Rochelle Ford currently serves as the Chief Ethics and Compliance Officer and oversees government affairs, corporate communications, and university relations at Universities Space Research Association, which is a non-profit consortium of universities dedicated to advancing aerospace research. She previously served as the Director of Government Ethics for the District of Columbia. In that role, she was responsible for administering and enforcing the District’s code of conduct for over 36,000 District employees. She previously served as an Attorney-Advisor with the Department of Justice’s Departmental Ethics Office. While serving as a career employee across two administrations, Ms. Ford advised senior agency officials on compliance with federal ethics laws and regulations, drafted ethics-related policies and guidelines, developed and delivered ethics training, and served as a liaison to the federal Office of Government Ethics and other entities. Before joining DOJ, she served as non-partisan Counsel to the United States Senate Select Committee on Ethics where she investigated allegations of ethical misconduct, advised Senate Members and staff on compliance with federal ethics and political laws and regulations, and regularly provided ethics training to the Senate community. is a Ms. Ford is also a Certified Compliance and Ethics Professional (CCEP).
Ms. Ford began her legal career as a law clerk for the Honorable Gregory M. Sleet (D. Del.) and then practiced at WilmerHale for several years, where she represented clients in complex litigation matters and conducted investigations in response to regulatory inquiries. In addition to her legal practice, Ms. Ford teaches courses on ethics and government accountability at the University of Pennsylvania Law School and the University of Maryland School of Public Policy. Before becoming an attorney, Ms. Ford taught upper school history at Durham Academy in North Carolina.
Ms. Ford lives in the District with her husband and two children and enjoys hiking, running, and reading about history.
