Vance Thomas Rider is an attorney who former

Secretary of Labor and Human Resources of Puerto Rico The Secretary of Labor and Human Resources of Puerto Rico is responsible for the development and management of all matters related to labor and human resources in the government of Puerto Rico. The secretary heads the Department of Labor and ...

under the governance of

Alejandro García Padilla Alejandro Javier García Padilla (; born August 3, 1971) is a Puerto Rican politician and attorney who served as the governor of Puerto Rico from 2013 to 2017. Prior to this position, García Padilla held various roles in the political la ...

in the 16th Cabinet of Puerto Rico. Thomas was a former candidate for mayor of Culebra in 1992 for the

Puerto Rican Independence Party The Puerto Rican Independence Party ( es, Partido Independentista Puertorriqueño, PIP) is a social-democratic political party in Puerto Rico that campaigns for the independence of Puerto Rico from the United States. Those who follow the PIP ...

and a former candidate for mayor of San Juan in 2000 for the same party. In 2012, however, Thomas favored García Padilla during the Puerto Rican General Elections although they are from different

political parties A political party is an organization that coordinates candidates to compete in a particular country's elections. It is common for the members of a party to hold similar ideas about politics, and parties may promote specific ideological or pol ...

. Thomas also led the

Puerto Rico Commission on Civil Rights The Civil Rights Commission ( es, Comisión de Derechos Civiles) is an official entity within the legislative branch of the government of Puerto Rico charged with investigating violations of citizens' civil rights. The commission is empowered to ...

and the Puerto Rico Committee on the Conservation of Culebra's Seabed. Thomas is a graduate from the

University of Puerto Rico School of Law The University of Puerto Rico School of Law is a law school in Puerto Rico. It is one of the professional graduate schools of University of Puerto Rico, Río Piedras Campus and the only law school in the University of Puerto Rico System. It ...

. Graduated from graduate school of Planning with courses for master's degree in environmental planning and a bachelor's degree in political science from the

University of Puerto Rico The University of Puerto Rico ( es, Universidad de Puerto Rico, UPR) is the main public university system in the U.S. Commonwealth of Puerto Rico. It is a government-owned corporation with 11 campuses and approximately 58,000 students and 5,3 ...

References

Members of the 16th Cabinet of Puerto Rico People from Jacksonville, Illinois Secretaries of Labor and Human Resources of Puerto Rico University of Puerto Rico alumni Living people Date of birth missing (living people) Year of birth missing (living people) {{PuertoRico-politician-stub