EEOC Commissioner Paul Steven Miller Receives Honorary Doctor of Law Degree from CUNY

PRESS RELEASE
5-23-03

City University of New York Pays Tribute to Commissioner for Life-Long Commitment to Equal Opportunity and Disability-Rights Advocacy

WASHINGTON - Paul Steven Miller, a Commissioner of the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC), today was awarded with an Honorary Doctor of Law Degree from the City University of New York (CUNY) School of Law at Queens College the highest award given by the educational institution.

The Degree was presented to Commissioner Miller today during a commencement ceremony on the school's campus in Flushing, N.Y. During the awards presentation, Kristin Booth Glen, Dean of the CUNY School of Law, explained why Mr. Miller was selected for the high honor: "As an institution which has, since its inception, been dedicated to equality under the law, it is entirely fitting that the City University of New York School of Law should confer an Honorary Degree upon Paul Miller in recognition of his life-long commitment to equal rights for all, especially persons with disabilities."

As one of the longest serving Commissioners in the 40-year history of the EEOC, Mr. Miller has played an instrumental role in the federal agency's highest priority policy initiatives for almost a decade. He has visited nearly every state in the union to reach out to the EEOC's diverse range of stakeholders educating workers about their rights and employers about their responsibilities, and examining strategies for reducing discrimination in the workplace.

As a member of the Commission, he participates in the development and approval of EEOC enforcement policies and authorizes Commission litigation. Mr. Miller has been involved in every aspect of the agency's implementation of the Americans with Disabilities Act. He has also chaired task forces that created and implemented the EEOC's highly successful National Mediation Program, and developed new approaches for improving the agency's strategic enforcement and litigation programs.

In addition, he served on the Executive Board of the President's Committee on the Employment of People with Disabilities and on the Presidential Task Force on Employment of Adults with Disabilities, a government-wide presidential task force created to develop a coordinated national policy to raise the employment rate of adults with disabilities. Mr. Miller also served as a member of the interagency working group which drafted the Presidential Executive Order on Genetic Discrimination and Privacy, and currently serves on the Health and Human Services Secretary's Advisory Committee on Genetics, Health and Society.

A native New Yorker who grew up on Long Island, Mr. Miller is a cum laude graduate of the University of Pennsylvania and received his Juris Doctor from Harvard Law School. Further information about Commissioner Miller, as well as the EEOC, is available on the agency's web site at www.eeoc.gov.

The EEOC enforces Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, which prohibits employment discrimination based on race, color, religion, sex, or national origin and protects employees who complain about such offenses from retaliation; the Age Discrimination in Employment Act, which protects workers age 40 and older from discrimination based on age; the Equal Pay Act of 1963; the Rehabilitation Act of 1973, which prohibits employment discrimination against people with disabilities in the federal sector; Title I of the Americans with Disabilities Act, which prohibits employment discrimination against people with disabilities in the private sector and state and local governments; and sections of the Civil Rights Act of 1991.

This page was last modified on May 23, 2003.