Hill Heat

In a business meeting, the committee will consider the following:

• Nomination of Glenna Wright-Gallo to be Assistant Secretary for Special Education and Rehabilitative Services at the Department of Education
• Nomination of Christopher Williamson to be Assistant Secretary for Mine Safety and Health at the Department of Labor
• Nomination of Mary Lu Jordan to be a Member of the Federal Mine Safety and Health Review Commission
• Nomination of Timothy (T.J.) Baker to be a Member of the Federal Mine Safety and Health Review Commission

A proud Appalachian and native of the coalfields of southern West Virginia, Williamson currently serves as Senior Counsel to Chairman Lauren McFerran of the National Labor Relations Board. Prior to joining the NLRB, he served in the Obama-Biden Administration at the U.S. Department of Labor as a member of the senior leadership team at the Mine Safety and Health Administration. In that role, he advised the Assistant Secretary for MSHA on all aspects of agency policy, operations, and communications.

Before his service at MSHA, Williamson worked in the United States Senate as Labor Counsel to Chairman Tom Harkin on the Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions Committee and as a Legislative Assistant to Senator Joe Manchin III. As Labor Counsel, he advised Chairman Harkin and Committee Members on labor, occupational and mine safety and health, and black lung benefits and other workers’ compensation issues. Serving on Senator Manchin’s Legislative Team, Williamson was the Senator’s primary policy advisor on labor, mine safety and health, pensions, and agriculture issues and also advised him on energy and environmental policy, including Senator Manchin’s work on the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee.

Mary Jordan was appointed as a Commissioner on the Federal Mine Safety and Health Review Commission in 1994 and has served in that capacity almost continuously since then. She has served as Chair of the Commission from 1994 to 2001, from 2009 to 2014, and from 2015 to 2017. Her most recent term as Commissioner ended on August 30, 2020 and since then she has served as Senior Attorney-Advisor at the Commission.

Ms. Jordan was employed as Senior Staff Attorney at the United Mine Workers of America from 1977 to 1994. She is a graduate of Saint Bonaventure University and Antioch Law School and is a member of the New York and D.C. Bar.

Williamson began his career in public service as an attorney-advisor to Administrative Law Judge Jacqueline R. Bulluck at the Federal Mine Safety and Health Review Commission. He earned a Juris Doctor from the West Virginia University College of Law, a Master of Public Policy from American University, and a Bachelor of Arts in Political Science and Economics from West Virginia University. Williamson is originally from Dingess in Mingo County, West Virginia, and currently resides with his wife and children in Crofton, Maryland.

Timothy (T.J.) Baker is currently the Associate General Counsel of the United Mine Workers of America and has been with the Union since 2018. From 2012 to 2018, he worked for the Federal Mine Safety and Health Review Commission, first as an attorney-advisor in the Office of Administrative Law Judges in Pittsburgh and then as an attorney-advisor in the Office of the Commissioners in Washington, D.C. He is a graduate of the University of Pittsburgh and Washington and Lee University School of Law. At Washington and Lee, he participated in the third-year Black Lung Clinic, seeking to obtain benefits for miners afflicted with occupational lung disease. Baker is the son of a coal miner. He lives in Fredericksburg, Virginia with his wife Laura and their children, Lydia and Jon.