Terri Gerstein is the Director of the NYU Wagner Labor Initiative, at NYU’s Robert F. Wagner Graduate School of Public Service. The Labor Initiative is a hub of research and action that, among other things, helps expand and improve state and local enforcement of worker protection laws. Previously, Gerstein directed the State and Local Enforcement Project at the Harvard Center for Labor and a Just Economy and was a Senior Fellow at the Economic Policy Institute.

Gerstein enforced labor laws for over 17 years in New York, including as Labor Bureau Chief in the New York State Attorney General’s Office and as Deputy Commissioner in the New York State Department of Labor. Before her government service, Gerstein was a nonprofit lawyer in Miami, Florida, where she represented immigrant workers and co-hosted a Spanish language radio show on workers’ rights. Gerstein writes and speaks frequently on labor and workers’ rights issues, and has authored a number of law review articles, think-tank reports, and op-eds on worker and labor issues.