Wednesday, October 14, 2020: Jocelyn Samuels (and later) Andrea Lucas Sworn in as EEOC Commissioners
The Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) announced on Wednesday October 14th the swearing-in of Jocelyn Samuels (D) to the Commission and on Monday October 19th the swearing in of Andrea Lucas (R). Ms. Samuels’ term will expire July 1, 2021 and Ms. Lucas’ term will expire July 1, 2025. Samuels and Lucas now join Chair Janet Dhillon (R), Vice Chair Keith Sonderling (R), and Commissioner Charlotte Burrows (D) on the presidentially appointed bipartisan Commission. The Commission is now fully staffed with all five Members onboard and at work with three Republicans and two Democrats.
Samuels: From June 2017 until the present, Jocelyn Samuels was Executive Director of the Williams Institute at the UCLA School of Law. Before that, Samuels was the Director of the Office for Civil Rights at the U.S. Department of Health & Human Services and served as Acting Assistant Attorney General for Civil Rights at the U.S. Department of Justice during the Obama Administration. Earlier in her career, she worked as a senior policy attorney at the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, as Labor Counsel to Senator Ted Kennedy, and as the Vice President for Education & Employment at the National Women’s Law Center in Washington, D.C. She is a graduate of Middlebury College and Columbia University Law School.
“I am committed to advancing the rights of all Americans, regardless of their race, gender, or other protected characteristics,” Samuels said. “It is an incredible honor to apply these principles to the critical work of the EEOC to remove barriers to employment and foster inclusive and diverse workplaces.”
LUCAS: According to the EEOC’s Press Release, prior to her appointment to the EEOC, Ms. Lucas was a senior associate in the Washington, D.C. office of Gibson, Dunn & Crutcher LLP. [Editor’s Note: USDOL Secretary Eugene Scalia was the Co-Chair of the Washington D.C. Labor and Employment Group and worked with Ms. Lucas]. She was a member of the firm’s labor and employment practice group as well as its litigation department. She has represented and advised employers on a wide-range of matters, including significant work around employment discrimination. Ms. Lucas received her B.A., magna cum laude, from the University of Pennsylvania and her J.D. from the University of Virginia.
“I’m honored to serve as a Commissioner of the EEOC, Lucas said. The American workforce is our country’s most valuable resource and ensuring that all workers have equal opportunity is critical to keeping our workplaces strong and safe”. “I look forward to working with my colleagues to prevent and remedy employment discrimination across our country and to address the new challenges for our country and the Commission posed by the complexities of the twenty-first century workplace and the COVID-19 pandemic,” Lucas said.