Two Nominations for the Health, Safety and Lives of Women and Girls

TUESDAY, OCTOBER 13TH, 2009 AT 9:15 AM
Two Nominations for the Health, Safety and Lives of Women and Girls
Posted by Nancy Hogan
Recently, the President nominated two women to serve in his Administration who, if confirmed, will serve in positions that will directly impact the health, safety and lives of women and girls.
Sara Manzano-Diaz was nominated to lead the Women's Bureau at the Department of Labor. For almost 90 years, the Department of Labor's Women's Bureau has worked to improve the status of wage-earning women, improve their working conditions, and advance their opportunities for profitable employment. The Bureau is the only federal agency mandated to represent the needs of wage-earning women. In 1922, it launched a major investigation on the conditions facing African-American women in industry. In the 1950's, it examined the dynamic situation of older women as office workers. In the 1980's, it broke new ground on the plight of contingent workers, and in the 1990's it researched and reported on domestic violence, long before experts considered the topic relevant to the workplace.
Sara is uniquely qualified to lead the Women's Bureau. She has spent her career in public service advocating on behalf of working class families, women, and girls. She has more than 25 years of federal, state, and judicial experience including 16 years in senior management. Most recently, she was appointed by Governor Edward G. Rendell as Deputy Secretary for Regulatory Programs at the Pennsylvania Department of State. As Deputy Secretary, and the highest-ranking Latina in Pennsylvania state government, Ms. Manzano-Diaz is responsible for protecting the health, safety, and welfare of the public by overseeing the licensure of approximately 1 million professionals. Previously, she served as Deputy General Counsel for Civil Rights and Litigation at the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development, where she enforced fair housing, civil rights, and anti-discrimination laws. She has served as Co-Chair of The Forum of Executive Women's Mentoring Committee, which mentors young professional women as they begin their careers, and also participated in Madrinas, a program that provides mentors for at-risk Latina girls to encourage them to finish high school and attend college.
The President also nominated Susan Carbon as the head of the Office on Violence Against Women. The announcement was made on the first day of the Domestic Violence Awareness Month. Susan Carbon, first appointed to the bench in 1991, has been a Supervisory Judge of the New Hampshire Judicial Branch Family Division since 1996. She is a member of the Governor's Commission on Domestic and Sexual Violence and, until recently, chaired New Hampshire's Domestic Violence Fatality Review Committee. Judge Carbon was also a President of the National Council of Juvenile and Family Court Judges (NCJFCJ) from 2007 to 2008 where she still frequently serves as a faculty member. She also serves as faculty for the National Judicial Institute on Domestic Violence - a partnership of the U.S. Department of Justice’s Office on Violence Against Women, the Family Violence Prevention Fund, and the NCJFCJ.
Sara and Susan are dedicated to the issues confronting women and girls across America and we are excited about the prospect of them leading such important offices.

Nancy Hogan is Director of Personnel Management