Paul F. Cole

Paul F. Cole held the second highest office in the New York State labor movement - Secretary-Treasurer of the 2.3 million member New York State AFL-CIO from 1984 through 2005. He was elected Secretary-Treasurer Emeritus in December 2005.

He is the founder and Executive Director of the American Labor Studies Center (ALSC) a not-for-profit organization that collects, evaluates and disseminates labor history and labor studies curriculum to K-12 teachers nationwide through its web site: www.labor-studies.org. The ALSC is located at the Kate Mullany National Historic Site in Troy, New York.
. He served as a Vice President of the American Federation of Teachers from 1974 to January 2006.

Mr. Cole has a BA in Political Science from Marquette University and a Masters of Science degree from Canisius College. He has completed additional graduate work at Niagara University, SUC at Buffalo and the University of California, Irvine.

Mr. Cole taught social studies for 23 years at Lewiston-Porter Senior High School in Youngstown, New York and served as president of the Lewiston-Porter United Teachers. He served as Assistant to the President of the New York State United Teachers (NYSUT) and Political Director of the New York State AFL-CIO prior to his election as Secretary-Treasurer of the State Federation in 1984.

He is an emeritus member of the Cornell University Board of Trustees after serving as a trustee for 16 years. He is a member, and past chair, of the Advisory Council of the Cornell School of Industrial and Labor Relations. In March 2007, he received the Alpern Award from the Cornell ILR School for distinguished service to the school.

At the state level, Mr. Cole serves as a member of the New York State Workforce Investment Board and co-chair of its Standards, Assessment and Credentials Committee. He has served on the state Labor-Management Committee, Task Force on Independent Contractors, the Job Training Partnership Council, the State Council on Vocational Education and a wide variety of committees and commissions for the New York State Education Department. He served as a member of the Board of Directors of the Consortium for Worker Education (CWE), the New York State Union Child Care Coalition and Empire State Advantage (ESA).

Nationally, Mr. Cole was appointed by President Clinton to the National Skill Standards Board where he served as vice-chair. He served as chair of the AFT’s Standing Committee on Career and Technical Education, vice chair of the U. S. Department of Education’s National Assessment on Vocational Education Independent Advisory Panel, a member of the Advisory Board of the National Research and Dissemination Centers on Career and Technical Education and served as a member of the SCANS Commission. He served on the National School-to-Work Advisory Council, as a member of the Vocational Education Standards Committee of the National Board of Professional Teaching Standards and the Board of Directors for Jobs for the Future and the Maine Center for Career Development International Advisory Board of Governors.

He served on the National Park Service Advisory Council from 1991 to 1995 where he oversaw the National Theme Study on American Labor History that resulted in the designation of the Kate Mullany House in Troy, NY as a National Historic Landmark along with other sites across the country. In 2005, he worked successfully with Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton and Congressman Michael McNulty to pass federal legislation designating the Mullany House as a National Historic Site.

He was appointed by AFL- CIO President John J. Sweeney to the Board of Directors of the Alliance for Retired Americans. He is a member of the Board of Directors of the New York State Alliance for Retired Americans.

Mr. Cole was a member of the 1996 Electoral College and a member of the 2000 Democratic National Platform Committee.

Internationally, Mr. Cole represented the AFL-CIO as a delegate to the 87th Annual meeting of the International Labor Organization (ILO) in Geneva, Switzerland, in 2000. He has been a delegate to Education International Congresses in France, Zimbabwe, Thailand and Brazil. He has been a speaker at a number of employment and training conferences in Europe and participated in a number of international study tours examining the education and training systems of various European countries including Germany, Denmark, Sweden, The United Kingdom and Ireland. In September 2002, he spent two weeks in Tanzania training 50 teachers on Civics Education in cooperation with the AFT, the Tanzanian Teachers Union and Tanzanian Ministry of Education. In 2005, he represented the AFT in Jordon and Lebanon to establish a training program for teacher unions.

He is the author of a white paper entitled “The New American Worker” which focuses on the changing nature of work and its implications for education; a feature article for the Journal of School Administrators Association of New York State entitled “Child Labor: Peril or Promise,” an examination of child labor and its impact on learning; an article in the August 1991 edition of Personnel, the magazine of the American Management Association on the role of business in education; and a white paper entitled “School-to-Work Transition: A Labor Perspective.” He also authored three monographs: “The Transformation of the Swedish Education System,” “Denmark: Linking Education and the Economy” and “Labor’s Untold Story.”

Mr. Cole and his wife, Lynne, have two children: Emily Cole Bayer, Ph.D., an Adjunct Professor at George Washington University and Martin, a Construction Management graduate of Utica College and a construction manager for the New York State Power Authority.

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