Key Appointments at EEOC under the Biden Administration

Commissioner Charlotte Burrows is the new Chair of EEOC and Commissioner Jocelyn Samuels is the Vice Chair

The Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) announced to the appointment of Commissioner Charlotte A. Burrows as Chair and Commissioner Jocelyn Samuels as Vice Chair. Burrows was originally nominated by President Barack Obama as an EEOC Commissioner in 2015. In 2019 she was re-nominated and confirmed for a second term ending in 2023. Prior to her role as a Commissioner, Burrows was an Associate Deputy Attorney General for the Department of Justice (DOJ) from 2009 through 2015. Before joining the DOJ, she served as General Counsel for Civil and Constitutions Rights to the Office of Senator Ted Kennedy from 2003 through 2009. Burrows has a Bachelor’s degree from Princeton University and a JD from Yale Law School.

Jocelyn Samuels began her career with the EEOC as a Commissioner on October 14, 2020. Prior to joining the agency, she served as the Executive Director and Roberta A. Conroy Scholar of Law at the Williams Institute of the UCLA School of Law. During this role, she focused her attention on legal strategies to attain equality for sexual and gender minorities. Previously, during the Obama Administration, Samuels was the Director of the Office for Civil Rights at the Department of Health & Human Services (HSS). She also served as a political appointee at the DOJ, including as the Acting Assistant Attorney General for Civil Rights. She has a Bachelor’s degree from Middlebury College and a JD from Columbia Law School.