Griffin was born in Dorchester, Boston, Massachusetts. She went to St. Patrick's High School in Roxbury, Boston and served on active duty in the United States Army from 1974 to 1977. Griffin later entered the Massachusetts Maritime Academy to become a marine engineer. A car accident in her third year left her partially paralyzed and using a wheelchair. She graduated in 1983 with a Bachelor of Science in marine engineering. In the summers of 1991 and 1992 she was a legal intern for the U.S. Attorney's office in Boston and for McDermott, O'Neil & Associates. She has served on the boards of many business and educational organizations including the Massachusetts Board of Higher Education, the Massachusetts Maritime Academy Board of Trustees. From 1999 to 2001 she served as the disability liaison for the Massachusetts Democratic Party. After her graduation, Griffin tested medical devices in a laboratory of the U.S. Food and Drug Administration in Winchester, Massachusetts. She later became a field investigator and faced difficulty due to her disability. A FDA prosecution of a medical device manufacturer got Griffin interested in law and she entered Boston College Law School in 1990 to become a legal adviser for the FDA or a medical equipment company. As a student, Griffin was hired as an intern to study the Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990 for a Boston lobbyist and came in contact with disability rights movement advocates. She graduated in 1993 with a Juris Doctor. Upon graduation, she was awarded a Skadden Arps Fellowship at the Boston Disability Law Center and worked as Interim President of the Massachusetts Maritime Academy from 1993 to 1994.
Disability advocacy
From 1995 to 1996, Griffin served as an attorney advisor to the Vice Chair of the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, Paul Igasaki, and served as executive director of the Boston Disability Law Center from 1996 to 2005. Griffin is a labor law expert and was named "Lawyer of the Year" by Lawyers Weekly in 2005. while her husband looks on. Griffin is a Democrat, and in January 2005 agreed to fill a vacancy on the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission. She was nominated by President George W. Bush on July 28, 2005, and confirmed unanimously by the United States Senate on November 4, 2005. Griffin was sworn in on January 3, 2006, to serve the remainder of a five-year term expiring July 1, 2009, and became the first female member of the commission with a physical disability. As commissioner, Griffin advocated for increasing the number of disabled workers in the federal government. In January 2009, President Barack Obama appointed Griffin as acting vice chairman of the commission. Griffin served until December 2009.
President Barack Obama announced his intention to nominate Griffin as deputy director of the United States Office of Personnel Management on April 17, 2009. She was nominated May 12, 2009, and confirmed by the United States Senate on July 30. Griffin took office on January 4, 2010.
Return to Massachusetts
Massachusetts Secretary of Health and Human ServicesJudyAnn Bigby announced on July 21, 2011 that she has appointed Griffin as Assistant Secretary for Disability Policies and Programs, beginning on August 29, 2011. From 2013 to 2018 she has served as the executive director of the Disability Law Center. Since 2018 she has served as a search specialist consultant with Bender Consulting Services, Inc.
