A research professor in the School of Public Health and Health Services was nominated to be an assistant secretary of labor by President Barack Obama on Wednesday, according to a White House press release.

Phyllis Borzi, Obama’s nominee for assistant secretary of labor for employee benefits, is currently involved in research and policy analysis about health insurance and employee benefits. As a research professor, Borzi teaches only one course, “Managed Care” in the SPHHS Department of Health Policy.

Before coming to the University in 1994, Borzi was a counsel for the House Subcommittee on Labor-Management Relations for more than 16 years.

“She helped write federal legislation that enabled workers to maintain their health insurance when they lost or changed jobs, and that protected the pensions of spouses whose partners died before reaching retirement age,” according to her faculty biography. “On the Hill, and as a member of First Lady Hillary Clinton’s Presidential Task Force on Health Care Reform, Professor Borzi has been especially interested in improving access to health care coverage.”