NANCY E. RANDA
Posted by Mariah Walters
Growing up in Chicago in the 1960s, the issue of civil rights was something I rallied for and something my family, friends and I believed in deeply. When I began my federal career at the Office of Personnel Management, I enthusiastically volunteered to serve from time to time in OPM’s Voting Rights Program, which sends observers to monitor polling sites under mandates in the 1965 Voting Rights Act.
The law was designed to ensure that no citizen’s right to vote could be abridged or denied based on race, and it was later expanded to ensure equal treatment of voters who speak minority languages.
Years later, after a long career in managing human resources at OPM, I was appointed to a Senior Executive Service position that oversaw the Voting Rights Program. Prior to the act’s scheduled sunset, I was privileged to represent OPM before Congress to testify about the observer program. But the most memorable day was July 27, 2006, when President George W. Bush signed a bill to reauthorize sections of the Voting Rights Act. Being there on the South Lawn of the White House to witness such a proud occasion was exhilarating, and to do so in the presence of prominent civil rights leaders and the families of Martin Luther King Jr. and Rosa Parks made it an experience I will never forget.
Randa is deputy associate director of learning, executive resources and policy analysis at the Office of Personnel Management.