Guest Contributor

Geri Palast

Geri D. Palast is the executive director of the Campaign for Fiscal Equity (CFE). Under her leadership, CFE won its landmark lawsuit which established the right to a sound basic education in New York. She was the founder and executive director of the Justice at Stake Campaign and national organization working to ensure fair and impartial courts. From 1993-2000, she was confirmed by the U.S. Senate to serve as Assistant Secretary of Labor for Congressional and Intergovernmental Affairs during President Clinton's two terms under Labor Secretaries Robert Reich and Alexis Herman. She also served on the President's Interagency Council on Women, where she chaired the Committee on Women in the Global Economy. The Committee monitored U.S. compliance with the Beijing Platform for Women. She was a member of the U.S. delegation to Women 2000 at the United Nations.

Prior to joining the Clinton Administration, Palast was the Political and Legislative Director of Service Employees International Union, 1981-1993. In 1979, she established and ran the Washington Office of the National Employment Law Project, a program of the Legal Services Corporation. Earlier in her career, she worked for the National Treasury Employees Union and AFSCME (American Federation of State County and Municipal Employees).

Throughout her career, Palast has organized and directed numerous broad-based national and grassroots legislative and issue campaigns such as the bipartisan coalition that was responsible for enacting the landmark Family and Medical Leave Act. Palast has served on numerous boards and advisory committees. She has lectured at colleges and universities. Most recently, Ms. Palast was Counsel to Milberg Weiss Bershad & Schulman LLP, directing the firm's program reaching out to institutional investors in areas of litigation, policy, and public affairs. She is an attorney, a Root-Tilden Public Service Law Scholar from NYU School of Law, and an honors graduate of Stanford University.

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