Anne Zollner serves as a Chief in the Bureau of International Labor Affairs at the U.S. Department of Labor. Anne is a senior leader in the Bureau, she oversees work on trade and economic development in order make improvements in respect for worker rights around the world. In this capacity she represents the Department of Labor in the development and implementation of U.S. policy related to bilateral and multilateral trade and investment issues. She participates in the negotiation of U.S. free trade agreements, and the administration of U.S. trade preference programs, including the Generalized System of Preferences and African Growth and Opportunity Act. Through her leadership the Division has devoted substantial resources to worker rights issues in the context of international trade, including the implementation and enforcement of the worker rights’ provisions of U.S. trade legislation. In recent years she has committed efforts and attention to advancing worker rights in the fishing sector, as well as throughout supply chains. She is leading a number of innovative sustainability initiatives at the intersection of people, sectoral work, environmental concerns using tools such as worker empowerment and responsible sourcing models.
Dr. Zollner has worked in field of international labor for more than twenty years. While the majority of her work had been devoted to labor rights, Dr. Zollner has also worked in the areas of women’s issues, human rights, civic education, and civil society. Her prior experiences include serving as a consultant to the World Bank and directing a project on the impacts of privatization on women’s labor force participation in Bulgaria, Poland, Russia, and Ukraine. She has spoken on and authored various articles on women’s human rights in the transition to a market-based economy. Dr. Zollner holds Ph.D. in sociology from the University of Texas at Austin, and undergraduate degrees from the University of Michigan.
