Winona Lake Scott

Winona has over 20 years of experience in leadership at federal, state, and local levels in civil rights, employment and equal opportunity law, training and development, policy, strategic planning, budgeting, communications, and compliance.

She began her career in D.C. Government with the D.C. Office of Human Rights and left that agency as the Associate Director with a Certificate in Public Management from George Washington University. From Brookings Institution, Winona received a Certificate in Public Leadership and from Harvard University’s Kennedy School of Government, certification as a Senior Executive Fellow.

Prior to starting her career with the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Office of Civil Rights in 2002, Ms. Scott served as the Director of the Fair Employment Council of Greater Washington and later self-employed as an independent contractor. Winona is currently the Associate Assistant Secretary for Civil Rights in the Office of the Assistant Secretary for Civil Rights and is responsible for providing leadership and direction for the fair and equitable treatment of all USDA customers and employees while ensuring the delivery of quality programs and enforcement of civil rights.

She graduated from the University of Massachusetts at Amherst with a B.A. in History and Seton Hall Law Center in Newark, NJ with a Juris Doctor degree. She serves as a volunteer member of the Washington, DC Executive Council of AARP, the D.C. State Advisory Committee for the U.S. Commission on Civil Rights, and is a member of several social organizations.