Doug Parker served as Assistant Secretary of Labor for Occupational Safety and Health during the Biden Administration. Before leading OSHA, he was chief of California’s Division of Occupational Safety and Health, and served in the Obama Administration as Deputy Assistant Secretary for Policy at the Mine Safety and Health Administration.
Before government service, Doug was a partner at a Washington, DC law firm representing labor unions and employee benefit plans. He began his legal career as a staff attorney at the United Mine Workers of America, and was later Executive Director of Worksafe, an Oakland, California-based legal aid organization committed to protecting low-wage and immigrant workers from injury and illness on the job.
Doug is now a consultant on health and safety and other policy issues affecting workers and unions, and a fellow at Harvard Law School’s Center for Labor and a Just Economy. A West Virginia native, Doug grew up in Lynchburg, Virginia, where he was first exposed to workplace hazards as a rank-and-file employee in manufacturing and warehousing. He lives in the Washington, DC area with his family.