Geri D. Palast is the executive director of the Campaign for Fiscal Equity (CFE).

During her tenure, CFE won the final Court of Appeals decision in the landmark litigation establishing the constitutional right to a sound basic education for all public school students in New York State and ordering the state to provide the necessary resources and accountability to achieve these results. Under her leadership, CFE led the successful campaign to turn CFE litigation into law. Using the tools of policy development, working with policy makers and officials, and building a broad-based organizational and grassroots coalition, she will transform CFE into a watchdog and advocate that will ensure successful implementation of the law, and a leader in addressing ongoing needs for education reform to achieve student performance.

Formerly, Palast was the founder and executive director of the Justice at Stake Campaign and national organization working to ensure fair and impartial courts. From 1993-2000, she was confirmed by the U.S. Senate to serve as Assistant Secretary of Labor for Congressional and Intergovernmental Affairs during President Clinton's two terms under Labor Secretaries Robert Reich and Alexis Herman. She also served on the President's Interagency Council on Women, where she chaired the Committee on Women in the Global Economy. The Committee monitored U.S. compliance with the Beijing Platform for Women. She was a member of the U.S. delegation to Women 2000 at the United Nations.

Prior to joining the Clinton Administration, Palast was the Political and Legislative Director of Service Employees International Union, 1981-1993. In 1979, she established and ran the Washington Office of the National Employment Law Project, a program of the Legal Services Corporation. Earlier in her career, she worked for the National Treasury Employees Union and AFSCME (American Federation of State County and Municipal Employees).

Throughout her career, Palast has organized and directed numerous broad-based national and grassroots legislative and issue campaigns. She founded and co-chaired the bipartisan coalition that was responsible for enacting the landmark Family and Medical Leave Act. As Assistant Secretary, she was a leader in the successful policy and legislative efforts to enact the minimum wage increase, the Workforce Investment Act -- the overhaul of the nation's employment and training system -- Welfare to Work, School to Work, and the historic congressional ratification of the International Labor Organization (ILO) international convention against abusive child labor. She worked on numerous pension reform legislative and regulatory matters. She has also been a strategic adviser to many electoral campaigns.

Palast has served on numerous boards and advisory committees. She has lectured at colleges and universities. Most recently, Ms. Palast was Counsel to Milberg Weiss Bershad & Schulman LLP, directing the firm's program reaching out to institutional investors in areas of litigation, policy, and public affairs.

She is an attorney, a Root-Tilden Public Service Law Scholar from NYU School of Law, and an honors graduate of Stanford University. She is admitted to practice in the District of Columbia, and she is an inactive member of the California State Bar.