FRANKLIN-THOMAS
APPOINTED NEW DISTRICT DIRECTOR OF EEOC’S MEMPHIS DISTRICT OFFICE
CONTACT:
Christine Nazer
James Ryan
202-663-4191
newsroom@eeoc.gov
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
April 2, 2018
FRANKLIN-THOMAS
APPOINTED NEW DISTRICT DIRECTOR OF EEOC’S MEMPHIS DISTRICT OFFICE
WASHINGTON
– The U.S Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) has announced the
appointment of Delner Franklin-Thomas to be the new district director of the agency’s
Memphis District Office.
Franklin-Thomas, a 28-year
employee of the EEOC and former director of the EEOC Birmingham District
Office, will also continue to serve as Acting District Director for the
Birmingham District Office after excelling there as Director since 2006. She started her career with EEOC in 1990 as a
trial attorney in the New York District Office and became the Regional Attorney
of the Miami District Office in 1998, where she oversaw the litigation of cases
that furthered the development of the law under the statutes EEOC enforces, and
served as a planning and presenting faculty member for EEOC’s National Trial
Skills Program. Ms. Franklin-Thomas is a
four-time recipient of the Chair’s Organizational Performance Award, the
highest honor conferred within the EEOC.
She is a member of the American Bar Association and the Committee on
Employment Rights and Responsibilities where she has served as a subcommittee
chairperson.
During her tenure as Director of
the Birmingham District, Ms. Franklin-Thomas served as a member of the
Executive Resources Review Board, which serves as an advisor to the EEOC Chair
and provides general oversight of the management of all executive resources,
the Co-Chair of the Committee of Advisors for Systemic Enforcement, which
serves to evaluate and make recommendations for EEOC’s systemic program, as a member of EXCEL Executive Committee, and as Chair of the Peer Review Board,
charged with reviewing and evaluating the performance appraisal of Senior
Executives and making final recommendations to the Chair on each executive’s
final performance rating and award. Her
leadership of the Birmingham District was recognized by the Birmingham
Metropolitan NAACP with the 2016 Civil Rights Agency of the Year Award.
Prior to joining EEOC, Ms.
Franklin-Thomas worked as a Legal Consultant and Project Director for Legal
Outreach, Inc., a legal education program affiliated with Columbia University,
School of Law. She also served as a
federal judicial law clerk to the Honorable Robert M. McRae, Jr., former Chief
Judge of the United States District Court for the Western District of
Tennessee. Ms. Franklin-Thomas is a
graduate of Yale University and Columbia University, School of Law.
“Ms. Franklin-Thomas is a highly
accomplished and respected leader with a proven track record of success across
many programs at EEOC, said EEOC Director of Field Programs Nicholas M.
Inzeo. “Her strong professional and personal reputation will be an asset
to EEOC’s programs in the Memphis District.”
Franklin-Thomas said, “I am
looking forward to working with the Memphis District Office. This appointment, for me, is of special
significance in that it provides me the opportunity to ensure the enforcement
of federal antidiscrimination laws in a jurisdiction that encompasses the
community, Fayette County, Tennessee, where I grew up and where my parents
worked as long time civil rights activists.
My parents’ fearless passion for civil rights ignited within me an early
understanding that laws without action is nothing but a piece of paper. It is this zeal for enforcement that drives
my commitment to EEOC’s mission.”
The EEOC Memphis District Office
includes the Little Rock Area Office and the Nashville Area Office, and has
jurisdiction over the states of Tennessee and Arkansas, and the northern part
of Mississippi. The EEOC Birmingham
District Office includes the Jackson Area Office and the Mobile Local Office,
and has jurisdiction over the state of Alabama, the central and southern parts
of Mississippi, and the Florida panhandle.
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