Jocelyn Samuels

Ms. Samuels is the Executive Director at the Roberta A. Conroy Scholar of Law and Policy at the Williams Institute at the University of California, Los Angeles School of Law. From 2014 through early 2017, Ms. Samuels was the Director of the Office for Civil Rights at the Department of Health and Human Services, where she oversaw civil rights enforcement with respect to healthcare providers and human services agencies. She also served as a political appointee at the Civil Rights Division of the Department of Justice, including as Acting Assistant Attorney General for the Division, where she managed work across a range of civil rights issues, including discrimination in education and employment, prosecution of hate crimes, and protections for individuals with disabilities. Earlier in her career, Ms. Samuels spent a decade as a senior policy attorney in the Office of Legal Counsel at the United States Equal Employment Opportunity Commission; she also worked as a Labor Counsel to Senator Ted Kennedy and as Vice President for Education and Employment at the National Women’s Law Center.