Steve Shih serves as the Director of the Office of Civil Rights. Shih is a career member of the Senior Executive Service with more than three decades of federal experience, including as a leader in civil rights, diversity, Equal Employment Opportunity (EEO), human capital management, and homeland security. He is a recipient of the Presidential Rank Award for sustained executive career excellence.
Shih joined NASA in 2017 as Associate Administrator for Diversity and Equal Opportunity. In that role for over five years, Shih was the principal advisor to the NASA administrator on all matters relating to diversity and inclusion and EEO, as well as equal opportunity in external science, technology, engineering, and math programs receiving federal assistance from NASA. Shih provided executive direction and oversight on all NASA policies, programs, and initiatives in those areas, including strategic planning, execution, and evaluation; workforce and program data and analysis; anti-harassment; reasonable accommodation; EEO complaints; conflict resolution; and training.
From 2010 through 2017, Shih was deputy associate director for senior executive services and performance management at the U.S. Office of Personnel Management (OPM). In this capacity, he led OPM’s organization responsible for human capital management policy for the Senior Executive Service and other senior professionals, including the selection, development, performance management, and recognition of federal senior executives and other senior professionals. Shih also was responsible for leading governmentwide policy for all federal employees with respect to performance management, awards, leadership development, employee engagement, and work-life and wellness programs (including telework and employee assistance programs).
Prior to his appointment at OPM, Shih served at the U.S. Department of Homeland Security from 2008 to 2010 as the deputy civil rights and civil liberties officer for EEO and diversity programs and also in an acting capacity as the assistant secretary-level officer for civil rights and civil liberties.
From 2004 to 2008, Shih served as the EEO director at OPM.
From 1993 through 2004, Shih was employed at the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission’s Washington Field Office, where he was an administrative judge and later chief administrative judge.
Shih received a Bachelor of Science in Social Psychology from Duke University and a J.D. from the Washington University School of Law. He is a member of the bar associations for both Virginia and the District of Columbia.