The Civil Rights Center (CRC) is under the leadership of Director Naomi Barry-Pérez, who oversees the Deputy Director, Karen Esser, and Administrative Officer, Lissette Geán.
The Deputy Director, Karen Esser, oversees the Chief of the Office of Internal Enforcement, Jehad Ali; Chief of the Office of External Enforcement, Lee Perselay; Chief of the Office of Compliance and Policy, Miguel Escobar; and Training and Outreach Coordinator, Laticia Little.
The Chief of the Office of Internal Enforcement, Jehad Ali, oversees the Technical Advisor for Informal Complaints and the Alternate Dispute Resolution (ADR) Program, Emory Adams.
The Chief of the Office of External Enforcement, Lee Perselay, oversees the Technical Advisor for Investigations, Linda Skurnak, and Technical Advisor for Intake, which is vacant.
The Chief of the Office of Compliance and Policy, Miguel Escobar, oversees the Technical Advisor for Policy, Dong Kim.
The Administrative Officer, Lissette Geán, oversees the Language Access Coordinator, Victoria Penzo.
In FY 2023, the Reasonable Accommodation Resource Center (RARC) was moved from the Department’s CRC to the Workplace Equality Compliance Office (WECO) of the Office of the Assistant Secretary for Administration and Management (OASAM). The re-organization of RARC reflects the Department’s desire to provide a more streamlined and efficient process for handling reasonable accommodation requests overall, as well as greater coordination within the various agencies serviced by the OASAM WECO. Additionally, it mitigates any perceived conflict of interest concerning assistance provided by RARC and the neutral and independent consideration of EEO complaints by the CRC. Similarly, Sign Language Interpreting Services have been relocated from the Office of Human Resources to the OASAM WECO. Moving forward, the RARC within the OASAM WECO shall facilitate the accommodations process generally (for all agencies); process certain requests for furniture, equipment, technology, and services, etc. (for all agencies); and advise and support employees and managers served by the OASAM WECO on other accommodations.