Rodger Drew | Director and Chief Administrative Judge

Rodger Drew is a career member of the Senior Executive Service (SES). He was appointed Director and Chief Administrative Judge of the U.S. Department of Education’s Office of Hearings and Appeals on June 6, 2022. Judge Drew joined the Department of Education’s team after serving as the Clerk of Court and Senior Legal Advisor of the Navy-Marine Corps Court of Criminal Appeals since 2018 during which time he was awarded the Department of the Navy Superior Civilian Service Medal and Meritorious Service Medal. Prior to that, Judge Drew served as an Air Force officer and judge advocate (JAG) for 30 years, retiring in the rank of colonel. During his JAG career he held a wide variety of judicial, operational, and litigation positions, including Chief Judge of the Air Force Court of Criminal Appeals, Chief Regional Military Judge, Chief Counsel of U.S. Southern Command, and Chief Counsel of Air Force Special Operations Command. Judge Drew’s military awards include two awards of the Defense Superior Service Medal, three awards of the Legion of Merit, and seven awards of the Meritorious Service Medal. Judge Drew received his Bachelor of Arts in History in 1984 from Texas A&M University, where he was a member of the Corps of Cadets, and his Juris Doctorate from the University of Houston in 1987. Judge Drew is a member of the District of Columbia and Texas bars.

Elizabeth Figueroa | Chief Administrative Law Judge

Elizabeth Figueroa was appointed as an Administrative Law Judge for the Department of Education on December 21, 2020. Before her appointment, Judge Figueroa served as an administrative law judge at the District of Columbia Office of Administrative Hearings (DC OAH), from December 2006 through December 2020. At DC OAH, she presided over a variety of case types, including workers’ compensation, wage-hour, unemployment insurance, Medicaid, child support, and licensing and enforcement. Before her appointment to DC OAH, Judge Figueroa spent a 20-year career in the non-profit and private sectors, with a primary focus on real estate and non-profit housing. Judge Figueroa received her Juris Doctorate from Antioch School of Law. She is a member of the District of Columbia and Wisconsin bars.

Robert Layton | Administrative Law Judge

Before going to law school, Robert Layton founded Catalog Update, which provided a statistical supplement to thoroughbred horse auction sale catalogs. He graduated from the University of Kentucky College of Law in 1991. For two years he was in general private practice and then served as a prosecutor for four years. Since 1997, he has served as an administrative law judge or hearing officer for state and federal agencies. He served as Chief Hearing Officer for the Kentucky Energy and Environment Cabinet. He has served as the president of the National Association of Administrative Law Judges and as president of the Kentucky Association of Administrative Adjudicators, and has given presentations at several continuing legal education conferences. He presently serves on the Kentucky Bar Association’s Unauthorized Practice of Law Committee, and serves as a Diversity Change Agent within the Department of Education. He has served as president of the Meadowthorpe Neighborhood Association as an elder in his church, and as chair of the Department’s Feds Feed Families initiative.

Daniel McGinn-Shapiro | Administrative Law Judge

Daniel McGinn-Shapiro was appointed as an Administrative Law Judge with the U.S. Department of Education in December 2020. He began his legal career as a judicial clerk for the Honorable Clayton Greene Jr. on the Maryland Court of Appeals. He then worked in the litigation department of a law firm in Chicago before joining the U.S. Department of Education’s Office of Hearings and Appeals as an attorney adviser in October 2014. Judge McGinn-Shapiro received a Bachelor of Arts from the College of the Holy Cross, a Master of Science in the History of International Relations from the London School of Economics and Political Science and a Juris Doctorate from the Georgetown University Law Center.

Angela Miranda | Administrative Law Judge

Angela J. Miranda has more than 30-years of experience in administrative law. She began her legal career at a non-profit law firm providing representation to eligible clients in state and Federal administrative proceedings and in state, county, and state appellate courts. In 2001, she entered Federal service as an attorney advisor in the Medicare Division in the Office of the Chief Administrative Law Judge, at the Social Security Administration. By 2004, she was promoted to supervisory attorney in the Medicare Division, where she successfully managed the transfer of the Medicare administrative hearing process from the Social Security Administration to the Department of Health and Human Services. After that she was appointed as a Federal Reviewing Official, presiding over claimant appeals from initial denials of Social Security disability benefits. In 2007, she was qualified by the Office of Personnel Management as a Federal Administrative Law Judge and in 2008 she was appointed as an Administrative Law Judge for the Social Security Administration. Judge Miranda was stationed at the Hearing Office in Raleigh, NC until she was appointed to the Administration’s National Hearing Center in Falls Church, VA. In November 2014, Judge Miranda was appointed as an Administrative Law Judge at the Office of Administrative Law Judges in the Department of Education. Judge Miranda earned her Bachelor of Arts from Canisius College in Buffalo, NY and earned her Juris Doctorate from New England Law, formerly New England School of Law, in Boston, MA. Judge Miranda also earned a Master in Public Administration from Syracuse University’s The Maxwell School of Citizenship and Public Affairs.