Biography
Thea Lee joined EPI as incoming president November 1, 2017, and became president January 1, 2018. Lee has a longstanding relationship with EPI, having begun her career here as an international trade economist in the 1990s.
Lee is committed to EPI’s mission of building an economy that works for everyone, not just the wealthy few. To ensure that policymakers and advocates have the tools they need to fight and win key battles on behalf of working people, Lee is extending EPI’s reach through expanded engagement with the states and with progressive organizers.
Lee came to EPI from the AFL-CIO, a voluntary federation of 56 national and international labor unions that represent 12.5 million working men and women, where she served as deputy chief of staff. At the AFL-CIO, she built a long track record of conducting rigorous economic research, overseeing an ambitious policy agenda, and helping steer a large organization through change. Lee joined the AFL-CIO in 1997 as chief international economist, then assumed the role of policy director before becoming deputy chief of staff.
Lee has spent her career advocating on behalf of working families in national policy debates on issues such as wage inequality, workers’ rights, and fair trade. She is co-author of The Field Guide to the Global Economy, published by The New Press, and has authored numerous publications on the North American Free Trade Agreement, the impact of international trade on U.S. wage inequality, and the domestic steel and textile industries.
Lee has been a voice for workers in testimony before congressional committees and in television and radio appearances—including on PBS News Hour, Good Morning America, NPR’s All Things Considered and Marketplace, Fox Business, and the PBS documentary Commanding Heights. She has also served on the State Department Advisory Committee on International Economic Policy, the Export-Import Bank Advisory Committee, and the Board of Directors of the National Bureau of Economic Research, among others.
Lee holds a master’s degree in economics from the University of Michigan at Ann Arbor and a bachelor’s degree in economics from Smith College. Lee lives in Washington, D.C., with her husband and dog. She has one daughter, who teaches middle school in Brooklyn. She likes to cook, read, and travel.
Follow @TheaLeeEPIBy Content:
By Area of Research:
By Type:
-
News from EPI › U.S.-Mexico-Canada Agreement—Weak tea, at best
-
Written testimony in support of the ‘Stop Wall Street Looting Act of 2019’: Prepared for a hearing before the U.S. House Committee on Financial Services, ‘America for Sale? An Examination of the Practices of Private Funds’
-
Letter in support of the ‘Stop Wall Street Looting Act of 2019’
-
News from EPI › Congress should pass the Middle Class Health Benefits Tax Repeal Act of 2019 to strengthen the ACA
-
Let’s not give up on the American Dream: Testimony before the Economic Policy Subcommittee of the U.S. Senate Committee on Banking, Housing, and Urban Affairs
-
Testimony for a hearing on “Trade and Labor: Creating and Enforcing Rules to Benefit American Workers”: Prepared for the U.S. House of Representatives Ways and Means Committee, Subcommittee on Trade
-
Testimony before the U.S. Senate Foreign Relations Committee: For a hearing on “Multilateral Economic Institutions and U.S. Foreign Policy”
-
Testimony before the U.S. Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor and Pensions on “The Impact of Zero Tariffs on U.S. Autoworkers”
-
Testimony before the Senate Finance Committee Subcommittee on International Trade, Customs, and Global Competitiveness for a hearing on ‘Market Access Challenges in China’
-
Testimony prepared for the Subcommittee on Highways and Transit, Transportation and Infrastructure Committee, U.S. House of Representatives: For a hearing on “Building a 21st Century Infrastructure for America—Long-Term Funding for Highways and Transit Programs”
-
News from EPI › Paul Booth’s work lives on
-
News from EPI › EPI Policy Center lauds Democrats’ proposal to strengthen rights for working Americans
-
The China Syndrome: Local Labor Market Effects of Import Competition in the United States
-
Trading Away Good Jobs
-
False Prophets: The selling of NAFTA
-
Employment Multipliers in the U.S. Economy
-
The Effect of George Bush’s NAFTA on American Workers
-
Reconsidering the Benefits and Costs of Trade Protection: The Case of Textiles and Apparel