Hayes to lead aff. action

Hayes comes to Penn from Cornell's Office of Equal Opportunity. Valerie Hayes -- the Director of Cornell University's Office of Equal Opportunity -- will serve as Penn's new Executive Director of the Office of Affirmative Action as of August 1. "We are delighted that Valerie Hayes has accepted our offer to head the Office of Affirmative Action," University President Judith Rodin said. "Her record at Cornell is extremely impressive, and we are confident that she will accomplish great things here as well." Rodin added that "this is a time when leadership in affirmative action is more important that ever," and said she is "pleased that Valerie will help provide it here at Penn." Hayes was employed as a specialist for the Urban League of New Haven, Connecticut, and served as the senior affirmative action officer of the Connecticut Department of Mental Health before turning to a career in law. She graduated from the University of Bridgeport School of Law in 1989, where she was associate editor of the Law Review and won the National Brief Writing Competition Award. She is licensed to practice as an attorney in Pennsylvania and is a member of the American Bar Association and the Pennsylvania Bar Association. During her years at Cornell, Hayes was involved in the personnel policies, AIDS and HIV infection, sexual assault and discrimination/harassment procedures policy development groups and volunteered for student registration, summer tutoring and mediation for the Community Dispute Resolution Center of Ithaca. Hayes also served as a commissioner of the Tompkins County Human Rights Commission. Peter Vaughan -- Associate Dean of the School of Social Work -- headed the search committee that brought Hayes to the University, and Social Work Professor Howard Arnold served as the interim director of the affirmative action office.