Rachel West is a senior fellow at The Century Foundation, most recently having served as special assistant to the president for labor and workers at the White House Domestic Policy Council, where she led efforts to strengthen workers’ pay and overtime protections, advance health and safety protections, and strengthen workplace rights.
Prior to her time in the Biden–Harris administration, Rachel was senior advisor to U.S. Senator Michael Bennet, where she led legislative efforts on tax policy—including the expanded refundable Child Tax Credit—as well as unemployment insurance, housing, and retirement policies. She also previously served as senior economic policy advisor for the U.S. House Committee on Education and Labor under Chair Bobby Scott. Before her tenure on Capitol Hill, Rachel was director of poverty research at the Center for American Progress, where she led policy development and strategy on a wide range of issues, including minimum wage, social assistance programs, tax policy, unemployment insurance, Social Security, disability policy, and criminal justice. Rachel began her career as an economist at the U.S. Department of Transportation.
Rachel holds a master of public policy (MPP) from the University of California, Berkeley, and a bachelor’s degree in economics and physics from Mount Holyoke College.