Doug Ross
Doug Ross was the former Assistant Secretary of Labor for Employment and Training, appointed by President Bill Clinton and confirmed by the U.S. Senate in August 1993. His background is rich in public sector service and private sector experience, as well as academic pursuits, public policy making and consumer protection.
As assistant secretary for employment and training, Mr. Ross oversees a multi-billion-dollar agency with more than 1700 employees nationwide. With programs for job training, apprenticeship, dislocated workers, employment service, unemployment insurance, school-to-work transition and more, the Employment and Training Administration in some way touches the lives of most Americans.
In his post, Mr. Ross is overseeing some of the most significant commitments of the Clinton Administration including a system of school-to-work transition for all students, comprehensive programs to assist dislocated and unemployment workers, portable skill standards for employees and others. He puts paramount emphasis on the efficient delivery of information and services to ETA's many customers and constituent groups.
Before joining the U.S. Labor Department, Mr. Ross was director of the Michigan Department of Commerce, the lead economic agency in the state, and was a visiting lecturer at the Institute for Public Policy Studies at the University of Michigan. His public sector experience also includes serving as a Michigan State Senator (1978-82) and as a Legislative Aide to Senator Joseph Tydings of Maryland (1968-70) and to Congressman John Dingell of Michigan (1963 and 1965).
His private sector background includes President of Michigan Future, Inc., a non-partisan venture to create and promote long-term economic development (1991-93); President of the Corporation for Enterprise Development, a Washington-based policy organization devoted to economic and human development (1989-91); and Co-Chair of the Michigan Citizen's Lobby, a consumer and tax-payers advocacy group (1973-77). He also has been involved as a supervisor in the audio systems business and as a CEO of a food-brokerage firm.
A prolific writer, Mr. Ross has authored numerous pieces, including two chapters in Mandate for Change, considered a bible of the Clinton Administration (Berkeley Books, 1992); the New Work Place, published in The New Democrat (May 1992); Catching the New Wave, co-authored with David Osborne, and published in the Washington Post (July 22, 1990); and Robert F. Kennedy, Apostle of Change, published by Trident Press (1968).
In 1989, Mr. Ross was selected "Michiganian of the Year" by The Detroit News; in 1988 he received the National Governors Association Award for Public Service Excellence.
Mr. Ross holds a Masters in Public Administration from the Woodrow Wilson School, Princeton University (1972) and a B.A. in History from the University of Michigan (1965). He did graduate work in economics at the London School of Economics and the university of Michigan between 1964 and 1966.
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