Thomasina Rogers Sworn In as 11th Chairman of the Review Commission

Thomasina V. Rogers has been sworn in as the 11th Chairman of the Occupational Safety and Health Review Commission.  She was nominated by President Obama on April 21, 2009, a week before the expiration of her previous term, confirmed by the United States Senate on May 1st and sworn in on May 13th.  Having been confirmed three times to the Review Commission, Rogers has already served the second-longest tenure in the Agency’s 38-year history. She remains the first woman to be designated as Chairman – a distinction she achieved in 1999 under President Clinton.  She is also the only African American to serve on the Review Commission.  Previously, Rogers was confirmed and served as Chairman of the Administrative Conference of the United States in the mid-1990’s.

Upon being sworn in as Review Commission Chairman, Rogers issued this statement: 

“My goal as Chairman is to ensure the most intelligent use of resources in resolving the occupational safety and health disputes that come before us and to create a work environment that is conducive to high quality work.

I take this opportunity at the commencement of my term as Chairman to re-commit to those management initiatives that I announced in February, while Acting Chairman, including enhanced transparency and staff development, the elimination of unnecessary paper in our internal processes, improvement of our Information Technology infrastructure and better utilization of the IT resources currently on hand.  To those ends, the Review Commission for the first time has begun to post on its website copies of administrative law judge decisions which are under review.  The Commission is also developing a new tracking system that provides a searchable database of internal decisional memoranda within our Office of General Counsel and provides for improved knowledge management within an evolving workforce.

Among my fellow Commissioners, I intend to support collegial decision-making of the highest order -- based on free, open and respectful exchange of viewpoints.

I look forward to a robust decision-making process with fellow Commissioner, Horace “Topper” Thompson, and a third Commissioner to be nominated by President Obama, and to working again with the very talented and able Review Commission staff.

Finally, after 30 years in government service, I am excited to be a part of the change that President Obama is bringing to government and government service.”