Owen Herrnstadt is the Interim Executive Director at the AFL-CIO Working for America Institute. In this role, Herrnstadt provides leadership on WAI strategy and programming and collaborates with AFL-CIO institutions, unions, employers, and community organizations to create, expand, and retain high-quality jobs. Prior to joining the AFL-CIO, Herrnstadt was confirmed by the U.S. Senate as a Member of the Board of Directors of the U.S. Export-Import Bank and was sworn in July 2022 for a term ending in 2025. Herrnstadt also served as the Chief of Staff to the International President and Director of Trade and Globalization at the International Association of Machinists and Aerospace Workers. As Chief of Staff, he assisted in running one of the largest manufacturing and transportation unions in the world. As Director of Trade and Globalization, he developed policy for international trade, economic investment, international labor standards, and human rights matters.
Herrnstadt has taught employment and labor law as an adjunct professor at Georgetown University’s National Law Center and international employment and labor law at American University’s Washington College of Law. He is a member of the Council on Foreign Relations and a former member of the U.S. Export-Import Bank Federal Advisory Committee, U.S. State Department Federal Advisory Committee on International Economics, Co-Chair of the State Department’s Stakeholder Advisory Board on OECD Guidelines, Independent Mexico Labor Expert Board and the Industry Trade Advisory Committee 1 (Aerospace). Herrnstadt has also served as Chair of the Board of Directors of the Baltimore Branch of the Federal Reserve Bank of Richmond. He has made numerous presentations on labor and employment law, international employment and labor law, corporate social responsibility, trade, manufacturing policy, human rights, and industrial relations in the U.S. and abroad.
Herrnstadt has written numerous articles and has testified before Congress and federal agencies on numerous matters, including labor and employment law, as well as trade and manufacturing policy. He is a Fellow in the College of Labor and Employment Law and served as a Research Associate at the Economic Policy Institute. He has received the Outstanding Practitioner Award and the Practitioner Fellow Award by the Labor and Employment Research Association and the Georgetown University Silver Vicennial Award in recognition of service to the Georgetown community. Herrnstadt received his BS, MS (Industrial Relations), and JD degrees from the University of Wisconsin-Madison.