Randi Weingarten is president of the United Federation of Teachers, representing more than 140,000 active and retired educators in the New York City public school system since 1998. She is also a vice-president of the 1.2-million-member American Federation of Teachers and a board member of New York State United Teachers.

As a teacher of history at Clara Barton High School in Crown Heights, Brooklyn, from 1991 to 1997, Weingarten helped her students win several state and national awards. Weingarten holds degrees from Cornell University and the Cardozo School of Law. She worked as a lawyer for the New York firm of Stroock & Stroock & Lavan from 1983 to 1986.

Weingarten was chairperson of the Health Insurance Plan (HIP) of Greater New York and a board member of the N.Y.C. Independent Budget Office. She served on Mayor Michael Bloomberg’s transition committee following his election in 2001. She is on the boards of directors of the Justice Resource Center and Council for Unity (both student-related groups); the New York Committee on Occupational Safety and Health (NYCOSH); the United Way of Greater New York; the International Rescue Committee; the New York Downtown Alliance and Math for America. She is on the advisory board of Operation Public Education at the University of Pennsylvania. She is also a Democratic National Committee member.