Justice Management Division
Serving Justice - Securing Results

Mari Barr Santangelo’s appointment as the Deputy Assistant Attorney General for Human Resources and Administration and Chief Human Capital Officer at the U. S. Department of Justice commenced in May 2005. In this position, she is accountable for Personnel Services, Security and Emergency Planning, the Justice Library, the Office of Equal Employment Opportunity, and Facilities and Support Services. In addition she supervises the Executive Secretary Office, and the Consolidated Executive Office, which provides administrative services to the Justice Main offices.

Ms. Santangelo has been a Federal employee for 12 years, and has been recognized for her service by the President with the Meritorious Service Award in 2004. Her most recent appointments were as follows: From February 2004 to May 2005, Ms. Santangelo served as the Director, Human Capital Policy and Programs, in the newly established Department of Homeland Security (DHS). In this capacity, under the CHCO, she was responsible for developing new human resources polices and merging 22 human resource (HR) systems into common systems for the new Department. From July 2000 to February 2004, Ms. Santangelo served in progressively challenging positions at the Department of Transportation - she was the Acting Assistant Secretary for Administration from March 2003 to February 2004. In addition, as Principal Deputy, she was directly accountable for the Department’s human capital and competitive sourcing plans, two of the five PMA initiatives; and she had purview over the offices of Human Resources, Security, Procurement, and grant management. Concurrently, she was the Director of Human Resources, and was among the first to achieve “green” in Human Capital.

Ms. Santangelo’s previous experience includes two White House appointments: August 1997 – August 2000 as Deputy Assistant Secretary for Human Resources at the U. S. Department of the Interior; and May 1993 – August 1997 as Senior Advisor to the Secretary at the U. S. Department of Housing and Urban Development. At Interior, Ms. Santangelo’s achievements included: the development and implementation of an HR Strategic Plan which yielded an award-winning web page, an Alternative Dispute Resolution program; a successfully implemented human resource information system for 8 bureaus and 70,000 employees; and new senior and mid-management leadership programs. Also at Interior, she formalized the Department’s relationship with Hispanic Serving Institutions, Historically Black Colleges and Universities, and Tribal Colleges that increased recruitment and retention of the workforce. At HUD, Ms. Santangelo’s greatest achievement was her leadership as the Secretary’s point person in HUD’s response to the April 19, 1995 Oklahoma disaster. In addition she also served the Secretary on labor/management partnerships and as the Departmental Director of EEO, she trained over 200 new counselors, and implemented an award-winning diversity program. Prior to her Federal career, Ms. Santangelo worked at the University of Wisconsin-Green Bay for 19 years, as a professional Counselor for 10 years, Director of EEO, and as the Executive Assistant to the Chancellor.

Ms. Santangelo earned her Bachelor of Science in Sociology and Psychology and her Masters of Science in Counseling, from the University of Wisconsin. She is married to Richard Diego Santangelo and they are the proud parents of 22-year-old twin daughters, Molly and Emily.