ILO
Deborah Greenfield is the Deputy Director-General for Policy. In that capacity she leads the ILO’s policy, research, and statistical work across the range of labour and employment issues addressed by the organization. Before joining the ILO, Ms. Greenfield served as the Deputy Solicitor for the U.S. Department of Labor, where she had major responsibility for management of the Office of the Solicitor, a 750-person nationwide enforcement agency that includes trial and appellate lawyers, legal advisors, and support staff. She advised the Secretary of Labor and other senior officials in the Obama administration on a range of legal and policy matters related to worker rights and protections, employment and training, and international labor issues.
Ms. Greenfield led the Department’s efforts on a number of priority initiatives, including regulatory protections for low-wage, foreign temporary workers and employment discrimination protections for LGBT workers. She also provided critical legal and policy advice to the Bureau of International Labor Affairs on issues such as enforcement of labor provisions in free trade agreements and international labor standards and led a government delegation to Haiti under the HOPE II legislation to assure implementation of worker protections.
Ms. Greenfield has more than 30 years of experience as a labor and employment attorney. She was an Associate General Counsel for the American Federation of Labor and Congress of Industrial Organizations from 1998 to 2009, where she provided advice on issues of domestic and international law. Prior to her work with the AFL-CIO, she was an appellate lawyer for the Department of Labor, a supervising attorney for litigation for the Association of Flight Attendants, and an attorney for the Communications Workers of America. She holds a J.D. with honors from the University of Pennsylvania, an M.A. from the University of Sussex, and a B.A. with high honors from Swarthmore College.