When Elaine Chao was named the 24th U.S. Secretary of Labor in January 2001, she became the first Asian-Pacific American woman ever appointed to a presidential cabinet post – and the first Kentuckian to have a cabinet post in 46 years.

Chao sits down to talk about her remarkable career with KET on an upcoming edition of Connections with Renee Shaw, which was filmed from Washington, D.C. The program airs Friday, March 20 at 5/4 pm on KET2 and Sunday, March 22 at 1:30/12:30 pm on KET. The episode will also be available for streaming online at KET.org after airing.

During her tenure as Secretary of Labor, through 2009, Chao was lauded for her initiatives to improve worker health and safety, compensation, and retirement security.

More recently, Kentuckians witnessed Chao’s active participation in the 2014 re-election campaign of her husband, Sen. Mitch McConnell. Her role in the campaign was so instrumental, in fact, that a commentary by Jay Newton-Small for TIME.com called Chao “McConnell’s secret weapon.”

In the candid Connections interview, Chao talks with Shaw about how her interest in politics began and reflects on her accomplishments as Secretary of Labor. She discusses her active role on behalf of her husband during the 2014 U.S. Senate race, and looks ahead to the ways she plans to support Sen. McConnell in his work as the new Senate Majority Leader.

Connections with Renee Shaw is a KET production, produced by Renee Shaw.

KET is Kentucky’s largest classroom, serving more than one million people each week via television, online and mobile. Learn more about Kentucky’s preeminent public media organization on Twitter @KET and facebook.com/KET and at KET.org.

Contact:

Todd Piccirilli
Senior Director, Marketing and Communications
859-258-7242
tpiccirilli@ket.org