Michelle Hart served as the Equal Employment Opportunity (EEO) Chief for the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) and Chief of Staff to the Deputy Assistant Secretary for Civil Rights from 2020 – 2025.

A graduate of James Madison University, she began her career in Civil Rights within the Judicial Branch of government analyzing diversity metrics and fair employment initiatives. After nearly a decade of service within the federal judiciary, Ms. Hart joined the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) to lead their Affirmative Employment Program and the EEO Complaint Processing division. During her tenure with HUD, she used continuous process improvement methodologies to standardize processes and bring the agency into compliance with the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) standards.

In 2018, she joined the U.S. Department of Defense, Defense Human Resources Activity, through the Presidential Management Council’s leadership development program. There, she worked closely with the agency’s Enterprise Operations Center to bring more emphasis to training on soft skills.

Ms. Hart is a certified counselor, investigator and mediator and is extremely adept in all steps of the EEO and conflict resolution process. Her passion lies in educating employees and managers on the ins and outs of the EEO process and the impacts of implicit bias in the workplace. She’s also a graduate of the Federal Executive Institute and holds a Certificate in Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion from Cornell University.

Ms. Hart also serves as adjunct faculty trainer for the EEOC and DEIA subject matter expert for Management Concepts. In her free time, Ms. Hart loves to cook, play tennis and watch scary movies. She currently resides in Northern Virginia with her husband and son.