Joe Shantz

Senior Policy Counsel

Joe Shantz is a Senior Policy Counsel at Democracy Forward.

Before joining Democracy Forward, he served as Senior Counselor to the Secretary for Julie Su at the U.S. Department of Labor, where he advised on the Department’s worker protection enforcement and regulatory policy. Prior to serving in the Biden-Harris Administration, he worked to enact workers’ rights legislation and challenge anti-worker regulatory policy as the Senior Labor Counsel for Ranking Member Patty Murray (D-WA) on the Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions.

He is a lawyer by training, having attended Georgetown University Law Center, where he focused on learning how to use the law to support working families and constrain corporate power. He also previously served as a Peace Corps Volunteer in Ghana, focusing on how to improve the livelihoods of cashew farmers. He grew up in Silver Spring, Maryland, and now lives in DC.