Margarita Devlin, MA, CRC, a member of the Senior Executive Service, is the Deputy Assistant Secretary for Operations and Management at the U.S. Department of Labor, Veterans’ Employment and Training Service (VETS). VETS provides oversight for grants and contracts that support employment for veterans and transitioning service members; conducts investigations to protect veteran workers’ rights, including USERRA and Veterans Preference; conducts outreach to employers, and provides administrative and operational support for efforts that serve veterans, transitioning service members, and military spouses. In Fiscal Year 2023, more than 2,800 DOL and DOL VETS funded employees served over 430,000 veterans and military spouses across all VETS programs. VETS has a budget of more than $335M.
Prior to coming to VETS in July 2021, Ms. Devlin served with the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) for over 25 years in various positions of increasing responsibility. Ms. Devlin began her VA career as a Certified Rehabilitation Counselor and progressed through leadership positions within VBA, VHA, and at the VA Department level.
Ms. Devlin most recently served as the Veterans Health Administration’s (VHA) Chief Learning Officer (CLO). In her prior role as CLO, she was the principal advisor to the Under Secretary for Health for the analysis, development, delivery, implementation, and evaluation of education and training programs, products, and services that support workforce development and continuing education for the VHA’s staff. This included more than 377,000 health care professionals and staff and 120,000 residents and trainees at over 1,255 sites caring for 8.92 million veterans.
Before serving as VHA’s Chief Learning Officer, Ms. Devlin served as Principal Deputy Under Secretary for Benefits in Washington, DC. In this position, she was responsible at the Veterans Benefits Administration (VBA) for the administration of benefit programs including education, home loan guaranty, disability compensation, pension, veteran readiness and employment, life insurance, and military-to-civilian transition assistance.
Ms. Devlin holds a Bachelor of Arts degree in Psychology and a Master of Arts degree in Rehabilitation Counseling from the University of South Florida, Tampa FL.