National President Colleen M. Kelley is the leader of the National Treasury Employees Union (NTEU), the nation’s largest independent federal sector union, representing 150,000 employees in 31 separate government agencies. As the union’s top elected official, she leads NTEU’s efforts to achieve the dignity and respect federal employees deserve. As spokesperson for the union, Kelley represents NTEU with the agencies, in the media, and testifies before Congress on issues of importance to union members and federal employees.

Kelley has been at the forefront of the union’s successful effort to end the IRS’ program to outsource the collection of tax debts to private collection agencies, citing the danger to taxpayer’s private information and the risk of taxpayer harassment. The program was canceled in March 2009.

The NTEU leader also played a leading role in the effort to restore labor-management collaboration to the federal sector. President Obama signed an executive order creating a variety of federal sector labor-management forums—including a national-level advisory body—that use an important and proven technique for dealing with labor relations and operational issues in a less adversarial, more constructive setting.

As president of the union representing nearly 24,000 U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) employees in the Department of Homeland Security (DHS), Kelley helped protect DHS employees’ collective bargaining rights by successfully leading a lawsuit against a revamped personnel system the agency tried to impose on its employees and won an enhanced Law Enforcement Officer retirement benefit for CBP officers.

In these challenging times for federal employees, Kelley stresses the need for fair treatment and competitive pay and benefits for federal employees. Through her efforts, the Office of Personnel Management permitted federal employees to have Flexible Spending Accounts, a common private sector employee benefit. According to Kelley, the failure to pay competitive salaries and the previous administration’s focus on contracting out federal jobs have put the federal government at a disadvantage when it comes to hiring the best new college graduates, mid-career employees and retaining its current workers. Kelley’s efforts focus on making the federal government a workplace that attracts the best employees in their respective fields. She believes that employees have a lot of good ideas about how to do the work of the federal government better and works hard to ensure their voices are heard.

Kelley serves on the Federal Salary Council, the Employee Thrift Advisory Council of the Federal Retirement Thrift Investment Board, and the Federal Employee Education and Assistance Fund (FEEA) Board of Directors.

She also is a member of the Board of Governors of the Partnership for Public Service, which is committed to enhancing perceptions of public service and encouraging participation in the public sector.

A Pittsburgh native, certified public accountant (CPA) and an NTEU member since 1974, Kelley was an IRS Revenue Agent for 14 years and served in various NTEU chapter leadership positions, including chapter president of NTEU Chapter 34 in Pittsburgh. She was elected National President in August 1999 and was overwhelming re-elected to a fourth four-year term in 2011.

Kelley first joined the IRS upon graduation from Drexel University, where she earned a bachelor’s degree in accounting. She also earned a Master of Business Administration (MBA) from the University of Pittsburgh.