Thea Lee has been advocating for workers’ rights, both domestically and internationally, for over thirty years. She served as Deputy Undersecretary for International Affairs in the U.S. Department of Labor from 2021 to 2025. In that capacity, she headed the Bureau of International Labor Affairs, which uses research, trade enforcement and monitoring, and technical assistance to promote and strengthen workers’ rights globally.  

Previously, Ms. Lee was President of the Economic Policy Institute, a progressive pro-worker Washington think tank, and she worked at the American Federation of Labor and Congress of Industrial Organizations as Deputy Chief of Staff, Policy Director, and Chief International Economist. 

Ms. Lee has engaged in national policy debates on issues such as wage inequality, workers’ rights, and fair trade, and is co-author of The Field Guide to the Global Economy. She has been a voice for workers in testimony before congressional committees and in television and radio appearances, including on PBS NewsHour, NPR's All Things Considered, among others. She has served on the State Department advisory committee on international economic policy, the export-import bank advisory committee, and on the boards of directors of the National Bureau of Economic Research, National Women’s Law Center, and Coalition on Human Needs, to name a few. She also served on the U.S.-China economic and security review commission and the congressional-executive commission on China.

Ms. Lee holds a master’s degree in economics from the University of Michigan at Ann Arbor and a bachelor’s degree in economics from Smith College.