SSN Welcomes Alex Hertel-Fernandez to the Board
The Scholars Strategy Network is thrilled to announce the addition of Alex Hertel-Fernandez to the SSN Board. A long-time SSN member, Hertel-Fernandez is a committed public scholar with a long track record of bringing research to bear on some of the most pressing issues facing this country.
Hertel-Fernandez is an Associate Professor at Columbia University’s School of International and Public Affairs, where he also serves as Vice Dean for Curriculum and Instruction. He also co-directs the Columbia Labor Lab, an academic center for implementing rigorous, data-driven evaluations in partnership with worker organizations, and co-leads the American Political Economy project to foster more research on the relationship between markets and government in the United States in comparative perspective.
Over the past two years, Hertel-Fernandez served as a senior political appointee in the Biden-Harris Administration at the U.S. Department of Labor and the White House Office of Management and Budget. At the Department of Labor, Hertel-Fernandez managed the Department's research and evaluation team and led initiatives related to implementation of the president's historic equity executive order. At the Office of Management and Budget, Hertel-Fernandez led initiatives related to expanding civic engagement in the regulatory process as part of the President's executive order on modernizing regulatory review and served as the lead for White House review of regulations related to food and nutrition assistance, support for farmers, and rural development.
Please join us in welcoming Alex Hertel-Fernandez to the SSN Board where he will draw on his experience in the Biden-Harris Administration and his own public scholarship to help guide the organization’s work.
Hertel-Fernandez’s recent work has focused on workplace standards, worker rights, and collective action, including at-will employment and just cause reform; workers’ knowledge of rights and access to workplace information; civic engagement and participation in the workplace; the conditions surrounding the workplace during the COVID-19 crisis; and workers’ access to unemployment benefits. His most recent book, The American Political Economy (Cambridge University Press, 2021), edited together with Jacob Hacker, Paul Pierson, and Kathleen Thelen, brings together leading political scientists to explore the distinctive features of the American political economy.