Sean M. Clayton

Sean Clayton is accustomed to utilizing his skills in strategic planning, organizational development, and process improvement to bring about positive change to the organizations for which he has worked.  All of these skills are utilized in his current role as a participant in the Social Security Administration’s (SSA) Senior Executive Service Candidate Development Program Class of 2011.  In this program he is tasked with bringing new leadership and visionary solutions when executing SSA’s quality performance,   information technology, business management, and disability program execution responsibilities.
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Prior to joining SSA, Sean served as a Human Capital Specialist for four years at the Department of Energy (DOE) where he was responsible for a variety of talent acquisition and management initiatives, including strategic marketing, recruitment planning, career mapping, competency identification and development, mentoring, human capital policy development, end-to-end federal hiring process improvement, and change management initiatives, for an agency of over 100,000 federal employees and contractors.  

Sean also worked as an Equal Employment Opportunity Specialist for nearly five years while working for the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Farm Service Agency.  He served as the agency’s National Hispanic Employment Program Manager during his tenure and developed the agency’s first 5-year Affirmative Employment Plan in 15 years, developed and delivered civil rights and diversity training nationwide, and contributed to the development of a web-based workforce diversity reporting tool.

Other career highlights include being elected as the Chair of the National Council of Hispanic Employment Program Managers from October 2005 through September 2007.  In this role, Sean has consulted with various federal agencies and non-profit organizations in the development of Hispanic hiring toolkits to overcome Hispanic underrepresentation in the Federal workforce.  Sean has received local and national attention for his work in this area, being interviewed by the Partnership for Public Service, MSPB, GAO, OPM, and Government Executive magazine.

Sean also served as one of the founding board members that planned, developed, and implemented the first Greater Washington DC Hispanic Youth Symposium in July 2004.  Leveraging a public-private partnership concept to begin the program pilot, 63 students attended the first symposium in 2004.  This program has now spread to eight different cities across the country touching the lives of over 3,000 high school students and awarding over $500,000 in college scholarships.  

From a learning and development standpoint, Sean’s training workshops and curriculum development in the areas of strategic planning, generations in the workplace, resume writing, and strategies on securing federal employment have affected the lives of thousands of college students and federal employees across the country.  Sean enjoys the distinction of being recognized as one of the Federal Government’s experts for his training and writing in the area of building management strategies across generational differences.  He has been interviewed by Government Executive Magazine and called on by non-profits, independent federal agencies, and organizations from every cabinet agency to discuss the human capital planning impacts of this phenomenon.

Sean has maintained an interest in community service prior to entering the Federal Government.  He has organized peer-mentoring groups aimed at reducing conflict and violent activity among junior high school students.  He served as an advocate successfully mandating the use of Holocaust studies in all New Jersey’s public schools as a vehicle for students to learn about conflict resolution and prejudice reduction techniques.  He has met with national leaders while serving as a volunteer advocate on progressive issues concerning affirmative action, climate control, violence against women, community reinvestment by financial institutions, and Native American issues.  

Sean attended Ursinus College and received his Bachelor of Arts degree in Politics in 1999.  He went on to pursue his Masters degree in Public Administration at American University with a focus in Organizational Diagnosis and Change Management in 2002.  He achieved both degrees on full-tuition scholarships.

Mr. Clayton currently resides in Bowie, Maryland.

Contact Information:

Phone: 410-965-3575   
E-mail: Sean.Clayton@ssa.gov