Sharon Block was the Principal Deputy Assistant Secretary for Policy at the U.S. Department of Labor and Senior Counselor to the Secretary of Labor.
For twenty years, Block has held key labor policy positions across the legislative and executive branches of the federal government. Early in her career she worked as an attorney at the National Labor Relations Board, and returned to the NLRB in 2012 when she was appointed to serve as a member of the Board by President Obama. She was senior counsel to the Senate HELP committee under Senator Edward Kennedy, playing a central role in the debate over the Employee Free Choice Act. She has held senior positions in the U.S. Department of Labor throughout her career. Recently, as head of the policy office at the Department of Labor, Block hosted - with Wage and Hour Administrator David Weil and Open Societies Foundation's Ken Zimmerman - the Department's three-day symposium on the Future of Work. The symposium brought together a wide array of thought leaders to address how changes in labor markets and business models have impacts on key issues such as enforcement, labor standards, workforce development, employee benefits, and data in the U.S. and around the world.... Read more about Sharon Block
Christine Blumauer is the Clean Slate Project Manager at the Labor and Worklife Program. The Clean Slate Project intends to rebuild American labor law from a clean slate by bringing together a diverse group of project participants who are experts in and representative of today’s new economy and the United States’ diverse workforce. It aims at proposing new ways for ordinary Americans to organize and mobilize for economic and political justice and, as Project Manager, Christine is determined to help steer that process into the direction of bold and new ideas.... Read more about Christine Blumauer
Jenny Lau is the Director of Programs and Outreach at the Labor and Worklife Program, where she advances creative problem solving related to the world of work through program administration and strategic communications. Prior to joining the Labor and Worklife Program in 2018, Jenny advanced women in national and local politics through strategic grant-making and directive research at the Barbara Lee Family Foundation/Political Office and then as the Director of Scheduling and Special Projects at the Office of Massachusetts Attorney General Maura Healey. Jenny began her career in politics and labor at the Chinese Progressive Association, where she engaged voters through targeted campaigns and organized immigrant workers around workplace issues as the Civic Action and Worker Center Organizer.... Read more about Jenny Lau
John Trumpbour studied history at Stanford University and later received a Ph.D. from Harvard University. He is the author of Selling Hollywood to the World: U.S. and European Struggles for Mastery of the Global Film Industry, 1920–1950 (Cambridge Univ Press, 2002) and served as editor of The Dividing Rhine: Politics and Society in Contemporary France and Germany (Berg, 1989). He has contributed an array of essays examining the following topics: Latino contributions to the labor movement for the book Latinos: Remaking America (Univ of California Press, 2002); "the clash of civilizations" thesis in The New Crusades (Columbia Univ Press 2003); and the U.S. culture industry's global dominance in The Contemporary Hollywood Film Industry (Blackwell, 2008). In Winter 2007, he served as guest editor of The Comparative Labor Law & Policy Journal for its special issue on "The Crisis in Workplace Governance."
