Margarita Devlin serves as the Acting Principal Deputy Under Secretary for Benefits, Performing the Delegable Duties of the Under Secretary for Benefits. In this capacity, she leads more than 35,000 Veterans Benefits Administration (VBA) employees who deliver a full array of non-medical benefits to Service members, Veterans, their families, and survivors. VBA provides Disability Compensation, Pension and Fiduciary, Home Loan Guaranty, Life Insurance, Education benefits, Outreach, Transition and Economic Development, and Veteran Readiness and Employment. Through a nationwide network of 56 regional offices, special processing centers, and VBA headquarters, she oversees the administration of these programs for more than six million beneficiaries receiving more than $194 billion in direct benefits each year.
Before assuming her current duties, Ms. Devlin was the Deputy Assistant Secretary for Operations and Management at the U.S. Department of Labor’s Veterans’ Employment and Training Service (VETS). There, she administered programs to advance employment opportunities, protect workplace rights, and provide transition assistance for hundreds of thousands of Veterans, service members, and military spouses annually.
Ms. Devlin’s federal career spans more than 25 years with the Department of Veterans Affairs. She has served as the Veterans Health Administration’s Chief Learning Officer–guiding workforce development for the nation’s largest integrated health-care system–and as VBA’s Principal Deputy Under Secretary for Benefits, where she helped administer disability compensation, pension, fiduciary services, education, home-loan guaranty, life insurance, Veteran Readiness and Employment, and military-to-civilian transition programs. She began her public service as a Rehabilitation Counselor, steadily advancing through leadership positions across VBA, the Veterans Health Administration, and VA Central Office.
A Certified Rehabilitation Counselor, Ms. Devlin holds a Bachelor of Arts in Psychology and a Master of Arts in Rehabilitation Counseling from the University of South Florida.