaining employment. Supported employment is considered to be one form of employment in which wages are expected, together with benefits from an employer in a competitive workplace, though some versions refer to disability agency paid employment. Companies such as Skilcraft in the United States are an example of "supported employment" which is defined in law for state and federal reimbursements.
Elizabeth Merrill "Lisa" Brown is an American lawyer who is the current General Counsel of the United States Department of Education. She previously served as the first White House Staff Secretary in the Obama administration, assuming that post on January 20, 2009. Earlier, during the 2008–2009 presidential transition, she served as Co-Chair of Agency Review. Prior to joining the Obama Transition Team, she served as Executive Director of the American Constitution Society, a progressive legal organization.
Jared Bernstein is an American economist who is the chair of the United States Council of Economic Advisers. He is a senior fellow at the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities. From 2009 to 2011, Bernstein was the chief economist and economic adviser to Vice President Joe Biden in the Obama Administration. In 2008, Michael D. Shear described Bernstein as a progressive and "a strong advocate for workers".
Judith A. Winston is a lawyer, education and civil rights policy consultant and former law professor, Undersecretary and General Counsel of the US Department of Education, and was one of the lead members of U.S. President-elect Barack Obama's Agency Review teams for the Departments of Education and Labor. She served as executive director to President Clinton's One America Initiative.
William Edward Spriggs was an American economist who was a professor of economics at Howard University, chief economist for the AFL-CIO, and Assistant Secretary of Labor for Policy in the Obama administration from 2009 to 2012.
Chai Rachel Feldblum is an American author and activist for disability and LGBT rights. A former law professor at Georgetown University Law Center, she served as Commissioner at the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission. She was nominated to the position on the EEOC by president Barack Obama in 2009. In April 2010, she received a recess appointment to the EEOC, and in December 2010 she was confirmed to serve on the EEOC by the United States Senate. The Senate confirmed her in December 2013 for a second term on the Commission which expired in July 2018.
Community integration, while diversely defined, is a term encompassing the full participation of all people in community life. It has specifically referred to the integration of people with disabilities into US society from the local to the national level, and for decades was a defining agenda in countries such as Great Britain. Throughout recent decades, community integration programs have been increasingly effective in improving healthcare access for people with disabilities. They have been valued for providing a "voice for the voiceless"
Adriana Debora Kugler is an American economist who serves as a member of the Federal Reserve Board of Governors. She previously served as U.S. executive director at the World Bank, nominated by President Joe Biden and confirmed by the U.S. Senate in April 2022. She is a professor of public policy at Georgetown University's McCourt School of Public Policy and is currently on leave from her tenured position at Georgetown. She served as the Chief Economist to U.S. Labor Secretary Hilda L. Solis from September 6, 2011 to January 4, 2013.
Dylan Orr is the director of the Office of Labor Standards for the City of Seattle, USA. Appointed by Mayor Murray in May 2015, Orr is responsible for enforcing Seattle's historic minimum wage law, as well as its paid sick and safe time law, wage theft law, and fair chance employment law. Previously, Orr was chief of staff to assistant secretary Kathy Martinez in the Office of Disability Employment Policy. As part of the United States Department of Labor, he contributed to the development of national disability employment-related regulations and policies, including regulations issued under Section 503 of the Rehabilitation Act of 1973. As the Department of Labor representative, he also worked with the White House Office of National AIDS Policy on the implementation of the President's National HIV/AIDS Strategy, in addition to making significant contributions to several federal LGBT policies and regulations. He was recruited to the administration by the University of Washington School of Law professor and former EEOC Commissioner Paul Steven Miller. Previously, he was special assistant and advisor to assistant secretary Martinez. Upon his appointment to his role as special assistant in 2009, he became the first openly transgender person appointed to any U.S. presidential administration.
Michael Wachter is the William B. and Mary Barb Johnson Professor of Law and Economics Emeritus at the University of Pennsylvania Law School, and Co-Director of the Institute for Law & Economics.
Jenny Rae Yang is an American attorney and public official. In 2021, Yang was appointed by President Joe Biden to serve as the Director of Office of Federal Contract Compliance Programs, an agency within the Department of Labor.
Damon Jones is an American economist and associate professor at the Harris School of Public Policy in the University of Chicago. Alongside his academic research, Jones is a popular science communicator and regularly provides expert commentary on issues related to economics and public policy. During the COVID-19 pandemic he investigated the disproportionate impact of coronavirus disease on communities of color, and delivered evidence on his findings before the United States House Committee on the Budget.
Sharon Block is an American attorney, government official, labor policy advisor and law professor who served during the Biden administration as the Associate Administrator delegated the duties of the Administrator of the Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs from January 20, 2021, to February 1, 2022. During the Obama administration, Block served on the National Labor Relations Board and in the United States Department of Labor and the White House. She currently serves as a professor of practice and the executive director of the Labor and Worklife Program at Harvard Law School.
Lily Lawrence Batchelder is the Robert C. Kopple Family Professor of Taxation at New York University. She previously served as Assistant Secretary of the Treasury for tax policy from September 2021 to February 2024. She was the former chief tax counsel to the U.S. Senate Finance Committee under the Obama administration and appointed to head Joe Biden’s IRS transition team.
Douglas L. Parker is an American attorney and government official who has served as the Assistant Secretary of Labor for Occupational Safety and Health in the Biden administration since November 2021. He previously served as the chief of the California Division of Occupational Safety and Health.
