Ana Victoria Gonzalez-Joy (Vicky) obtained her bachelor’s degree in sociology at Tufts University in Boston Massachusetts. She obtained her Juris Doctor from the University of Puerto Rico Law School. She went on to obtain an LLM in trade regulation at George Washington University in Washington D.C. After completing her LLM Ms. Gonzalez worked at the National Labor Relations Board in Washington D.C. There she worked writing decisions for several Board Members.

Subsequently, she went to work at the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) where she worked as Special Assistant to two Chairpersons of the Commission. During her tenure as Special Assistant Ms. Gonzalez led several key initiatives which were instrumental in changing the work of the Commission. She was the Chair’s representative in the Task Force which developed the Priority Charge Handling Procedures which continues to be the cornerstone for the processing of charges at the Commission. Ms. Gonzalez also worked developing the Mediation Program implemented by the EEOC, which continues to be one of the most successful mediation programs within federal agencies.

Ms. Gonzalez worked as an administrative judge in Puerto Rico for several years before returning to Washington D. C. to work as an advisor to the head of Field Programs at the EEOC. Tasked with streamlining the federal sector process for handling complaints before the administrative judges, she developed a system of initial conferences modeled after similar initiatives in federal courts. Ms. Gonzalez became the Acting Director of the RESOLVE Program at EEOC charged with resolving internal disputes of EEOC employees.

Ms. Gonzalez recently completed a Coaching Course for Executive Leaders at Georgetown University. Throughout her career she has taken a myriad of mediation courses including the negotiation Course at Harvard University. Her expertise in employment law, mediation and negotiation are

• As Acting National Director of the Resolve Program (RESOLVE), the EEOC’s internal alternative dispute resolution (ADR) program, she oversaw the agency’s EEO complaints, office morale issues, union grievances, reasonable accommodation requests, administrative grievances, co-worker disputes, and group conflicts and the utilization of a variety of techniques and approaches to address these concerns, such as mediation, coaching, facilitations, settlement conferences, team assessment, team building, conflict resolution skills development, and individual coaching (leadership, managerial, executive).

• As the EEOC’s National Hearings Program Manager, she continued her leadership role with the Hearings Program. She served as the lead for recently selected Hearings Managers to assist in the transition into their new roles and the continuity of the Program. She mentored and advised them on key initiatives, goals and implementation strategies, and monitoring of the quality of the decisions issued by administrative judges throughout the EEOC’s field offices.

• Acted as Management Representative in mediations of internal EEOC personnel matters.

• As the EEOC’s Senior Attorney Advisor for the Director of Field Programs, she was tasked with reviewing policy documents, implementing operational directives for the field offices, managing special programs and projects and assisting in the review and management of the administrative judges in the field.

• Developed and led the effort to implement case management efficiencies in the Hearings Program such as the Initial Conference as the basic framework for addressing the processing of discrimination hearing requests from federal employees across the entire federal workforce.

• Organized and led an effort to improve communications among the leadership in the EEOC’s Field Offices prior to instituting changes in the Hearings Program. The effort began with a facilitated meeting with the Supervisory Administrative Judges to develop strategies for reducing the Inventory in the Hearings Program which led to a reduction of a rolling inventory of 14,880 in 2014 to 10,972 cases at the end of fiscal year 2020.

• The EEOC’s new case management system, which she developed and implemented, has become the standard operating procedure for the work of EEOC Administrative Judges. The Administrative Judges Handbook finalized and sent to the field in September 2020 incorporates and formalizes all these initiatives.

• Served as liaison between the Office of Federal Operations and the Office of Field Programs on areas pertaining to the Administrative Judges in the field including working on pilot programs initiatives.  As part of her duties overseeing the Hearings Program, she served as the lead and developed consistent standards to perform yearly quality reviews of the Administrative Judges’ decisions across the nation.

• Coordinated efforts for the Office of Field Programs on the electronic portal, known as FED/SEP, designed to allow federal agencies to submit documentation for hearings and appeals in the federal sector. She was the lead with a representative from the Office of the Chair and the Office of Information Technology to develop the requirements for a Complainant Portal which now allows complainants in the federal sector to upload their Hearing Requests and other documents. This involved assessing the needs of the group and coordinating those needs into a viable operational format which addressed all concerns.

• Prepared a training program for administrative judges on the interconnection of the Complainant Portal and the EEOC’s internal database system. (IMS).

• Co-led, with the Office of Information Technology, a project designed to develop and implement an online intake filing system for potential charging parties in the private sector of EEOC’s operation. Served as co-lead with the Office of the Chair for the first phase of EEOC’s Digital Charge System, providing for the online transmittal of documents and communications between EEOC and employers in the private sector.

• As Administrative Judge on Special Detail to Headquarters, she was tasked by the EEOC’s Chair with reducing the backlog of private sector charges for immediate implementation in the field offices and with developing a backlog reduction plan. Worked with all the Directors of the field offices to ensure the proper implementation of the plan. As a result of the plan’s implementation, the backlog was reduced by approximately 20,000 charges. As part of the plan’s implementation, she worked with the Office of Information Technology on a framework to incorporate the vision set forth in the backlog reduction plan for an online process for the intake of charges.

• Served as Hearings Coordinator for the administrative judges in the field. As Hearings Coordinator, she served as liaison between the Offices of Field Programs and Federal Operations in all matters relating to the Federal Sector Hearings Program, performed annual quality reviews of the decisions of the administrative judges in the field, and provided feedback on the quality of the decisions of the administrative judges. She also provided training to the EEOC’s new administrative judges as well as to supervisory administrative judges on matters of law, policy and operational procedures.

• As sole administrative judge assigned to the EEOC’s San Juan Office, she conducted formal administrative hearings on the record, and rendered adjudications on employment discrimination claims filed by federal employees in Puerto Rico and the Virgin Islands. She conducted initial pre-hearing conferences with the parties to discuss and assess the issues involved, the anticipated discovery needed, as well as explore settlement possibilities. As the case developed, she would rule on all pre-hearing motions in preparation for the hearings, conduct conferences with the parties to discuss issues that might have arisen during discovery, and approve witness lists in preparation for the hearing. She continuously explored settlement options with the parties, including conducting formal settlement conferences. Her hearings were conducted on the record, with a court reporter and the creation of an official transcript. During the hearing, she would make rulings on the admissibility of evidence and rulings on objections to testimony. At the conclusion of the hearing, she would either issue a bench decision or direct the parties to submit briefs prior to entering her decision. In writing her decision, she had to consider the entire record, weigh the evidence as to its probative value, make credibility determinations, as well as make findings of fact and conclusions of law.

• In settling cases, she used her skills as a certified mediator to facilitate settlement. On some occasions even after the EEO case was officially settled she would “go the extra mile” to conduct mediations with the parties to address issues which were not part of the EEO complaint but were relevant to ensuring the parties would be able to continue a fruitful working relationship.

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