Elaine Chao 152792 225099478 2008-07-11T21:41:34Z Cydebot 1215485 Robot - Removing category Asian American Republicans (United States) per [[WP:CFD|CFD]] at [[Wikipedia:Categories for discussion/Log/2008 July 6]]. {{Infobox US Cabinet official | name=Elaine L. Chao <br> 趙小蘭 | image=Elaine Chao large.jpg | order1=24th | title1=[[United States Secretary of Labor]] | term_start1=[[January 29]], [[2001]] | term_end1= | president1= [[George W. Bush]] | predecessor1=[[Alexis Herman]] | successor1= | order2=12th | title2=[[Peace Corps|Director of the Peace Corps]] | term_start2=[[1991]] | term_end2=[[1992]] | president2=[[George H. W. Bush]] | predecessor2=[[Paul Coverdell]] | successor2=[[Carol Bellamy]] | birth_date= {{birth date and age |1953|03|26}} | birth_place= [[Taipei]], [[Taiwan]] | death_date= | death_place= | party=[[Republican Party (United States)|Republican]] | spouse= [[Mitch McConnell]] }}'''Elaine Lan Chao''' ({{zh-tpw|t=[[wikt:趙|趙]][[wikt:小|小]][[wikt:蘭|蘭]]|p=Zhào Xiǎolán|w=Chao Hsiao-lan}};<ref>Hsiao-lan means "little [[orchid]]." Elaine Chao has four sisters, three of whom also have names starting with "Little" (Xiao). They are: Xiao-mei (小美, little beauty), Xiao-pu (小甫), Xiao-ting (小婷).</ref> born [[March 26]], [[1953]]) currently serves as the 24th [[United States]] [[United States Secretary of Labor|Secretary of Labor]] in the [[United States Cabinet|Cabinet]] of [[President of the United States|President]] [[George W. Bush]]. She is the first [[Chinese American]]<ref>[http://www.whitehouse.gov/news/releases/2006/02/20060201.html Press Briefing by Administration Officials on American Competitiveness Initiative] (February 1, 2006), retrieved [[July 27]], [[2006]]</ref>, and the first Asian-American woman to be appointed to a President's cabinet in American history. Chao is the President's only original cabinet member, making her the longest serving cabinet member during President Bush's administration.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://peacecorpsonline.org/messages/messages/2629/2199903.html|title=Chao becomes fifth-longest-serving Secretary of Labor|publisher=Peace Corps Online|accessdate=2007-12-21}}</ref> She is married to U.S.[[Mitch McConnell|Sen. Mitch McConnell]] ([[Republican Party (United States)|R]]-[[Kentucky]]), the current [[U.S. Senate Minority Leader]]. ==Childhood and education== Chao was born in [[Taipei]], [[Taiwan]], to James S. C. Chao (趙錫成 Zhào Xīchéng), a [[Shanghai]]nese entrepreneur, and Ruth Mu-lan Chu (朱木蘭 Zhū Mùlán), a [[historian]]. Her parents had fled to Taiwan from mainland China after the Chinese Communists took over as a result of the [[Chinese Civil War]] in 1949. At the age of eight, Elaine Chao and her family immigrated to the United States, where her father had already settled a few years earlier. She attended [[Syosset High School]] on [[Long Island, New York]]. Chao received her B.A. in Economics from [[Mount Holyoke College]] in 1975 and her [[Master of Business Administration|MBA]] from the [[Harvard Business School]]. Chao is the second Mount Holyoke alumna to become Labor Secretary. Frances Perkins, a 1902 graduate of the College, was the first woman to hold a Cabinet post and served as President Franklin D. Roosevelt's Secretary of Labor from 1933 to 1945. Chao also studied at [[Massachusetts Institute of Technology|MIT]], [[Dartmouth College]], and [[Columbia University]]. She is the recipient of 31 honorary doctoral degrees from colleges and universities around the world. ==Career== ===George H.W. Bush Administration=== In [[1986]], Chao returned to [[Washington D.C.]] as Deputy Administrator of the [[Maritime Administration]] in the [[US Department of Transportation]]. From [[1988]] to [[1989]], she served as Chairwoman of the Federal Maritime Commission. In [[1989]], President [[George H. W. Bush]] nominated Chao to be Deputy Secretary of Transportation, the number two position in the department. From [[1991]] to [[1992]], Chao was Director of the [[Peace Corps]]. She was the first [[Asian American]] to serve in all these positions. She expanded the Peace Corps's presence in [[Eastern Europe]] and [[Central Asia]] by establishing the first Peace Corps programs in [[Latvia]], [[Lithuania]], [[Estonia]], [[Poland]], and other newly independent states of the former [[Soviet Union]]. ===United Way and Heritage Foundation=== Following her service in the government, Chao worked for four years as President and Chief Executive Officer of [[United Way of America]]. She is credited with returning credibility and public trust back to the organization after an embarrassing financial mismanagement scandal involving former United Way of America president [[Bill Aramony]]. From [[1996]] until her appointment as Secretary of Labor, Chao was a Distinguished Fellow with the conservative [[Heritage Foundation]], a Washington think tank. ===Achievements as Labor Secretary=== During Secretary Chao's tenure, the Department has updated the white collar [[overtime]] regulations under the [[Fair Labor Standards Act]], which has been on the agenda of every Administration since 1977. For the first time in history, overtime protection is now explicitly guaranteed for blue collar workers, police, firefighters, EMT's, factory workers, construction workers and hourly workers. The most significant regulatory [[tort reform]] of President Bush's first term, the new regulations provided millions of workers with strengthened overtime protection. In 2003, the Department achieved the first major update of union financial disclosure regulations in more than 40 years, giving rank and file members enhanced information on how their dues are spent. The Department has set new worker protection enforcement records, including recovering record back wages for vulnerable low wage immigrant workers. The Department has also launched comprehensive reform of the nation's publicly funded worker training programs. In 2006 and 2007, the Department successfully implemented the [[Mine Improvement and New Emergency Response Act of 2006]] (MINER Act). On August 17, 2006, President Bush signed the [[Pension Protection Act]], which protects the 44 million workers whose retirement security rests upon private sector defined benefit pension plans. After [[Donald Rumsfeld]] had stepped down from his position as [[Secretary of Defense]] in November 2006, she became the only original Cabinet member still serving in the Bush Administration in the same position to which she was appointed. ===Timeline=== *1983: [[White House Fellow]], Office of Policy Development, the White House *1986: Deputy Administrator, [[Maritime Administration]], [[US Department of Transportation]] *1988&ndash;89: Chairwoman, Federal Maritime Commission *1989: Deputy [[Secretary of Transportation]] *1991&ndash;92: Director, [[Peace Corps]] *1992&ndash;96: President and Chief Executive Officer, [[United Way of America]] *1996: Distinguished Fellow, [[Heritage Foundation]] *2001&ndash;[[as of 2006|Present]]: [[United States Secretary of Labor|U.S. Secretary of Labor]] ==Family== Elaine Chao is married to Senator [[Mitch McConnell]] of [[Kentucky]], the [[Party leaders of the United States Senate|Republican Leader]] of the [[United States Senate]]. She is the eldest of six daughters in her family. ==Notes and references== {{Reflist}} ==External links== {{commonscat}} *[http://www.dol.gov/_sec/welcome.htm Office of the Secretary of Labor Elaine L. Chao] *[http://www.dol.gov/_sec/aboutosec/chao.htm U.S. Department of Labor Biography] *http://unionreports.gov {{start box}} {{succession box | before=[[Paul Coverdell]] | title=Director of the [[Peace Corps]] | years=[[1991]]–[[1992]] | after=[[Carol Bellamy]]}} {{U.S. Secretary box | before= [[Alexis Herman]] | after= | start= [[2001]] | president= George W. Bush | department= Secretary of Labor}} {{succession box | before = [[Carlos Gutierrez]] | title = [[United States order of precedence]] | years = [[as of 2007]] | after = [[Michael Leavitt]]}} {{end box}} {{PeaceCorpsDirectors}} {{USSecLabor}} {{U.S. Cabinet}} {{GW Bush cabinet}} {{Persondata |NAME=Chao, Elaine |ALTERNATIVE NAMES=Chao, Elaine Lao |SHORT DESCRIPTION=24th [[United States Secretary of Labor]] |DATE OF BIRTH=[[March 26]], [[1953]] |PLACE OF BIRTH=[[Taipei]], [[Taiwan]] |DATE OF DEATH= |PLACE OF DEATH= }} {{DEFAULTSORT:Chao, Elaine}} [[Category:1953 births]] [[Category:Living people]] [[Category:Chinese American politicians]] [[Category:Foreign-born American politicians]] [[Category:Heritage Foundation]] [[Category:Mount Holyoke College alumni]] [[Category:Naturalized citizens of the United States]] [[Category:Peace Corps directors]] [[Category:People from Long Island]] [[Category:People from Nassau County, New York]] [[Category:United States Secretaries of Labor]] [[Category:Spouses of United States Senators]] [[Category:Harvard Business School alumni]] [[Category:Taiwanese Americans]] [[Category:George W. Bush Administration cabinet members]] [[de:Elaine Chao]] [[fr:Elaine Chao]] [[hr:Elaine Chao]] [[id:Elaine Chao]] [[ja:イレーン・チャオ]] [[sh:Elaine Chao]] [[fi:Elaine Chao]] [[zh:趙小蘭]]