The leadership positions announced today are:
Kate Fulton will serve as the Chief Operating Officer, a critical position managing the Operations Division as well as supporting all aspects of the Bureau’s operations. Ms. Fulton first joined the Bureau in 2013 serving as Senior Counsel in the Legal Division and later in the Office of Supervision, Enforcement and Fair Lending. In 2016, she was named Deputy Chief of Staff and Senior Counsel. In all of these positions, Ms. Fulton led high priority Bureau-wide initiatives, providing legal and subject matter expertise on operational matters. For the last year, she has also served as the Acting Chief Operating Officer. Prior to joining the Bureau, Ms. Fulton served as Attorney Advisor at the U.S. Customs and Border Protection and at a law firm representing federal employees in a wide array of employment matters. Kate earned her J.D. from the Boston University School of Law and a B.A. in Communications from the University of Maryland.
Yasaman Sutton will serve as Senior Advisor and Counselor to the Director. Ms. Sutton continues her civil service career at CFPB with over 14 years in the Executive Branch, where she provided advice and representation on legal matters affecting the Office of Management and Budget, the White House, the Department of Defense, and the Department of Justice. She has extensive experience advising high-level government officials in complex and evolving environments on a range of issues including civil and criminal litigation, public international law, ethics, and compliance. During law school, she worked in the Housing Unit at Greater Boston Legal Services representing homeless families before the Massachusetts Department of Transitional Assistance. Prior to law school, she worked at Bank of America in New York City. Ms. Sutton is a graduate of the University of Michigan, Harvard University, and the State University of New York at Buffalo Law School.
The executive positions announced today are:
Melissa Brand will serve as the Director of the Office of Civil Rights. Ms. Brand has extensive experience in federal sector equal employment opportunity, including almost 10 years at the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission. While at the Commission, Melissa wrote approximately 1,000 federal sector appellate decisions on whether or not discrimination occurred following complaints from federal employees. She also worked as an Administrative Judge while at the Commission and presided over hearings for federal sector complaints of discrimination. She has been the Bureau’s Equal Employment Opportunity (EEO) Complaints Program Manager since 2016. She holds a B.A. in Political Science from Fairleigh Dickinson University and a J.D. from the University of Denver Sturm College of Law.
Jim Rice will serve as the Assistant Director of the Office of Servicemember Affairs. Mr. Rice brings over three decades of experience serving in the U.S. Army. He initially served as an enlisted medic, followed by enlisted and commissioned service with the Wisconsin Army National Guard in the Field Artillery. After ROTC, Jim served for over thirty years in the Army Medical Service Corps as a Medical Evacuation officer. He commanded at every level from platoon to brigade, including as the first Army Medical Department officer to command at both the battalion and brigade level in Operation Iraqi Freedom. He later served as the Director of the U.S. Army Wounded Warrior program and in his final military assignment, Jim served as the Chief of the Health Services Division for the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff. Jim holds advanced degrees from Troy State University and the Army War College.
