November 17, 2000 INS Deputy Commissioner Wyrsch to Serve as Acting Commissioner WASHINGTON – The Department of Justice announced that Deputy Commissioner Mary Ann Wyrsch will serve as the agency’s Acting Commissioner upon Commissioner Doris Meissner’s departure today from the Immigration and Naturalization Service (INS). Mary Ann Wyrsch will serve until a new Commissioner is appointed by the President and confirmed by the Senate. Ms. Wyrsch was appointed INS Deputy Commissioner in March 1998 and since that time has been responsible for overseeing the day-to-day management of INS operations and its more than 30,000 employees worldwide. "Ms. Wyrsch is a talented, enthusiastic and highly-experienced manager who already has made outstanding contributions to the agency’s success on a number of fronts," said Commissioner Meissner. "With her exceptional management skills, extensive and varied government experience and proven dedication to the INS mission, I am confident that she will provide outstanding leadership for the agency." Ms. Wyrsch is a career employee who has served in several senior positions during her extensive government service. Before coming to the INS, she was the Chief of Operations for the Employment and Training Administration (ETA) of the U.S. Department of Labor (DOL), where she provided operational direction to the programs of that agency. Previously she served as Director of DOL’s Unemployment Insurance Service and its Office of Budget–one of the government’s largest benefit-granting programs. She began her federal career in the Office of Economic Opportunity, where she worked for five years before joining the Department of Labor. Ms. Wyrsch earned a B.A. from Webster College, an M.A. from Georgetown University, and a M.P.A. from the John F. Kennedy School of Government. She is a native of Kansas City, Missouri, and now makes her home in Washington, D.C. – INS –