IWF is delighted to announce that Janet Dhillon is the latest in our popular series of Champion Women profiles.

A former chief legal counsel to three Fortune 500 companies, Dhillon brings stellar credentials to the job of running a federal agency that has a profound effect on American workplaces.

She has handled a major corporate reorganization and was at the helm of US Airways legal department the day Sully Sullenberg’s Flight 1549 crashed into the Hudson River. Dhillon grew up in Orange County, California, was a magna cum laude history major at Occidental College and graduated first in her class at UCLA School of Law.

She has a common sense approach to her new job. One goal: reduce the number of EEOC lawsuits. “While litigation has a place in enforcing the civil rights laws, and it's an important tool in our toolbox,” she says, “I do think that if the EEOC can step in early and help to remediate a discriminatory employment practice early and get the employer back on the right track, and ensure that the person who was wronged gets the appropriate amount of relief, it could reduce the number of lawsuits. And if you can settle these matters outside the court system, to me that's a win-win.”

We know you will enjoy meeting this dynamo who brings a wealth of knowledge and experience to the job of enforcing employment law.