October 6, 2020

A. Tonya Odom Named Assistant Director of the Office of Equal Employment Opportunity Affairs

Director Christopher Wray has named A. Tonya Odom as the assistant director of the Office of Equal Employment Opportunities Affairs. She most recently served as a section chief in the Office of Diversity and Inclusion and as the FBI’s chief diversity officer.

Ms. Odom joined the FBI in 2008 as the chief of the Special Programs Unit in the OEEOA, where she managed the special emphasis, affirmative employment, diversity training, and reasonable accommodation programs. She was also the acting assistant director of the OEEOA for more than a year in 2011 and 2012.

Ms. Odom was promoted to section chief in the Office of Diversity and Inclusion in 2012. As the chief diversity officer, she was responsible for developing and executing diversity and inclusion strategies to improve workplace inclusion and to increase workforce diversity across the FBI.

Prior to joining the FBI, Ms. Odom worked for the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission. She served as a civil rights attorney, and later as the chief administrative judge of the Washington Field Office. She served as acting director of the Compliance and Control Division of the Office of Federal Operations before she left for the FBI.

Ms. Odom earned a Bachelor of Arts in political science from Howard University and her Juris Doctor from the University of Maryland.