Berrien nominated to chair the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission

Jacqueline A. Berrien ’86 was nominated by President Obama to chair the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission. She is currently a lawyer with the NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund.

Pending her confirmation by the Senate, Berrien is poised to take the helm of the EEOC, which was established under the Civil Rights Act of 1964 to ensure equal employment and to eradicate discrimination in the workplace.

In addition to serving as the associate director-counsel of the LDF since 2004, Berrien has also served as program officer in the Ford Foundation’s Peace and Social Justice Program. She has worked as an attorney for both the Lawyers’ Committee for Civil Rights and the American Civil Liberties Union.

Berrien began her legal career clerking for the Honorable U.W. Clemon, the first African-American to be appointed to the U.S. District Court in Birmingham, Ala.

While at HLS, Berrien served as general editor of the Harvard Civil Rights-Civil Liberties Law Review. Before earning her J.D., she received her B.A. with high honors in government from Oberlin College.