Professor Sharon Block, JD
Executive Director of the Labor and Worklife Program
Harvard Law School
Sharon Block is the Executive Director of the Labor and Worklife Program at Harvard Law School. The Labor and Worklife Program is Harvard’s forum for research and teaching on critical labor issues and their implications for society. Prior to coming to Harvard Law School in 2016, she was the head of the Policy Office at the U.S. Department of Labor and Senior Counselor to Secretary of Labor Tom Perez.
For twenty years, Block has held key labor policy positions across the legislative and executive branches of the federal government. In 2012, she was appointed to serve as a member of the National Labor Relations Board by President Obama. She was senior labor and employment counsel to the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee under Senator Edward Kennedy. 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.
Block serves on a number of labor-related board and advisory committees, including as a board member of the National Employment Labor Project, the Roosevelt Institute, and JUST Capital; member of the Economic Policy Institute Perkins Project Advisory Committee, Massachusetts Attorney General Labor Advisory Committee, member of the Higher Quality Jobs Advisory Council of the Federal Reserve Bank of Boston, and member of the advisory board for the Institute for the Future’s Equitable Futures Lab and advisory council member for the Institute for the Cooperative Digital Economy. In addition, she writes frequently on labor and employment issues and is a senior contributor to OnLabor.org.
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.
