The Future of Equitable Workplaces
The U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) provides key workplace policy guidance for employers across the country and is the nation’s leading federal agency dedicated to advancing equal opportunity in the workplace. During this interactive session, hear from EEOC Commissioners about the Commission’s work. Participants will have the opportunity to provide input on the Commission’s priorities and plans for the future.
Jocelyn Samuels
Jocelyn Samuels is Vice Chair of the Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC), appointed by President Biden in 2021 and confirmed for a second term ending in 2026. Prior to joining the Commission, she served as the Executive Director of the Williams Institute, the leading research center on sexual orientation and gender identity law and public policy. During the Obama administration, she served as the Director of the Office for Civil Rights at the U.S. Department of Health & Human Services and as the Acting Assistant Attorney General for Civil Rights at the U.S. Department of Justice where she supervised enforcement of civil rights laws through litigation, rulemaking, policy development, and public education across a range of civil rights issues and was an architect of numerous government policies applying federal law to remedy discrimination based on sexual orientation and gender identity. She previously served as a Vice President of the National Women’s Law Center, Labor Counsel to Senator Edward M. Kennedy, and a senior attorney at the EEOC in the Office of Legal Counsel. She received a J.D. from Columbia Law School and a B.A. from Middlebury College.
Andrea R. Lucas
Andrea R. Lucas was confirmed by the U.S. Senate on September 22, 2020, to be a Commissioner on the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) for a term expiring July 1, 2025.
Before her appointment to the EEOC, Commissioner Lucas was a member of the labor and employment and litigation practice groups of Gibson, Dunn & Crutcher LLP, and was based in the firm’s Washington, D.C. office. Lucas was a member of the firm’s Washington, D.C. Diversity Committee, the Women’s Subcommittee of the D.C. Diversity Committee, and the Parents Resource Group of the D.C. Diversity Committee. While at Gibson Dunn, Lucas represented and advised employers and boards of directors on a wide variety of employment-related issues, including significant employment discrimination litigation, sexual harassment and other sensitive workplace investigations, and compliance with federal and state employment discrimination statutes. Commissioner Lucas has particularly deep experience counseling employers during large-scale voluntary and involuntary separation programs and related reorganizations to prevent discrimination on the basis of age and other protected characteristics. Immediately before joining the Commission, Lucas extensively focused on providing COVID-19-related counseling to employers to help them keep their essential businesses operational or safely reopen their workplaces, while also protecting their employees’ rights under federal and state employment and privacy laws.
Commissioner Lucas is committed to increasing compliance with, and ensuring enforcement of, all laws within the Commission’s jurisdiction. She is particularly interested in outreach, compliance, and enforcement initiatives relating to protected characteristics which may require employers to grant reasonable accommodations, namely, disability, pregnancy-related disability, and religion.
Commissioner Lucas received her B.A., magna cum laude, from the University of Pennsylvania and her J.D. from the University of Virginia. Earlier in her career, she clerked on the United States District Court for the Eastern District of Virginia. Lucas is the mother of two young daughters and is only the second Commissioner to give birth during her tenure on the Commission.
Samantha C. Grant
