Public service and standing up to injustice are in Secretary of Labor Thomas E. Perez's blood. The son of immigrants and grandson of a Dominican ambassador who sought freedom in the United States after speaking out against the Trujillo regime, Perez has spent more than 25 years in public service at the local, state and federal levels. Growing up in Buffalo, New York as the youngest of five siblings, Perez worked his way through college earning both a master's of public policy from Harvard University's John F. Kennedy School of Government, and a juris doctorate from Harvard Law School. His career has included trying hate crimes cases as a federal prosecutor; instituting mortgage and lending reforms as Maryland's secretary of labor; and ensuring equal access to the ballot box as Assistant Attorney General for Civil Rights at the U.S. Department of Justice. Throughout his career, Secretary Perez has worked to ensure that the ladder of opportunity is available to those in need, and now as Secretary of Labor, he will continue to do so by working to reduce income inequality, expand veterans employment, close the skills gap, and expand employment for people with disabilities.