• Learning Materials
• About the Conference
• Agenda: Day 1
• Agenda: Day 2
• Executive Committee
• Federal Partners and Co-Sponsors
• Parking

Learning Materials from NCRC Workshops

The NCRC Workshop Committee is gathering learning materials from our presenters. We anticipate having them loaded on this website by the end of October. We are sorry for the delay, and will email all attendees as well as those on our waiting list to let them know when everything is posted. Thanks very much for your patience.

About the National Civil Rights Conference

Mission

The mission of the National Civil Rights Conference is to provide a collaborative forum for federal civil rights professionals to receive training, share best practices and explore cross-cutting issues in enforcement and compliance challenges.

Objective Framework

• Theme: Promoting Compliance through Cooperation
• Vision: To educate members of the federal workforce, including civil rights and non-civil rights professionals, in order to ensure a government that is representative of all sectors of the public.
• Educational Tracks
  • Civil Rights Issues in Employment
    • Scope of Track:  This track includes content for federal employees with varying levels of knowledge and expertise on civil rights compliance. Its focus is civil rights issues related to federal employment practices and workplace behavior. The material presented covers a range of topics including EEO and non-discrimination statutes, how to address specific EEO and non-discrimination matters, helping all employees ensure workplace non-discrimination, and promotion of workforce diversity and inclusion.
    • Track Goals
      • Educate federal professionals on EEO and workplace discrimination-related issues and responsibilities.
      • Demonstrate the important role of workplace inclusion in accomplishing the mission. 
      • Identify barriers to and best practices in creating an inclusive federal workforce.
  • Civil Rights Issues in Federal Activities 
    • Scope of Track:  This track includes content for federal employees with varying levels of knowledge and expertise on civil rights compliance. It is focused on ensuring non-discrimination in and equitable access to all federally assisted and conducted activities. Topics covered within this track include compliance with Title VI of the Civil Rights Act, the Americans with Disabilities Act and Section 504 of the Rehabilitation Act, and executive orders pertaining to environmental justice and language access for limited English proficient persons. 
    • Track Goals
      • Increase awareness of and emphasize compliance with  civil rights obligations for federally assisted and conducted activities
      • Highlight the link between promoting equity in federal activities and ensuring agency mission success
      • To understand effective techniques to investigating and resolving civil rights violations in federally assisted and conducted activities
      • Identify best practices for proactively achieving civil rights compliance, including  collaboration between civil rights and non-civil rights professionals 
  • Session Topics: The presenter(s) for each session will be responsible for developing the learning objective, participant outcomes, and presentation materials. They should use the conference theme and vision, as well as the scope and goals of the track under which their workshop falls, to guide this development.
    • Session Title: Overview of Section 501 of the Rehabilitation Act and Title I of the Americans with Disabilities Act as They Relate to Federal Employment
      • Learning Objective: Comprehend that Federal laws prohibit discrimination in hiring based on disability.   
      • Participant Outcomes: The desired outcomes for this session are for participants be more 
        • Aware of the requirements of the of these two statutes
        • Prepared to address challenges in fully implementing them
        • Committed to providing equal employment opportunities to people with disabilities. 

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Agenda: Day 1 – Tuesday, September 20, 2016

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Agenda: Day 2 – Wednesday, September 21, 2016

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Executive Committee

Biographies of Conference Co-Chairs

Kojuan L. Almond

Kojuan L. Almond is the Equal Employment Opportunity (EEO) Director in the Office of Civil Rights and Equal Opportunity at the Social Security Administration (SSA). She implements and oversees SSA's EEO programs to ensure that the Administration complies with federal regulations.

Kojuan is responsible for reporting Agency EEO data, drafting White House Reports on Minority Serving Educational Institutions, developing and implementing proactive EEQ initiatives, enforcing a system for dealing with national EEO violations, and training employees on EEO law and foundational principles.

Kojuan has held several increasingly challenging positions during her federal tenure, including: Generalist Claims Representative, Operations Supervisor, Area Systems Coordinator, Staff Assistant to the Deputy Regional Commissioner, Project Manager in the Center for Service Delivery, Executive Assistant to the Regional Commissioner, Regional Recruitment Manager, Regional Communications Director, Executive Assistant in the Office of the Chief Strategic Officer, Deputy Assistant Associate Commissioner in the Office of International Operations, Director of Human Capital at the United States Environmental Protection Agency, Deputy Associate Commissioner in the Office of Income Security Programs, and Associate Commissioner in the Office of Communications.

Kojuan is an avid bird watcher and dedicated wife and mother. She is married to Adolphus Almond; and they have two beautiful daughters, and two wonderful sons. Kojuan is an avid health enthusiast.

Howard Caro-López, Ph.D.

Dr. Howard Caro-López currently serves as a Civil Rights Analyst with the Department of Transportation's Departmental Office of Civil Rights (DOCR), in the Office of the Secretary. In this role, Dr. Caro-López serves as the DOCR's resident social scientist and civil rights subject matter expert on both Departmental employment matters, and Title VI and ADA/504 compliance with DOT funding recipients. Dr. Caro-López's work includes statistical analysis, policy research and development, and serving as a Title VI investigator, as well as conducting trainings on Title VI¬ related topics. Additionally, Dr. Caro-López also serves as the DOCR's Hispanic Employment Program Manager, helping to provide technical assistance to address barriers to Hispanic underrepresentation in the agency's workforce.

Dr. Caro-López is a professional sociologist with over ten years of social science research experience and subject matter expertise in a range of areas including: civil rights and social equity, Latino immigration and civic engagement; political organization; minority group socio-economic and demographic trends. Prior to joining the Department of Transportation, Dr. Caro-López spent three years as a Visiting Assistant Professor in the Sociology Department at Georgetown University. He previously served as Director of Quantitative Research for the Center for Latin American, Caribbean & Latino Studies at the City University of New York (CUNY) Graduate Center, as well as a Civil Rights Analyst for the U.S. Department of Justice's Voting Section. Dr. Caro-López has also volunteered as a fair housing and language access tester for the Equal Rights Center; and most recently, with a faith based voting rights advocacy group in Washington, D.C.

Frederick Pfaeffle Arana

Frederick Pfaeffle Arana was promoted to Deputy Assistant Secretary for Civil Rights at the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) in March 2014. Prior to his current position, Mr. Pfaeffle Arana was appointed by the White House as Principal Deputy General Counsel of the USDA, serving over 80 million constituents with presence in 88 countries and with approximately 100,000 employees.

Mr. Pfaeffle Arana helped resolve multi-billion dollar class-action civil rights litigation filed by African Americans and Native Americans and led efforts with the U.S. Department of Justice for a $1.33 Billion women and Hispanic claims process to resolve long-standing discrimination claims. Mr. Pfaeffle Arana currently leads teams responsible for administrative investigations and adjudication of civil rights complaints filed against the United States claiming employment discrimination and discrimination in the delivery of USDA programming and leads teams responsible for setting civil rights policy on a national scale.

As Principal Deputy General Counsel, Mr. Pfaeffle Arana provided legal advice to Secretary of Agriculture and his Subcabinet and oversaw over 270 legal professionals, multiple legal divisions, two regions, multiple regional offices throughout the U.S., and the legal office's administrative division.

Mr. Pfaeffle Arana was born in Mexico City of Nicaraguan parents and lived in Latin America before settling in Miami to attend High School, where he became a U.S. Citizen. He attended the University of Florida and Florida International University and practiced as a CPA at a major international firm until entering Law School at the University of Southern California. He began his career at a major California law firm in the areas of real estate and environmental law and prior to joining USDA in 2010, Mr. Pfaeffle Arana held the position of Principal Deputy County Counsel in Los Angeles County where he was responsible for legal work in Public Works, Solid Waste, Hazardous Waste and Water.

In addition to his public service, Mr. Pfaeffle Arana served as staff counsel to the Christopher Commission Investigating the LAPD, worked for a U.S. Senator as International Monitor for presidential elections in Nicaragua, and served as member to various boards, including the USC Institute for Corporate Counsel, and as trustee to the Mexican American Bar Foundation.

Executive Committee

• Howard Caro-López, PhD, Civil Rights Analyst, U.S. Department of Transportation
• Frederick Pfaeffle, Deputy Assistant Secretary for Civil Rights, U.S. Department of Agriculture
• Kojuan Almond, EEO Director, U.S. Social Security Administration 
• Danielle Lewis -Special Advisor to the Assistant Secretary for Civil Rights, U.S. Department of Agriculture
• Marjorie thorStraten - Senior Advisor to the Director of Civil Rights and Equal Opportunity, Social Security Administration
• Kimberly N. Brown - Budget Officer, Office of Civil Rights and Equal Opportunity, Social Security Administration
• Megan Jensen - Program Analyst, Office of Civil Rights, Federal Highway Administration
• Nichole McWhorter - Manager, Coordination and Compliance Division, Office of Civil Rights, Federal Highway Administration
• Valerie Norris - Branch Chief, Branch D, Office of Civil Rights and Equal Opportunity, Social Security Administration
• Peggy Schmidt - Civil Rights Analyst. Office for Civil Rights, U.S. Department of Health and Human Services

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Federal Partners and Co-Sponsos

• U.S. Department of Transportation
• Social Security Administration
• U.S. Department of Agriculture
• U.S. Department of Health and Human Services
• U.S. Environmental Protection Agency
• U.S. Department of Commerce
• U.S. Department of Justice
• U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission
• National Endowment for the Arts
• Nuclear Regulatory Commission
• U.S. Department of the Treasury
• U.S. Agency for International Development
• U.S. Commission on Civil Rights

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Parking

20 M Street, SE
Washington, DC 20003
202-295-8200 M-Th: 7:00A-10:00P
F: 7:00A-12:00A
Sa: 8:00A-12:00A
Su: 9:00A-10:00P
$6 - up to 1 hour
$12 - max 

300 M Street, SE
Washington, DC 20003
202-295-8200
M-F: 7:00A-10:00P
Sa-Su: Closed
$8 - up to 1 hour
$16 - max 

1100 New Jersey Avenue, SE
Washington, DC 20003
202-295-8100 M-F: 7:00A-7:00P
Sa-Su: Closed
$7 - up to 1 hour
$14 - max

140 L Street, SE
Washington, DC 20003
202-785-9191 

140 L Street, SE
Washington, DC 20003
202-785-9191 Su-Sa: 24 hours
$6 - up to 1 hour
$12 - up to 2 hours
$15 - up to 12 hours
$17 - max 

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