Angela Hanks

Angela Hanks is the Principal Deputy Assistant Secretary and Acting Assistant Secretary of the Employment and Training Administration within the Department of Labor. In that role she helps oversee many of the Department’s employment, unemployment insurance, and training programs, and works to ensure those programs investments advance the Biden-Harris Administration’s workforce development, job quality, and equity goals. She previously served as a Counselor to the US Secretary of Labor.

Before joining DOL, Angela was Deputy Executive Director of the Groundwork Collaborative, where she worked to advance an inclusive and people-centered vision of the economy. Angela has also held roles as Director of Workforce Development Policy at the Center for American Progress (CAP), Director of the Center for Postsecondary Education and Success at CLASP, and at National Skills Coalition, where she has written extensively about how education and training programs and the labor market more broadly can be more inclusive of people of color, women, justice-involved individuals, and other marginalized groups, and on other topics including racial wealth inequality and criminal justice reform. Angela’s work has been cited in various publications including the New York Times, Washington Post, and The Atlantic. Angela was a contributor to Forbes.com, writing about employment, wages, and workforce development.

Angela began her career on Capitol Hill as a legislative assistant to the Honorable Elijah E. Cummings, and later became a counsel on the House Oversight and Government Reform committee.

Angela earned her bachelor’s degree in political science from George Washington University and her law degree from the University of Maryland School of Law.