Thomas E. Perez was nominated by President Obama to serve as the nation's 26th Secretary of Labor, and was sworn in on July 23, 2013.

Previously Perez served as Assistant Attorney General for Civil Rights at the U.S. Department of Justice. The Civil Rights Division enforces federal laws that prohibit discrimination and uphold the civil and constitutional rights of all who live in America. During his tenure of nearly four years, Perez oversaw the effort to restore and expand the division's achievements. Under his leadership as Assistant Attorney General, the division successfully implemented the Shepard-Byrd Hate Crimes Prevention Act; expanded equal housing opportunity by bringing and settling the largest fair-lending cases in history; protected schoolchildren from discrimination, bullying and harassment; dramatically expanded access to employment, housing and educational opportunities for people with disabilities; protected the right to vote for all eligible voters free from discrimination; took record-setting efforts to ensure that communities have effective and democratically accountable policing; and safeguarded the employment, housing, fair lending and voting rights of service members. He also expanded the division's partnerships across federal agencies to address cross-cutting challenges in human trafficking, employment discrimination and fair lending, among others.

He previously served as the Secretary of Maryland's Department of Labor, Licensing and Regulation. Maryland's DLLR protects consumers through the enforcement of a wide range of consumer rights laws, including the mortgage setting; enforces workplace safety laws that provide critical safeguards to workers and communities; enforces wage and hour and other worker protection laws that ensure wage security; and collaborates with businesses and workers to address critical workforce development needs and build a world-class workforce. Perez was a principal architect of a sweeping package of state lending and foreclosure reforms to address the foreclosure crisis in Maryland. He worked closely with business leaders, community colleges and nonprofits on a dramatic overhaul of Maryland's workforce development system to ensure that workers have the skills to succeed, and employers have the workforce to thrive in the 21st century economy. Perez co-chaired the Governor's Council for New Americans, which designed a comprehensive blueprint for ensuring that immigrants living and working in Maryland are a vital component of the state's economic engine.

Perez has spent his entire career in public service. From 2002 until 2006, he was a member of the Montgomery County Council. He was the first Latino ever elected to the Council, and served as Council president in 2005. Earlier in his career, he spent 12 years in federal public service, most as a career attorney with the Civil Rights Division. As a federal prosecutor for the division, he prosecuted and supervised the prosecution of some of the Justice Department's most high profile civil rights cases, including a hate crimes case in Texas involving a group of white supremacists who went on a deadly, racially-motivated crime spree.

He later served as Deputy Assistant Attorney General for Civil Rights under Attorney General Janet Reno. Among other responsibilities, he chaired the interagency Worker Exploitation Task Force, which oversaw a variety of initiatives designed to protect vulnerable workers. He also served as special counsel to the late Senator Edward Kennedy, and was Senator Kennedy's principal adviser on civil rights, criminal justice and constitutional issues. For the final two years of the Clinton administration, he served as the Director of the Office for Civil Rights at the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services.

Perez was a law professor for six years at the University of Maryland School of Law and was a part-time professor at the George Washington School of Public Health. He received a bachelor's degree from Brown University in 1983. In 1987 he received both a master's of public policy from Harvard University's John F. Kennedy School of Government, and a juris doctorate from Harvard Law School. He lives in Maryland with his wife, Ann Marie Staudenmaier, an attorney with the Washington Legal Clinic for the Homeless, and their three children.

Mike Aitken has worked at SHRM since 2003 and currently serves as the Senior Vice President of Government Affairs. Prior to joining SHRM, he served for 14 years as associate director for Governmental and External Relations at the College and University Professional Association for Human Resources (CUPA-HR). Previously, Aitken worked on state public policy issues at Bonner & Associates, a public affairs firm in Washington, DC. Currently, he is based in Alexandria, VA.

 Cassidy Solis has served since September, 2012, as the Workplace Flexibility Program Specialist for SHRM’s Workplace Flexibility Initiative and Partnership with the Families and Work Institute (FWI).  She is responsible for growing When Work Works, the centerpiece of the Partnership, and for educating employers about workplace flexibility issues. 

Prior to joining SHRM, Cassidy worked for the Texas Dental Association where she managed two statewide dispute resolution processes and advised on community oral health public policy issues.

 Cassidy received her Bachelor of Arts degree in Government from the University of Texas at Austin and her Master of Science degree in Organizational Leadership and Ethics from St. Edward’s University in Austin.

Megan Lee,  has more than 10 years of experience developing human resource departments, creating programs to improve business operations, directing executive-level training programs, and establishing flexible workplaces.  As a human resource professional with experience in software development, service/hospitality and federal government contracting industries, Megan has worked with diverse employee populations within multi-unit environments.  These experiences have provided her with a unique understanding and appreciation of employee needs and for being known as a trusted business partner. 

A proponent of flexible work, Megan was a featured speaker at the Work Life & Flexibility Expo and has helped numerous human resource professionals develop their own flexible work programs.  In her current role as Director of Human Resources for Architecture Technology Corporation (ATCorp), the organization has become a leader in workplace flexibility.  In 2012 and 2013, ATCorp was awarded the When Work Works Award (formerly the Alfred P. Sloan Awards for Excellence in Workplace Effectiveness and Flexibility) as awarded by the Society of Human Resource Management (SHRM) and the Families and Work Institute (FWI).  ATCorp has also been named a 2014 When Work Works finalist.  In addition, ATCorp is recognized as one of the 100 Best Companies to Work For in 2014 as awarded by Minnesota Business Magazine.