Reich, Robert B.

Robert Bernard Reich was born June 24, 1946, in Scranton, Pennsylvania, and grew up in the rural community of South Salem, New York. He was born with Fairbanks disease, also known as multiple epiphyseal dysplasia. He graduated from Dartmouth College in 1968, obtained an M.A. as a Rhodes Scholar at University College of Oxford University, and received a J.D. from Yale Law School in 1973. He was a faculty member at Harvard University's Kennedy School of Government, assistant to the Solicitor General under President Ford, and director of Policy Planning Staff of the Federal Trade Commission under President Carter. In 1992, he hosted the Public Broadcasting System documentary miniseries Made In America. Reich was head of President-elect Clinton's economic transition team. He served as Secretary of Labor from January 22, 1993 to January 10, 1997. During his tenure, he implemented the Family and Medical Leave Act, fought sweatshops, increased the minimum wage, improved workplace safety, passed the Pension Protection Act and the School-to-Work Jobs Act, and launched a number of job training programs. Following government service, he became University Professor and Maurice B. Hexter Professor of Social and Economic Policy at the Heller School for Social Policy and Management at Brandeis University. In 2005, he joined the faculty of the University of California, Berkeley's Goldman School of Public Policy. In 2003, he earned the Vaclav Havel Vision Foundation Prize for his writings in economics and politics. He was a weekly contributor to the American Public Media public radio program Marketplace, and a regular columnist for the American Prospect.

From the description of Reich, Robert B. (Robert Bernard), 1946- (U.S. National Archives and Records Administration). naId: 10568577