Sharon Block is the Executive Director of the Labor and Worklife Program and Lecturer at Harvard Law School. The Labor and Worklife Program is Harvard’s forum for research and teaching on the world of work and its implications for society. Located at Harvard Law School, the LWP brings together scholars and policy experts from a variety of disciplines to analyze critical labor issues in the law, economy and society. At the Labor and Worklife Program, Sharon is leading the Clean Slate Project for Worker Power, an initiative to develop recommendations for rewriting labor law to make it capable of empowering all workers to demand a truly equitable American democracy and a genuinely equitable American economy.
Before coming to Harvard, Sharon led the policy office at the U.S. Department of Labor and served as Senior Counselor to Secretary of Labor Tom Perez. For twenty years, Sharon has held key labor policy positions across the legislative and executive branches of the federal government, including appointment by President Obama to be a member of the National Labor Relations Board. She also was Senior Labor and Employment Counsel to the Senate HELP Committee under Senator Edward Kennedy. While serving in the Obama White House as Senior Public Engagement Advisor for Labor and Working Families, Sharon led the historic White House Summit on Worker Voice, which explored ways for workers to fully participate in their economic future. She writes frequently on labor and economic justice issues in major media outlets, including as a Senior Contributor to OnLabor.org. Sharon is a member of the NELP Board of Directors.
Block received her B.A. from Columbia University and her J.D. from Georgetown University Law Center, where she received the John F. Kennedy Labor Law Award.