Office of Equal Employment Opportunity and Workplace Equity (OEEOWE)

Role at CDC

As Director, Mr. Mebane is responsible for advising and counseling CDC's executive leadership team on a variety of equal employment opportunity (EEO), diversity management, civil rights, and human resources issues impacting the agency's complex and diverse global workforce. His key responsibilities include but are not limited to matters related to Affirmative Employment (AEP), Disability, Reasonable Accommodation (RA), Alternative Dispute Resolution (ADR), Special Emphasis Programs (SEP), and EEO Complaints Processing and Settlements for all CDC centers, institutes, and offices. He is also responsible for the design and direction of programs, policies, and procedures based on the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission's (EEOC) rules, regulations, laws, and Executive Orders governing equal opportunity, diversity management, civil rights, and human resources that further ensure prevention of individual and systematic discrimination across the enterprise. As the agency's EEO Director, he is the officer with direct liaison responsibility to the EEOC, Health and Human Services (HHS), Office of General Counsel (OGC), and all other respective internal and external customers and stakeholders regarding employment and civil rights regulatory matters. "Our overarching strategy is to make CDC a world-class model EEO program."

Previous experience

Mr. Mebane joined CDC in February 2005 as a member of the Senior Executive Service (SES) and Chief Management Officer of CDC's Coordinating Center for Infectious Diseases (CCID). In this role, he had direct authority for the management of the estimated $4.0B CCID budget which included business operations, human capital, information technology, grants, facilities, and administrative services for the National Center for HIV, Viral Hepatitis, STD, and TB Prevention; National Center for Immunization and Respiratory Diseases; National Center for Preparedness, Detection, and Control of Infectious Diseases; and National Center for Zoonotic, Vector-Borne and Enteric Diseases. Under his leadership, CCID grew in size and scope to $7B, comprising over half the agency's programs, assets, people and EEO activities.

Prior to working at CDC, Mr. Mebane spent over 23 years at FedEx. After starting his career with the company in 1981, Mr. Mebane was promoted from dock worker, to manager, to the Director of International Operations. In 2001, Mr. Mebane moved to Buffalo, New York, to become the Chief Operating Officer for a $2.0B company that FedEx acquired. In addition to his management duties at FedEx, Mr. Mebane was the corporate lead for the Diversity training curriculum for the corporation from 1995 to 1997 where he became part of the critically acclaimed FedEx Leadership Institute. While there, he taught leadership, diversity, and management practices to FedEx employees around the world.

Outside of his corporate work, Mr. Mebane has served on the faculty of the University of Memphis, the University of Buffalo, and Georgia Tech. He also worked as a psychotherapist and psychiatric case manager in Memphis during the national crises associated with homelessness and the de-institutionalization of the severely mentally ill. As a result of this experience, he was inspired to later become Chairman of the Memphis Health, Education & Housing Finance Facility Board (1994-2001). The restructuring of this board under his chairmanship is his legacy to Memphis in making housing affordable and sustainable for low- and moderate-income families.

Since joining CDC, Mr. Mebane has been very active in serving others and the community as a proud graduate of Leadership Atlanta. He is a sought-after speaker and mentor and has led the Office of Equal Employment Opportunity and Workplace Equity's (OEEOWE) monthly mentoring circles for over ten years. Mr. Mebane served 13 years on the Sisters of Mercy Health Systems Board of Directors as Chairman of the Human Resources Committee and he currently serves as the Vice Chairman of the Family Health Centers of Georgia.

Education

Mr. Mebane earned a Master of Science in Psychology with a minor in Economics and an undergraduate degree in Psychology from the University of Memphis. Most recently, he completed a Harvard Executive Certificate in Public Leadership from the Harvard Kennedy School of Government.