CMS Leadership

Arlene Austin is the civil rights and equal employment opportunity senior advisor to the CMS Administrator.  She is responsible for civil rights compliance within the Medicare and Medicaid Services Programs (Title VI) and for securing the allocation of necessary funds and resources to ensure CMS remains in compliance with the U. S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission’s (EEOC) regulations and management directives on Federal sector affirmative employment programs and complaint resolution time frames and processes (Title VII).  She is the CMS EEO Settlement Official and has oversight of the alternative dispute resolution and the reasonable accommodation programs. 

Before joining CMS in 2005, Ms. Austin worked for the Transportation Security Administration (TSA) in the Department of Homeland Security where she was critical to TSA’s initial establishment and served as the Agency’s first Equal Employment Manager.  Prior to TSA, Arlene worked in the Office of the Secretary at the U.S. Department of Transportation, as Chief of their Compliance Operations Division and was the Deputy Executive Assistant for Equal Opportunity at the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms.

Ms. Austin earned her Bachelor of Law and Political Sciences degree from the University of Panama and is licensed to practice law in the Republic of Panama.  She is a certified mediator from the Justice Center of Atlanta and an authorized Public Interpreter/Translator (Spanish-English-Spanish).

Deputy Director: Anita Pinder