Carmen N. Hayes
Atlanta Federal Executive Board Chair
Carmen Hayes is the Regional Administrator (RA) of the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration’s (NHTSA) Region 4 Office, headquartered in Atlanta, Georgia. She began her highway safety career in 1997, as an intern, in NHTSA’s Regional Operations and Program Delivery Office in Washington, DC. She became the Deputy Regional Administrator for Region 4 in 2006 and worked in that capacity for eight years prior to becoming the Region 4 RA.
During her career at NHTSA, Carmen has received many individual and team honors, including the 1999 Secretary’s Gold Medal Award for Outstanding Achievement for her exemplary work on the Garrett A. Morgan Program team in the education of Washington DC students in the field of transportation and the 2001 NHTSA Employee of the Year Award.
Carmen holds a B.A. in English and an M.S. in Transportation from Morgan State University in Baltimore, as well as an M.S. in Management from Troy University. She is also a member of the Pi Alpha Alpha Honor Society.
Alex Cabral
Atlanta Federal Executive Board Co-Chair
Alex Cabral serves as the Deputy Regional Administrator of the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) Region 4 Office located in Atlanta, GA. Region 4 consists of the states of Alabama, Florida, Georgia, South Carolina and Tennessee. Mr. Cabral has worked for NHTSA since 2006. Mr. Cabral started his NHTSA career working out of the NHTSA Region 5 Office in Matteson, IL. Mr. Cabral served as the Deputy Regional Administrator for the Region and prior as the Regional Program Manager for the states of Illinois, Michigan, Minnesota, Ohio and Wisconsin.
Previously, Mr. Cabral worked at the Georgia Governor’s Office of Highway Safety (GOHS) as the Impaired Driving, Occupant Protection and H.E.A.T. Program Coordinator. During that time, the H.E.A.T. program won State and National Awards for innovation and effective programming. Mr. Cabral has also served as a police officer with the Henry and Floyd County Police Departments in Georgia, specialized in community policing and traffic safety. While a police officer, he served as an instructor in community policing, traffic safety strategies, speed detection, impaired driving and occupant protection strategies. Mr. Cabral helped establish Neighborhood Watch groups throughout Henry County and worked with developing community and diversity outreach for the agency.
Mr. Cabral is currently in his final phase as a Doctorate in Public Administration candidate at Valdosta State University, GA. His dissertation focus is on criminal justice and highway safety. Mr. Cabral holds a Master of Public Administrationfrom the University of West Georgia and has an undergraduate in Psychology.
Darrell Graham
Atlanta Federal Executive Board Co-Chair
Darrell E. Graham is the District Director of the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission’s Atlanta District Office. The Atlanta District’s geographic imprint is comprised of the entire state of Georgia and twelve counties in the Charleston, South Carolina metropolitan area, which are served by the Savannah Local Office.
Prior to his appointment as District Director, he served as the Deputy Director in the Atlanta District Office, the Director of the Richmond Local Office, and as an Administrative Judge with the agency. Mr. Graham received his bachelor’s degree in Political Science from the University of California at Berkeley and his Juris Doctorate from Washington University School of Law, located in St. Louis, Missouri.
Upon graduation from law school, he primarily focused on antitrust and commercial litigation matters while at a law firm. He eventually focused his practice exclusively on civil rights litigation while in private practice. Mr. Graham taught criminal law courses to upper division students at the University of Missouri at St. Louis prior to commencing work at the EEOC as a trial attorney.
Mr. Graham is a veteran of the U.S. Air Force and has received myriad awards and recognition over the years related to his professional, educational, and civic endeavors.
Joel Bridges
Atlanta Federal Executive Board Executive Director
With over 34 years of federal government service, Joel has spent 28 years in increasingly responsible management and leadership positions. Prior to assuming the role of Atlanta Federal Executive Board Executive Director, Joel served as the Chief, Workforce Organization and Transition in the Wage and Investment Division of the Internal Revenue Service. In this role, he was responsible for hiring, organizational change management and position management for the Wage and Investment division. He automated the hiring process and led the annual filing season hiring strategy for seasonal and permanent employees during a critical point in the implementation of Tax Reform within the Internal Revenue Service.
As the acting W&I Embedded Human Capital Director, Joel led a diverse staff of 9 managers and over 135 front-line employees located in headquarters and in four design centers located in Austin, Texas; Chamblee, Georgia; and Cincinnati, OH. He served on behalf of the W&I Commissioners for all human capital issues. His responsibilities included providing primary planning, guidance, and development of current and future strategies for management of W&I human capital – approximately 45,000 employees.
Prior to that, he completed several executive development assignments including serving as Assistant to the Director for the BMO Customer Account Data Engine (CADE) Project Office, Acting Director of Atlanta Accounts Management Field Operation, Assistant to the Philadelphia Accounts Management Field Director and Planning and Analysis Branch Chief in the Joint Operations Center. Joel also acted as the Director of Fresno Field Compliance Services where he led one of the largest campus compliance organizations in the W&I with offices in Seattle and Fresno. Joel is a 2009 IRS Executive Readiness graduate. Through partnering, collaboration, teambuilding, business process improvement, strategic planning, project management and development of sound process methodologies, Joel has led numerous IRS teams through complex changes to become high performing organizations.