Michelle Obama Shows Substance as Well as Style in Choice of Policy Chief
The gossip columns and cable networks may have you thinking that the only thing on Michelle Obama۪s docket these days is keeping the American fashion industry alive. But the First Lady۪s recent choice of Jocelyn Frye as her Director of Policy shows that Michelle Obama is thinking about a lot more than Marc Jacob۪s new spring line. As general counsel for the National Partnership for Women and Families in Washington, D.C. (formerly the Women۪s Legal Defense Fund), Jocelyn was instrumental in lobbying for the 1993 Family and Medical Leave Act and ending pregnancy discrimination — causes that are in line with the Obama administration۪s work-life platform.
Jocelyn, a fellow Harvard Law School classmate of the First Lady۪s, is well positioned to assist Michelle Obama in taking an activist stance on policy issues like family leave and flexible scheduling. Since graduating Harvard in 1988, Jocelyn has worked as an associate at Crowell & Moring, a Washington, D.C. law firm, where she focused on white-collar crime and labor law. Jocelyn has also testified before Congress and the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission on the federal enforcement of employment discrimination laws. A native Washingtonian, she is involved in many community activities and has served on a number of boards, including Planned Parenthood of Metropolitan Washington, Washington Legal Clinic for the Homeless and the Deacons of Shiloh Baptist Church. According to some, Jocelyn۪s greatest strengths include her ability to build a consensus and strongly articulate the issues of America۪s low- and working- class families.
Posted by Hope
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