COMMISSIONER PAUL MILLER BIDS FAREWELL TO EEOC

                 

Disability Rights Champion and Legal Expert to Join Academia in Seattle

                                     

WASHINGTON -  Paul Steven Miller, the second-longest serving Commissioner in the 40-year history of the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) will end his decade-long tenure effective August 15, 2004, and join academia as a faculty member at the University of Washington School of Law in Seattle, the EEOC announced today.

   

"Our Nation has been enriched by having Paul Miller's intellect and passion devoted to furthering the mission of equal employment opportunity," said Commission Chair Cari M. Dominguez. "He has served his country well.  We have been privileged to work with him and look forward to his continued contributions to our society."

     

During his tenure, Mr. Miller visited every state in the union to reach out to the Commission's diverse range of stakeholders  educating workers about their rights, informing employers about their responsibilities, and examining strategies for reducing discrimination in the workplace.  He was first nominated as a Commissioner of the EEOC by President Bill Clinton in May 1994, and was unanimously confirmed by the Senate several months later.  Since then, Mr. Miller has been unanimously confirmed as a Commissioner by the Senate two more times.

   

As a member of the Commission, he played an instrumental role in the development and approval of EEOC enforcement and litigation policy.  Additionally, as one of the nation's leading experts in the area of disability law, Mr. Miller has been involved in every aspect of the agency's enforcement of the Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990 (ADA) and has been actively engaged in international civil rights issues.

   

"When I arrived in 1994, the ADA had only recently become fully implemented," Mr. Miller said.  "Since then, the EEOC has issued many policy guidances which have been helpful to stakeholders and courts alike in understanding this new civil rights law.  I was honored to play a role in helping to realize the promise of the ADA.  It has also been exciting and challenging to look into the future of civil rights in the workplace as we seek to develop protections to safeguard workers from genetic discrimination."

                 

As a Commissioner, Mr. Miller served on the Executive Board of the President's Committee on the Employment of People with Disabilities and on the Presidential Task Force on Employment of Adults with Disabilities.  He also served as a member of the interagency working group which drafted the Presidential Executive Order on Genetic Discrimination and Privacy, and served on the Health and Human Services Secretary's Advisory Committee on Genetics, Health and Society.

     

In addition to testifying about genetic discrimination before the U.S. Senate, Mr. Miller addressed a committee of the British Houses of Parliament on disability rights and the ADA; was a member of an American delegation to Japan on disability rights; and traveled to Israel at the request of foreign minister to discuss employment discrimination and affirmative action issues facing Arab Israeli citizens.  Mr. Miller has also been a participant in international meetings of judges discussing the legal implications of the genetics revolution.

   

Other highlights of his tenure at the EEOC include chairing the task forces that created and implemented the EEOC's National Mediation Program, and developing new approaches for improving the agency's strategic enforcement and litigation programs.  "Over the past 10 years, the EEOC has undergone a dramatic transformation," he noted.  "As a result, the agency became more effective in its battle against discrimination in the workplace."

   

Born and raised in New York, Mr. Miller is a cum laude graduate of the University of Pennsylvania and received his Juris Doctor from Harvard Law School.

   

In addition to Chair Dominguez, the current Commission members include Vice Chair Naomi C. Earp and Commissioners Leslie E. Silverman and Stuart J. Ishimaru.  Further information about the Commission is available on its web site at www.eeoc.gov.