By The Editors

Jacqueline A. Berrien

Thursday, November 19, the Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor and Pensions conducted a hearing on the nomination of Jacqueline A. Berrien, Associate Director-Counsel of the NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund to be the new Chair of the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission.

The Committee, chaired by Senator Tom Harkin, D-IA, is also considering the nominations of three other Obama appointees for the federal agency responsible for overseeing enforcement of federal laws barring employment discrimination. The President has nominated Chai R. Feldblum, a Georgetown University law professor, and Victoria A. Lipnic, an attorney in private practice, to the five-member commission; and P. David Lopez as the agency’s General Counsel. Lopez is now the Supervisory Trial Attorney in the EEOC’s Phoenix, Arizona District office.

In her opening statement to the committee, Berrien, who was born and raised in the nation’s capitol, traced her desire for public service to her parents and other adults in her community who were federal employees and said she considered it “a tremendous privilege to be considered for the position of Chair of the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission.”