In the last week, President Trump has appointed two people to governmental agencies that shape employment and labor aw. First, the President has named Commissioner Victoria A. Lipnic Acting Chair of EEOC. Lipnic has served as an EEOC Commissioner since 2010, having been nominated to serve by President Barack Obama, and confirmed by the Senate, initially for a term ending on July 1, 2015. President Obama nominated her to serve a second term ending on July 1, 2020, and she was confirmed by the Senate on November 19, 2015.

Lipnic's government experience includes service as Assistant Secretary of Labor for Employment Standards from 2002 to 2009. The Employment Standards Administration oversaw the Wage and Hour Division, the Office of Federal Contract Compliance Programs (OFCCP), the Office of Labor Management Standards and the Office of Workers Compensation Programs. During her tenure as Assistant Secretary, these divisions revised regulations on overtime, the Family and Medical Leave Act, and issued the first-ever regulations for OFCCP to evaluate compensation discrimination.

Before joining the Department of Labor, she was the Workforce Policy Counsel to the Majority (Republican) members of the Committee on Education and the Workforce in the U.S. House of Representatives and was an attorney for labor and employment matters for the U.S. Postal Service. Lipnic also worked as special assistant for business liaison to then-Secretary of Commerce, Malcolm Baldrige.

Lipnic received her B.A. degree in Political Science and History from Allegheny College and her J.D. from George Mason University School of Law.

Board Member Philip A. Miscimarra has been promoted to the Acting Chairman of the National Labor Relations Board. Miscimarra has served as a Board Member since August 7, 2013. He was nominated by President Obama on April 9, 2013, and he was approved unanimously by the Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor and Pensions on May 22, 2013. He was confirmed by the Senate on July 30, 2013, and his current term expires on December 16, 2017. 

Before joining the Board, Acting Chairman Miscimarra was a Senior Fellow at the University of Pennsylvania’s Wharton Business School in the Wharton Center for Human Resources, and a labor and employment law partner with Morgan Lewis & Bockius LLP in Chicago. He also previously worked as a labor and employment attorney with Seyfarth Shaw LLP, Murphy Smith & Polk PC (now the Chicago office of Ogletree, Deakins, Nash, Smoak & Stewart, PC), and Reed Smith Shaw & McClay (now Reed Smith LLP). 

Miscimarra received his Juris Doctor from the University of Pennsylvania Law School; a Masters in Business Administration from the University of Pennsylvania’s Wharton Business School; and a Bachelor of Arts degree from Duquesne University.