Alexis M. Herman, Chair

Born in Mobile, Alabama, Alexis M. Herman began her career working for Catholic Charities. President Jimmy Carter appointed her the youngest director of the Women’s Bureau in the history of the Labor Department. In 1997, President Bill Clinton nominated Herman to be America’s 23rd Secretary of Labor and the first African-American ever to lead the United States Department of Labor. During her tenure as a member of President Clinton’s Cabinet she also served on the National Economic Council. As Secretary of Labor, she led the effort to institute a global child labor standard; moved people from welfare to work with dignity; and launched the most aggressive unemployed youth initiative since the 1970’s. Under her tenure, unemployment in the country reached a thirty-year low and the Nation witnessed the safest workplace record in the history of the Department of Labor. Currently, Herman serves as chair and chief executive officer of New Ventures, LLC. She has continued to lend her expertise and talent to a vast array of corporate enterprises and nonprofit organizations. A recipient of more than twenty honorary doctorate degrees from major colleges and universities around the country, Herman is a trustee of the National Urban League. She Co-Chaired the Bush Clinton Katrina Fund and was a member of the board of the Clinton Bush Haiti Fund. While serving as Secretary of Labor, Alexis Herman met and married her life partner Dr. Charles L. Franklin, Jr. She resides in McLean, Virginia.