Ward Deidre

Experience

• 

  U.S. Forest Service

  Oct 1992 - Mar 2005

  • Personnel Officer

    Jun 1995 - Mar 2005

  • Personnel Specialist

    Oct 1992 - Jun 1995
• 

  USDA Forest Service

  Mar 2005 - Jul 2011

  Liaison Officer

  I served as the primary college recruitment liaison for the US Forest Service at Tuskegee University. I provided assistance to the university in the areas of student recruitment and counseling, academic program development; teaching and research assistance; outreach; and natural resourcemanagement of university facilities.

• 

  USDA Forest Service

  Aug 2010 - Sept 2016

  Equal Opportunity Specialist

  Serve as the Regional Program Manager and staff advisor on Title VI Management and Special Emphasis Program Management. Manage program Discrimination complaints for the Southern Region. Responsible for program development and administration, and Equal Opportunity training and advisory functions. Provide technical oversight, advice and guidance to field special use coordinators, supervisors and EO counselors.

• 

  USDA Forest Service

  Jan 2018 - now

  I serve as the National Program Manager and Staff Advisor to Title VI management. In addition to serving as the primary point of contact for conducting Title VI training for new employees in Civil Rights, Law Enforcement Officers, Special Use Permit Administrators, Grants & Agreement Coordinators, Job Corp Managers and Civil Rights Directors. I perform numerous duties to ensure compliance with civil rights laws, executive orders, USDA and Forest Service policies. Among many things, this includes serving as team lead for the Office of Civil Rights Compliance Review Design Team, coordinating with subject matter experts (SMEs) to gather technical data for regional compliance reviews and determining focus areas, preparing related surveys as well as conducting trend analysis, evaluating workforce data, and preparing briefings (as needed) for the senior leadership team. I also monitor civil rights compliance of individual Forest Service units, review findings and make strategic recommendations to field units regarding compliance. Furthermore, I manage the Program Discrimination Complaint program for the US Forest Service. I coordinate with SMEs (as needed) to complete action items for submission to the Office of Assistant Secretary for Civil Rights (OASCR) and I prepare quarterly Program Discrimination Complaints (PDC) Inventory reports for the Director of Civil Rights. I also coordinate with Law Enforcement & Investigation (LE&I), Civil Rights Service Centers and field personnel to provide guidance to the Office of the Assistant Secretary for Civil Rights (OASCR) concerning status reports and to the National Accessibility Program Manager regarding program discrimination complaints that involve program accessibility and facility issues. In addition, I work with field units to ensure that program and facilities are accessible to persons with disabilities and provide advise, resources, and training for equitable program delivery. Show less

  • Acting Deputy Civil Rights Director, Zone V

    Feb 2024 - now

  • National Equal Opportunity Specialist

    Sept 2016 - now

  • Branch Chief

    Jan 2018 - Mar 2024