Agency Leaders’ Perspectives on Recent Trends

Amrith K. Aakre Related Seminars and Products

Director

Equal Employment Opportunity Commission

Amrith Kaur Aakre, a dedicated public servant and national civil rights leader, serves as the Director for the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission's Chicago District. Under Amrith’s leadership, the Chicago District enforces the agency’s mission across 6 states to ensure that workers who seek the EEOC's help in remedying employment discrimination obtain relief. As a Senior Executive Service member, she also works with the highest levels of federal government to shape and implement civil rights policies, develop litigation, and build relationships with vulnerable communities and stakeholders in preventing and combating workplace discrimination. Prior to this role, Amrith served as the Legal Director for the Sikh Coalition where she led high-impact litigation matters while managing initiatives to protect the civil rights of all Americans in areas such as employment and school discrimination, hate crimes, racial profiling, and bias-based policy issues. Prior to joining the Sikh Coalition, Amrith served as a prosecutor in Chicago's Cook County State’s Attorneys’ Office for over 11 years, during which time she led transformative efforts to create and expand access to restorative justice and rehabilitative courts. Amrith was recently selected as a 2024-2025 Harvard Law School Wasserstein Public Interest Fellow, serves on the board of directors for the ACLU of Illinois and the SABA Chicago Advisory Board, and is the recipient of the SABA North American 2022 Public Interest Achievement Award, and the SABA Chicago 2021 and 2023 Public Interest Lawyer Awards. A proud Chicagoan, she also coaches volleyball and track and field for the Chicago Public Schools.

Susan Grundmann Related Seminars and Products

Member of the FLRA

Federal Labor Relations Authority

Chairman Grundmann was nominated by President Biden in August of 2021, confirmed in May 2022, and designated as Chairman in January of 2023. Prior to her confirmation, Chairman Grundmann served as the Executive Director and Chief Operating Officer of the Office of Congressional Workplace Rights, where she oversaw the administrative dispute resolution process and provided education to both employing offices and labor unions that represent employees in the legislative branch. Previously, she was nominated by President Obama to serve as a Member and Chairman of the MSPB, and confirmed by the Senate in 2009.

Ms. Grundmann has served as General Counsel to the National Federation of Federal Employees (NFFE), which represents 100,000 Federal workers nationwide and is affiliated with the International Association of Machinist and Aerospace Workers. At NFFE, she successfully litigated cases in the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia and the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia. She represented NFFE and the United Department of Defense Workers Coalition, which consists of 36 labor unions, and served on the Coalition’s litigation team in a coordinated response to proposed personnel changes at the Department of Defense (DoD). In addition to DoD employees, Ms. Grundmann represented employees in the Forest Service, Department of Agriculture, Passport Service, Veterans Administration, General Services Administration, and some 25 additional Federal agencies.

From 2003 to 2009, she was a regular instructor on Federal sector labor and employment law at the William W. Winpisinger Education and Technology Center in Hollywood, Maryland. Prior to joining NFFE, Ms. Grundmann served as General Counsel to the National Air Traffic Controllers Association. She began her legal career as a law clerk to the judges of the Nineteenth Judicial Circuit of Virginia, and later worked in both private practice and at the Sheet Metal Workers’ National Pension Fund.

Member Grundmann earned her undergraduate degree at American University and her law degree at Georgetown University Law Center.

Cathy A. Harris Related Seminars and Products

Acting Chair, Merit Systems Protection Board

Merit Systems Protection Board

Cathy A. Harris was confirmed by the Senate on May 25, 2022, and sworn into her duties as a member of the Board on June 1, 2022. She was designated Vice Chairman on Jun 6, 2022, and currently is the Acting Chairman. Prior to that Ms. Harris was co-manager of the firm of Kator, Parks, Weiser & Harris, PLLC, in Washington, DC. She served as the Chair of the firm's Sexual Harassment and LGBT Practice sections. Ms. Harris has practiced employment law, including before the U.S. Merit Systems Protection Board, for over two decades. She has extensive experience in the litigation and settlement of federal sector employment class actions and represented individual employees and federal agencies. Ms. Harris graduated from the George Washington University Law School in Washington, DC with honors in 1997, where she was a member and editor on the George Washington Law Review. She received the Michael D. Cooley award for most successfully maintaining her compassion, vitality, and humanity during law school and was elected to give the salutatory address at commencement. Ms. Harris received her undergraduate degree from Brown University in 1994. Prior to joining Kator, Parks, Weiser & Harris, PLLC, she was an Assistant District Attorney in the New York County District Attorney's Office. Ms. Harris also served as an Adjunct Professor at the George Washington University Law School from 2001 to 2004. She resides in Silver Spring, Maryland with her wife and daughter.

Martin H. Malin Related Seminars and Products

Chairman

Federal Service Impasses Panel, FLRA

Martin H. Malin is Professor Emeritus at Chicago-Kent College of Law, Illinois Institute of Technology, where he taught for 41 years, founded the Institute for Law and the Workplace, and served as Director of the Institute for 25 years. He joined the Chicago-Kent faculty in 1980 after serving as law clerk to United States District Judge Robert E. DeMascio in Detroit and on the faculty of The Ohio State University. A renown scholar on the law governing the workplace, he has published more than 80 articles and seven books on labor law. Professor Malin has served as National Chair of the Labor Relations and Employment Law Section of the Association of American Law Schools, Secretary of the ABA Section on Labor and Employment Law, member of the Executive Committee of the Labor Law Group, member of the Board of Governors and Vice President of the National Academy of Arbitrators, and member of the Board of Governors of the College of Labor and Employment Lawyers. In October 2009, President Obama appointed Professor Malin as a member of the Federal Service Impasses Panel. President Obama reappointed Professor Malin in 2014 and Malin served until May 2017. In 2016, the ABA presented Professor Malin with the Arvid Anderson Award for lifetime contributions to public sector labor law. He has a B.A. from Michigan State University and a J.D. from George Washington University.