Cynthia L. Attwood, Chairman of the Occupational Safety and Health Review Commission, retired on April 27, 2025, at the end of her third term.  Ms. Attwood was first appointed to the Commission by President Barack Obama in 2010, was reappointed by President Obama in 2013, and was appointed once more by President Donald Trump in 2020. She has served as Chairman of the Commission since January 2021 and previously served as Acting Chairman and Chairman from April 2015 until January 2017.  As the Commission’s head of administrative operations, Ms. Attwood proved an adept leader, widely respected by her staff and fellow Commissioners. In her role as appellate judge Ms. Attwood was proud of the many unanimous decisions that she and her colleagues issued over the years.  But she was also known for her incisive dissents and separate opinions when agreement could not be reached.

Ms. Attwood served in the Federal government for almost forty-five years.  She began her career in the Civil Rights Division of the Department of Justice, where she drafted appellate and Supreme Court briefs.  She was most proud of the government amicus brief she drafted in Manhart v. City of Los Angeles, in which the Supreme Court ruled that employers could not require female employees to contribute more to pension funds than male employees, even if women, as a group, lived longer and therefore received more retirement benefits.

Ms. Attwood then worked at the Department of Labor for almost twenty-five years, where she served in several positions in the Mine Safety and Health Division of the Solicitor’s Office–culminating in her appointment as Associate Solicitor for Mine Safety and Health–and then served as the Associate Solicitor for Occupational Safety and Health.  It was in that position that President George H.W. Bush awarded her the rank of Meritorious Executive.  Ms. Attwood was later appointed an administrative appeals judge on the Administrative Review Board.  Following her (first) retirement in 2003, Ms. Attwood focused on photography and digitally retouching clients’ family photographs.  She came out of retirement to accept the nomination to serve as a Member of the Commission in 2010. Ms. Attwood holds a bachelor’s degree, magna cum laude, in English from Oakland University in Rochester, Michigan, and a law degree from the University of Minnesota, where she graduated magna cum laude and was awarded membership in the Order of the Coif.