Current Position and Past Experience
Brent Orrell is a resident fellow at the American Enterprise Institute (AEI), where he conducts research on workforce development, criminal justice reform, and poverty issues. Prior to joining AEI, he worked for U.S. government for 22 years including 14 years as legislative assistant, legislative director, and chief of staff for members of the U.S. House of Representatives and U.S. Senate. He was nominated by President George W. Bush to serve as Assistant Secretary for the Employment and Training Administration (U.S. Department of Labor) and was also appointed Deputy Assisstant Secretary for Policy at the Administration for Children and Families (U.S. Department of Health and Human Services). As director of the Center for Faith-Based and Community Initiatives at DOL, he led the design and implementation of the department’s first employment-focused prisoner re-entry programs.

Education, Honors and Achievements
Brent Orrell holds a Bachelor of Arts in History from the University of Oregon.

Connect
You can connect with Brent Orrell on LinkedIn and on Twitter at @Orell_b. His full scholar page at AEI can be found here.