Assistant Secretary for Policy – Vacant
Deputy Assistant Secretary for Policy – Jonathan Wolfson
Jonathan Wolfson was appointed Deputy Assistant Secretary for Policy in July 2019. In September 2019 he was designated the Department's Regulatory Reform Officer and, in that role, oversees the Regulatory Reform Task Force. He was named the Department's Regulatory Policy Officer and began leading the Office of the Assistant Secretary for Policy in April 2020. Wolfson coordinates the Department's regulatory process to help to advance the Department's policy agenda and develop effective, innovative, and least burdensome regulations. He regularly works with senior leadership and teams of economists, attorneys, and policy analysts across the Department to develop and analyze the regulations issued by the Department's agencies.
Immediately before he joined the U.S. Department of Labor, Wolfson spent seven years as a litigator and regulatory attorney at McGuireWoods LLP. Wolfson previously served as a law clerk to The Honorable Edith Brown Clement of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit. Before law school, Wolfson was a policy analyst at the President’s Council of Economic Advisers.
Wolfson holds a Bachelor of Arts in Economics from Washington University in St. Louis and a Juris Doctor from the University of Virginia School of Law, where he was an Olin Law & Economics Fellow and won the John M. Olin Prize for best original law and economics research.
Deputy Assistant Secretary for Policy – Alison (Ali) Kilmartin
Alison (Ali) Kilmartin was appointed Deputy Assistant Secretary (DAS) for Policy in August 2019. Prior to that appointment, she served as Deputy Chief of Staff in the Office of the Secretary and as Chief of Staff and Senior Counsel in the Office of the Assistant Secretary for Policy (OASP). She also served a detail to the Executive Office of the President as Senior Advisor in The Office of Cabinet Affairs from 2019-20.
Today, as a DAS, Kilmartin works closely with the Office of the Deputy Secretary and serves as a liaison between the Office of the Secretary and agency leadership to ensure that the Department’s regulatory and policy agenda is accomplished in an efficient, effective, and timely manner. To that end, she coordinates interagency communications and manages all timelines and procedures related to the Department’s regulatory priorities. Kilmartin also works closely with OASP’s Chief Evaluation Officer, Chief Data Officer, and the Director of the Office of Compliance Initiatives to advance the Department’s data, evaluation, and compliance assistance agendas.
Immediately before she joined the U.S. Department of Labor, Kilmartin spent three years conducting federal appellate and U.S. Supreme Court litigation in the Supreme Court and Appellate practice group at Orrick Herrington & Sutcliffe, LLP. Prior to that, she spent six years as a litigator at Jones Day in Pittsburgh, PA.
Kilmartin holds a Bachelor of Arts from Grove City College and a Juris Doctor from Penn State Law, where she graduated summa cum laude as valedictorian of her law school class.
Deputy Assistant Secretary for Policy – Stephanie Swirsky
Stephanie Swirsky has served as the Deputy Assistant Secretary for Policy at the U.S. Department of Labor since June 2015. In that role, she is responsible for the operations of the agency and advises the Principal Deputy Secretary for Policy and other agency leaders on the Department's policy priorities and helps manage the Department's regulatory agenda.
Swirsky previously served as a Senior Policy Advisor in the Office of the Secretary, Office of the Executive Secretariat. She has over thirty years in public service that has included serving as a Senior Advisor to Secretaries Reich and Herman on collective bargaining and labor-management relations, international trade and labor standards issues; Business Liaison and Deputy Director of the Public Liaison in OSEC's Office of Public Liaison; Director of Programs in the Office of the American Workplace; and Division Chief in the Bureau of Cooperative Labor-Management Programs.
Swirsky has a Bachelor of Science in Industrial and Labor Relations and Government from Cornell University and has a Master's Degree from the University of Massachusetts at Amherst.
Director, Office of Regulatory and Programmatic Policy – Laura Dawkins
Laura Dawkins is the Director of the Office of Regulatory and Programmatic Policy at the U.S. Department of Labor (DOL). Ms. Dawkins is responsible for routinely providing DOL agency leadership analyses of and recommendations regarding DOL agencies' major regulatory, legislative and policy initiatives. Ms. Dawkins and her team are responsible for evaluation and tracking of DOL regulatory programs and strategies, and ensuring that DOL's regulatory initiatives are in compliance with all of the relevant statutes and executive orders that govern the promulgation of regulations by Federal agencies.
Dawkins previously served as Director of the Division of Policy and Integrity in DOL's Office of Foreign Labor Certification where she was responsible for policy-related responsibilities concerning foreign workers seeking admission to work either permanently or temporarily in the United States. She has over 15 years in public service that has included serving as the Chief Regulatory Coordinator for U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) and as a Division Chief in USCIS's Office of Policy and Strategy. Prior to joining the Federal government, Laura held a variety of positions in both the private and non-profit sector.
Ms. Dawkins has a Bachelor of Arts degree in Political Science and Spanish from the University of Wisconsin and a Juris Doctorate from the George Washington University Law School.
Director, Office of Compliance Initiatives – S. Marisela Douglass
S. Marisela Douglass serves as Director, Office of Compliance Initiatives, at the U.S. Department of Labor. As Director, she provides leadership and support to the Department's enforcement agencies, advancing the expansion and development of innovative approaches to compliance assistance and enforcement.
Douglass’ career includes more than 15 years in public service. She previously served as Chief, Office of Program Policy Evaluation, at the Mine Safety and Health Administration (MSHA). She also worked as an audit manager at the U.S. Department of Labor’s Office of Inspector General where she led audits of MSHA, the Employment and Training Administration, and the Bureau of International Labor Affairs. Prior to her career at the U.S. Department of Labor, Douglass worked as a consultant at Deloitte and in quality assurance at the American Red Cross.
Douglass holds a Bachelor of Arts in Political Science from Rutgers College where she was a Henry Rutgers Scholar and has a Master of Public Administration from Cornell University.
Chief Evaluation Officer – Christina Yancey, Ph.D.
Christina Yancey, Ph.D., is the Chief Evaluation Officer for the U.S. Department of Labor. As the Chief Evaluation Officer, she is responsible for coordinating the Department's evaluation agenda and working with all agencies to design and implement evaluations. Dr. Yancey has over 15 years of experience in overseeing and conducting research on employment and other social policies and programs, and in working with policy makers and practitioners to build and apply evidence. Prior to joining DOL in 2014, Dr. Yancey served in the Department of Justice’s Office of Justice Programs, coordinating performance management and strategic planning activities for the agency. In the years prior to federal service, Dr. Yancey developed, coordinated, and directed field-based evaluations of social programs, primarily for the state of Maryland. She holds a Ph.D. from the School of Public Affairs at American University and a Master of Arts in Criminology from the University of Maryland, College Park.
Chief Data Officer – Scott Gibbons
Scott Gibbons has served as the Chief Data Officer since March 2019. In that role, he provides oversight and leadership for the U.S. Department of Labor’s (DOL) efforts to develop, maintain, share and utilize data to best support DOL’s mission. He leads the Data Board, which serves as the Department’s data governance body, and oversees the development and establishment of coordinated Department-wide positions on data governance, strategy, quality and the management of data as a strategic asset.
Prior to this, Gibbons has worked in various analytical and statistical capacities for the Department of Labor for more than 20 years. He most recently served as Program Manager for Data Analytics for the Chief Evaluation Office at DOL. In this capacity, he led projects assessing and improving data quality and raising the capacity of staff to use data to inform program administration. Prior to that, he was a Supervisory Statistician with the Bureau of Labor Statistics, and the Employment and Training Administration. He holds a Bachelor of Science in Biology from the University of Maryland and has a master's degree in biology from American University.