Staff Leadership

Michelle A. Slade has over 30 years of federal service and is currently a supervisory equal employment manager for the NOAA’s National Ocean Service (NOS). Ms. Slade is the program manager and supervisor for NOS’s Diversity, Equity, Inclusion, and Accessibility (DEIA) Program. She leads strategic planning and priority setting for current and future initiatives for Equal Employment Opportunity (EEO) and Affirmative Employment programs, management of informal complaint resolution, DEIA initiatives, alternative dispute resolution, employee behavioral health and wellness, and special emphasis programs.

Ms. Slade has held positions in NOAA’s Office of Public and Constituent Affairs and NOS’s Office of Coast Survey. She has had a detail assignment as director of NOAA’s Office of Inclusion and Civil Rights, where she authored the agency’s EEO Policy Statement. The policy statement expressed NOAA’s commitment to EEO and a workplace free of discriminatory harassment.

Ms. Slade was installed as Federally Employed Women’s (FEW) 22nd National President in 2012 and was reelected in 2014. FEW is a private membership organization working as an advocacy group to improve the status of women employed by the federal government. She is a lifetime member of FEW and a founding member of FEW’s Seas and Skies Chapter at NOAA.

Ms. Slade holds a bachelor’s degree in business administration from Georgia Southwestern State University, and she received a certification in equal employment opportunities studies from Cornell University’s School of Industrial and Labor Relations. She is the proud mother of two sons and resides in Upper Marlboro, Maryland, with her husband.