Stephanie
Monroe
Full Bio
President George W. Bush nominated Stephanie
J. Monroe as assistant secretary for civil
rights on June 23, 2005, and she was confirmed
by the U.S. Senate on Dec. 17, 2005. As assistant
secretary, Monroe is Secretary Spellings' primary
adviser on civil rights and responsible for enforcing U.S. civil rights laws
as they pertain to education—ensuring the nation's schools, colleges and
universities receiving federal funding do not engage in discriminatory conduct
related to race, sex, disability or age.
OCR enforces five major civil rights
laws that prohibit discrimination in programs
or activities receiving federal financial assistance:
Title VI of the Civil Rights Act of 1964; Title
IX of the Education Amendments of 1972; Section
504 of the Rehabilitation Act of 1973; the
Age Discrimination Act of 1975; and Title II
of the Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990;
plus provisions of the Boy Scouts of America
Equal Access Act (Sec. 9525 of the No Child
Left Behind Act).
The Office for Civil Rights
(OCR) retains more than 633 full-time equivalent
(FTE) employees, including attorneys, investigators
and EEO specialists in Washington, D.C., and
in 12 regional field offices. OCR is one of
the largest civil rights enforcement units
in the federal government.
Born and raised
in Baltimore, Monroe graduated from Randallstown
High School in Randallstown, Md., and earned
her bachelor's degree in government and politics
from the University of Maryland-College Park.
After
graduation, she worked as a legislative assistant
for Sen. Gordon Humphrey (R-N.H.) and studied
law at the University of Baltimore, where she
earned her J.D. degree in 1985 and received
an American Jurisprudence Award. In 1993, Monroe
served on the U.S. Department of Health and
Human Services Advisory Committee on Head Start
Quality and Expansion.
From 1998 to 2001, she
served as the chief counsel and minority staff
director of the former Senate Labor and Human
Resources Subcommittee on Children, Family,
Drugs and Alcoholism. From 2001 to 2005, she
was the chief counsel for the U. S. Senate
Committee on Health, Education, Labor and Pensions.
Immediately prior to joining the Department
in 2005 Monroe ended her distinguished 20-year
career on Capitol Hill as a professional staff
member for the U.S. Senate Budget Committee.
Monroe and her two children live in Ashburn,
Va.
Reprinted with permission from U.S. Department of Education web site, www.ed.gov,
11/30/06
