Jocelyn Samuels tapped as new OCR director

Laura Pedulli | | Health Exec | Cybersecurity

Jocelyn Samuels has been named the new director of the Office of Civil Rights (OCR). Previously, she was acting assistant attorney general for the civil rights division at the Department of Justice (DOJ).

Department of Health & Human Services Secretary Sylvia Burwell initially announced the staffing change in a June 25 internal email, according to OCR. Samuels takes the reins from Leon Rodriguez.

Prior to her tenure at the DOJ, Samuels served as the vice president for education and employment at the Washington, D.C.-based National Women’s Law Center. Other experience includes work as a labor counsel to Sen. Edward M. Kennedy, then ranking member and subsequently chair of the Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor and Pensions, and as a senior policy attorney at the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission.

Samuels has worked in the private sector and as a law clerk to a federal judge on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit. Samuels received her law degree from Columbia University and her bachelor’s degree from Middlebury College.

“Leon Rodriguez is in the process of planning his departure, and we look forward to Jocelyn Samuels joining us here at OCR in the near future,” according to an OCR statement provided to Clinical Innovation + Technology.

 

Laura Pedulli

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