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Sharon Block headshot

Sharon Block

Professor of Practice and Executive Director of the Center for Labor and a Just Economy

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Harvard Law School

Sharon Block is a Professor of Practice and Executive Director of the Center for Labor and a Just Economy at Harvard Law School. She is also a Board member at the Center for Progressive Reform.

Prior to returning to Harvard, Block served as the Acting Administrator of the Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs in President Joe Biden’s White House.

From 2017 to 2021, Block led the Center for Labor and a Just Economy (then known as the Labor and Worklife Program). During this time, she launched the Clean Slate for Worker Power project, which is a comprehensive policy initiative focused on fundamental redesign of labor law with the aspiration to enable all working people to create the collective economic and political power necessary to build an equitable economy and politics.

For twenty years, Block has held key labor policy positions across the legislative and executive branches of the federal government. In the Obama Administration, she was the Principal Deputy Assistant Secretary for Policy at the U.S. Department of Labor and Senior Counselor to the Secretary of Labor Tom Perez. In 2012, President Obama appointed her to serve as a member of the National Labor Relations Board. While serving in the Obama White House as Senior Public Engagement Advisor for Labor and Working Families, Block led the historic White House Summit on Worker Voice, which explored ways for workers to fully participate in their economic future. At the President’s direction, Block also conducted a series of regional worker voice summits across the country. Prior to the Obama Administration, 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.

Block writes frequently on labor, employment and administrative law topics. She is a senior contributor to OnLabor.org and her opinion pieces have appeared in the New York Times, Washington Post, Fortune, The American Prospect, The Hill, USA Today, Forbes, and Newsweek.