Ersa Hines Poston

Ersa Hines Poston March 3, 1921 — January 7, 2009) was an American anti-poverty activist and civil service reformer. She was the first African American woman appointed to the Civil Service Commission. She then became vice chairman of the Merit Systems Protection Board. She also went by the name Ersa Hines Clinton.

Early life and education Ersa Elizabeth Hines was born May 3, 1921, in Mayfield, Kentucky, to Vivian Johnson Hines and Sherman Hines. She stated that she was named after a distant relative who was named Ursa, for the constellation, but her mother thought the name looked better spelled as Ersa.

When Poston was four, her mother died of tuberculosis, and she and her father moved to Paducah, Kentucky, where her paternal grandparents lived. In 1946 she earned a master's degree in social work from Atlanta University. She was a member of Alpha Kappa Alpha. She held two roles, working as the area director for the commission, as well as the Youth Work Progress Director for the New York State Division of Youth. In 1962, she left to work as confidential assistant to the governor of New York, Nelson A. Rockefeller, and she held this role until 1964. These jobs let her protect government employees from discrimination, retaliation, and unfair favoritism, promoting merit as an employment metric, which she explained as important for protecting whistle-blowers. She believed that it was good public policy to support and train government employees from underserviced backgrounds, and that building a representative work force for the government was similarly correct policy. She firmly believed that this didn't lower the quality of the work force, and believed equal opportunity was the correct and smart choice for a well-functioning government. She had long wanted to be a leader in the U.S. federal government, because "hopefully, one might have the opportunity to influence the social and public policies that shape the life and destinies of many people." She received the Equal Opportunity Day Award from the National Urban League in 1976, and the Distinguished Public Servant Award in 1977 from the Capital Press Club. In 1978, she earned the Outstanding Achievements in Public Personnel from the National Black Personnel Association.

Personal life She married Ted Poston of the prominent Poston family of Hopkinsville, Kentucky.

In 1977 she was photographed at the Women's Conference in Houston, Texas.

Poston died January 7, 2009, from pneumonia, at the Suburban Hospital in Washington, D.C.