RRB appoints director of programs

The U.S. Railroad Retirement Board (RRB) has named Crystal Coleman as its director of programs.
As a result, Ms. Coleman will be responsible for overseeing all operations to process and pay benefits administered by the agency. She will also be a member of the RRB’s executive committee, which is responsible for day-to-day operations of the agency and for making policy recommendations to the three-member board.
At the time of her appointment, Ms. Coleman had served as the RRB’s deputy director of programs since November 2015. In that position, she served as the agency’s second in command on all program-related issues and operations to Dr. Michael A. Tyllas, who retired in December 2018 after more than 37 years of federal service.
Prior to her appointment as deputy director of programs, Ms. Coleman was the deputy regional director of the employee benefits security administration (EBSA) in Dallas. As the number-two official in the regional office, she supervised senior staff and assisted in planning, developing, implementing and evaluating EBSA programs in the region. An agency within the U.S. Department of Labor, the EBSA assures the security of retirement, health and other workplace-related benefits of workers and their families.
An EBSA employee for 24 years, Ms. Coleman previously served as both a supervisory and senior investigator in both Chicago and Los Angeles, as well as the Senior Advisor for Criminal Enforcement in Chicago, before assuming the deputy regional director position in October 2013. Before entering Federal service in 1991, she spent about 18 months as an economic development coordinator for the City of Chicago.
A native and current resident of Chicago, Ms. Coleman attended Illinois State University in Normal, Ill., receiving a bachelor’s degree in communications (1982), and subsequently earned a master’s degree in business administration (1991) from Roosevelt University in Chicago.
Her appointment was effective July 29.