Dr. Cynthia Gilliam Pierre1970
Public Service
Cynthia G. Pierre, Ph.D., is currently serving her second stint as Chief Operating Officer for the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC). Since 1965, the EEOC has been the leading federal law enforcement agency dedicated to preventing and remedying employment discrimination and advancing equal opportunity for all in the workplace. She also was the Chief Operating Officer for the EEOC during the Obama administration. Her total federal career has spanned 37 years including eight years as Regional Director and National Enforcement Director for the U.S. Department of Education's Office (DOE) for Civil Rights (OCR). At OCR she oversaw the enforcement activities of the four-state Atlanta Region (Alabama, Florida, Georgia and Tennessee) to ensure equal access to education for all regardless of race, ethnicity, gender, age or disability.
Before joining the DOE’s Office for Civil Rights, Cynthia was Field Management Programs Director, for the EEOC where she monitored and evaluated the performance of EEOC’s 51 field offices to ensure effective implementation of agency programs, policies and procedures to combat discrimination in the workforce. She was first appointed a senior executive in the federal service in 1998, serving as EEOC District Director in Birmingham, AL.
Prior to joining the federal government, Cynthia worked for six years in international development for a nonprofit, travelling extensively in West Africa, the Caribbean and Southeast Asia. Dr. Pierre is also an Adjunct Professor at The University of Maryland Global Campus and Professorial Lecturer at The George Washington University where she teaches online courses on leadership, intercultural communications, and diversity and inclusion.
Cynthia was graduated from the University of Pennsylvania with a Bachelor of Arts degree in urban studies. While at Penn, she was a junior year exchange student at Makerere University in Kampala, Uganda. She later obtained a Master’s degree in administration from Antioch University, and a Ph.D. in public administration from the George Washington University in Washington, DC. She also has completed the Senior Managers in Government Certificate Program at Harvard University’s Kennedy School of Government and the Leadership for a Democratic Society Program at the Federal Executive Institute in Charlottesville, VA.
Before joining the DOE’s Office for Civil Rights, Cynthia was Field Management Programs Director, for the EEOC where she monitored and evaluated the performance of EEOC’s 51 field offices to ensure effective implementation of agency programs, policies and procedures to combat discrimination in the workforce. She was first appointed a senior executive in the federal service in 1998, serving as EEOC District Director in Birmingham, AL.
Prior to joining the federal government, Cynthia worked for six years in international development for a nonprofit, travelling extensively in West Africa, the Caribbean and Southeast Asia. Dr. Pierre is also an Adjunct Professor at The University of Maryland Global Campus and Professorial Lecturer at The George Washington University where she teaches online courses on leadership, intercultural communications, and diversity and inclusion.
Cynthia was graduated from the University of Pennsylvania with a Bachelor of Arts degree in urban studies. While at Penn, she was a junior year exchange student at Makerere University in Kampala, Uganda. She later obtained a Master’s degree in administration from Antioch University, and a Ph.D. in public administration from the George Washington University in Washington, DC. She also has completed the Senior Managers in Government Certificate Program at Harvard University’s Kennedy School of Government and the Leadership for a Democratic Society Program at the Federal Executive Institute in Charlottesville, VA.