Tanisha Cole Edmonds
Tanisha Cole Edmonds is the first Chief Diversity Officer at the Commodity Futures Trading Commission.
Tanisha Cole Edmonds is the first Chief Diversity Officer at the Commodity Futures Trading Commission. In this role, Ms. Edmonds is responsible for providing leadership and executive direction on the CFTC's efforts to integrate and promote diversity, equity, inclusion and accessibility (DEIA) at all levels of the agency's workforce, and its talent and business operations. She will oversee the Office of Minority and Women Inclusion.
Prior to joining the CFTC, Ms. Edmonds served most recently as a senior executive at the U.S. Department of Interior as the Deputy Director for the Office of Diversity, Inclusion and Civil Rights and Deputy Chief Diversity Officer.
Ms. Edmonds has over 20 years of combined experience in labor and employment law litigation and implementing equal employment opportunity and diversity, equity & inclusion workplace strategies and solutions. She joined the Department of Interior’s Office of Diversity, Inclusion and Civil Rights (ODICR) in September 2011 where she served as a Division Director for ODICR’s Complaints and Adjudication Division. In 2019, Ms. Edmonds completed the Department of Interior’s Senior Executive Service Candidate Development Program, Class #20 and was honored to be selected by her peers to deliver the graduation speech for her class. In 2021, she was appointed to the SES.
Prior to joining ODICR, Ms. Edmonds served as a Labor and Employment Law Attorney for the U.S. Postal Service and as a Technical Advisor for the U.S. Secret Service, where she served as the first ever technical consultant to senior leadership and as a liaison between the Office of Chief Counsel, Office of Human Resources and the Office of Equal Opportunity.
Ms. Edmonds began her career as an attorney at Passman & Kaplan, P.C., a boutique law firm in Washington, D.C. where she litigated employment discrimination complaints before the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, Merit Systems Protection Board, and the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia. Ms. Edmonds was also a contributing author to Passman & Kaplan’s 1st edition of the Federal Employees Legal Survival Guide. She is a member of both the Maryland and District of Columbia bars.
Education
- B.A. in Economics from Washington University in St. Louis
- J.D. from Washington University’s School of Law