Geri Palast is an attorney, the executive director for the Campaign for Fiscal Equity

Campaign for Fiscal Equity

The Campaign for Fiscal Equity is a not-for-profit advocacy organization seeking to protect and promote the constitutional right to a sound basic education for all public school students in the State of New York. The organization filed and won the landmark "CFE v...

 (CFE), and a Root-Tilden Public Service Law Scholar from NYU School of Law.

Early life, education, and family

Palast is a graduate of Stanford University

Stanford University

The Leland Stanford Junior University, commonly referred to as Stanford University or Stanford, is a private research university on an campus located near Palo Alto, California. It is situated in the northwestern Santa Clara Valley on the San Francisco Peninsula, approximately northwest of San...

 with honors, and graduated NYU Law School in 1976.

Career

Geri Palast was director of the Washington office of the National Employment Law Project and Legislative and Program Analyst of the American Federation of State, County, and Municipal Employees. In 1991, she became director of Politics and Legislation for the Service Employees International Union

Service Employees International Union

Service Employees International Union is a labor union representing about 1.8 million workers in over 100 occupations in the United States , and Canada...

.

In 1993, she was named Assistant Secretary of Labor for Congressional and Intergovernmental Relations under President Bill Clinton

Bill Clinton

William Jefferson "Bill" Clinton is an American politician who served as the 42nd President of the United States from 1993 to 2001. Inaugurated at age 46, he was the third-youngest president. He took office at the end of the Cold War, and was the first president of the baby boomer generation...

. She served in that position until 2000, when she became the founder and executive director of Justice at Stake

Justice at Stake Campaign

The Justice at Stake Campaign is a Washington, D.C.-based non-partisan group whose stated objective is ensuring that courts in the United States are fair, impartial, and independent, and that judges rely only on the facts and the law....

, a national organization working to ensure fair and impartial courts. She joined CFE in February 2006.

Campaign for Fiscal Equity

The CFE

Campaign for Fiscal Equity

The Campaign for Fiscal Equity is a not-for-profit advocacy organization seeking to protect and promote the constitutional right to a sound basic education for all public school students in the State of New York. The organization filed and won the landmark "CFE v...

 is a not-for-profit advocacy organization seeking to protect and promote the constitutional right to a sound basic education for all public school students in the State of New York. During her tenure, CFE won the landmark lawsuit that challenged New York's school finance system. The organization now oversees implementation of the laws and reforms that resulted from the case, ensuring the right to a sound basic public education for children in New York State. In 1995 the Court of Appeals

Court of Appeals

A court of appeals is an appellate court generally.Court of Appeals may refer to:*Military Court of Appeals *Corte d'Assise d'Appello *Philippine Court of Appeals*High Court of Appeals of Turkey*United States courts of appeals...

held that the State Constitution requires the state to provide all necessary resources to achieve these results.