As the Center for Progressive Reform enters our third decade of advocating for progressive policy for the public good, our country is facing wholly unprecedented challenges: A suffering climate. Unimaginable inequality and inequities that dispossess the majority. A faltering democracy.
The Center is extremely gratified to have three new Board members join us and lend their deep expertise and wide range of experiences as we tackle these challenges and more.
First, we enthusiastically welcome Sharon Block, who brings a wealth of experience in labor policy, regulatory oversight, and strategic visioning for a just economy. Sharon recently served as the Acting Administrator of the Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs (OIRA) in President Joe Biden’s White House and currently serves as Professor of Practice and Executive Director of the Center for Labor and a Just Economy at Harvard Law School.
We will also benefit enormously from the expertise of Karen Sokol, a professor of law at Loyola University New Orleans College of Law. Her research and public voice on issues of international law, climate law and policy, and corporations’ environmental impact are well-regarded by the media and policymakers alike. As a former staff member and current Member Scholar of the Center, she has supported us for many years and in many capacities.
We are also deeply indebted to Steph Tai, a professor of law at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, whose research examines the interactions between environmental and health sciences and administrative law. With a Ph.D. in chemistry and a law degree, Steph brings a wealth of issue expertise (food systems, risk regulation, the role of science in environmental protection), as well as governance and administrative law.
These new Board members, as well as the rest of our Board, Member Scholar network, and staff, will help hone our role in contributing ideas and approaches on the “how” of governance, which is more important than ever in facing — and overcoming — our nation’s and world’s significant challenges. Harnessing the power of law, we will continue our work to restore “the public” as the central concern of public policymaking, to include the communities often excluded from political processes, and to restore and strengthen government safeguards that protect our air, water, workplaces, climate, and more.
Full bios of our new Board members are available on our website.