About the Department for Professional Employees, AFL-CIO
The Department for Professional Employees, AFL-CIO (DPE) is a coalition of 24 national unions that collectively represent millions of professional and technical workers across the United States in all industries and occupations.
DPE ensures union professionals have a strong, united voice in federal policymaking and within the broader labor movement. We advance legislative and regulatory priorities developed in partnership with our affiliated unions, focusing on policies that:
Expand access to a union for professionals
Protect professional integrity
Advance a worker-centered approach to immigration
We also develop sector-specific agendas that include leading the Arts, Entertainment, and Media Industries (AEMI) coalition and the Nonprofit Unions Coalition. These coordination efforts help advance shared priorities affecting professionals nationwide.
Beyond policy work, DPE strengthens affiliate unions through various support initiatives, including:
Organizing assistance
Member engagement strategies
Research
Communicating the value of union membership for professionals
DPE helps professionals build power and ensures that unions representing today's highly skilled workforce play a leading role in shaping the future of work.
DPE Officers and General Vice Presidents
Chair of the General Board
Fedrick Ingram
Secretary-Treasurer
American Federation of Teachers
President
Jennifer Dorning
President
Department for Professional Employees, AFL-CIO
First Vice President
Duncan Crabtree-Ireland
National Executive Director and Chief Negotiator
Screen Actors Guild - American Federation of Television and Radio Artists
Treasurer
Matt Biggs
President
International Federation of Professional and Technical Engineers
General Vice Presidents
Amber Miller
International Vice President at Large
United Steelworkers
Pamela Greenwalt
Chief Communications and Marketing Officer
Screen Actors Guild - American Federation of Television and Radio Artists
Everett Kelley
National President
American Federation of Government Employees
Tyler McIntosh
Political/Legislative Director
International Alliance of Theatrical Stage Employees
Zachary Barber
Legislative and Policy Coordinator
Office and Professional Employees International Union
Ken Shirk
International Secretary-Treasurer
American Federation of Musicians
James Slevin
National President
Utility Workers Union of America
Alvin Vincent, Jr.
Executive Director
Actors’ Equity Association
Sam Wheeler
Executive Director
Writers Guild of America East
DPE President’s Message
This is an exciting time to be a union professional. Across the country, professionals are choosing union representation in record numbers. Each new member is a reminder of why DPE's work matters: professionals thrive when they have a real voice on the job.
DPE was chartered in 1977 by visionary labor leaders who saw the potential of the growing professional workforce and wanted to ensure professionals had a strong voice in the labor movement. Nearly fifty years later, that mission is as urgent as ever.
Today, working hand in hand with our affiliate unions, DPE advances a legislative and policy agenda that expands access to a union, protects professional integrity, and promotes a worker-centered approach to immigration. When lawmakers and regulators make decisions that affect the professional and technical workforce, we make sure union professionals are at the table. At the same time, we are making the case for union membership to the millions of nonunion professionals in the United States — using research, storytelling, and outreach to show professionals in every field what a union can do for them: better pay, a voice in the workplace, and the power to protect the standards of their professions.
That work is possible because of everything else DPE does. We offer our affiliate unions a forum for discussion, collaboration, and mutual support, including through sector-specific efforts like the Arts, Entertainment, and Media Industries coalition and the Nonprofit Union Coalition. We build alliances with professional associations and societies that share our goals, produce research on the professional and technical workforce, and work to foster diversity across the professions. Everything we do serves a single mission: helping our affiliate unions achieve their objectives on behalf of the professional and technical workers they represent.
I am honored to lead this forward-thinking coalition, and I am inspired daily by the professionals who are organizing, advocating, and building a stronger movement. Together, we strengthen our unions, grow our movement, and improve the lives of professionals.
— Jennifer Dorning