President Barack Obama moved quickly after the election to make key White House and Cabinet selections. Some of those stepped into office on Jan. 20, while others must go through Senate committee hearings and then a confirmation vote on the Senate floor.
Check here to find the status of Obama's choices for key posts in the environment and energy portfolios throughout the year.
| WHITE HOUSE |
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Carol Browner
Selected for: Assistant to the President for Energy and Climate Change
Areas of expertise: As EPA administrator under President Bill Clinton, Browner pushed for tougher carbon and air quality standards, overriding Clinton's and industry groups' cost concerns. She also explored the possibility of regulating carbon dioxide under the Clean Air Act, and subsequently attacked the Bush administration for refusing to do so. She has been a particularly strong advocate for a comprehensive cap-and-trade system, calling climate change "the greatest environmental health problem the world has ever seen" as far back as 2002.
Although her new job is somewhat undefined, she is expected to coordinate energy and climate efforts across agencies. She has worked with both EPA nominee Lisa Jackson and Council on Environmental Quality nominee Nancy Sutley in Clinton's EPA.
Work experience: Browner led EPA for all eight years of Clinton's presidency and since then has chaired the National Audubon Society board of directors, been a founding member of the international business consultancy the Albright Group and served on the board of the Alliance for Climate Protection, former Vice President Al Gore's climate change advocacy group. Before working at EPA, Browner headed the Florida Department of Environmental Protection from 1991-93, worked on Clean Air Act amendments while serving as legislative director for Gore when he was a Democratic senator representing Tennessee, and was legal counsel to the Senate Committee on Energy and Natural Resources. In the early 1980s, Browner worked at Citizen Action, an environmental lobbying group founded by Ralph Nader.
Resume: Born Dec. 16, 1955, in Miami, Browner received a bachelor's degree and law degree from the University of Florida. She is married to former Rep. Thomas Joseph Downey (D-N.Y.), a lobbyist for energy companies.
Status: Appointed, no confirmation needed
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Nancy Sutley
Selected for: Chairwoman of the Council on Environmental Quality
Areas of expertise: Sutley is expected to spearhead the president's climate change efforts as his top environmental adviser, in addition to taking charge of other environmental policy decisions. As chairwoman of the CEQ, she will have to juggle her position as the president's top environmental aide with her role as the coordinator of federal agencies with relevant jurisdictions. Moreover, she will be tasked with making sure the agencies comply with the National Environmental Policy Act, giving her another avenue through which she might pursue greenhouse gas emissions cuts. Her history in California politics, especially in the water resources arena, seems likely to inform and influence how she approaches the job. She is also well known for having campaigned as part of the Southern California lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender steering committee during Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton's (D-N.Y.) run for the White House.
Work experience: Most recently, Sutley served as Los Angeles' deputy mayor for energy and environment. She served previously as California Gov. Gray Davis' (D) energy adviser and on the state's Water Resources Control Board. During the Clinton administration, she was an adviser to EPA's Region 9 office in San Francisco and served as an assistant to Carol Browner, Obama's pick for energy and climate "czar."
Resume: Sutley was born April 20, 1962, in New York. She received a master's degree in public policy from the Kennedy School of Government at Harvard University and an undergraduate degree from Cornell University.
Status: Confirmed.
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John Holdren
Selected for: White House Science Adviser
Areas of expertise: Holdren is an international expert on energy and climate and was a top adviser to the Obama campaign. Prior to joining the administration he was a professor at Harvard University's Kennedy School of Government, where he focused on the causes and consequences of global environmental change, analysis of energy technologies and policies, ways to reduce the dangers from nuclear weapons and materials, and the interaction of content and process in science and technology policy.
Work experience: Holdren was the Teresa and John Heinz Professor of Environmental Policy at the Kennedy School, as well as president and director of the independent, nonprofit Woods Hole Research Center. He was at Harvard from 1996 until joining the administration, and was affiliated part-time with the Woods Hole Research Center since 1992.
Resume: Holdren was born in Sewickley, Pa., and grew up in San Mateo, Calif. He holds bachelor's and master's degrees from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and a doctorate from Stanford University. He is a former president of the American Association for the Advancement of Science and a member of the National Academy of Sciences and the National Academy of Engineering. He is the author of about 300 articles and papers, and has co-authored and co-edited roughly 20 books and book-length reports. He lives with his wife of 42 years, biologist Cheryl Holdren. They have two grown children and five grandchildren ages 3 to 17.
Status: Confirmed.
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Sherburne Abbott
Selected for: Associate Director of Environment for the Office of Science and Technology Policy
Areas of expertise: Abbott has extensive experience in sustainable development issues, having served as chief international officer of the American Association for the Advancement of Science. She has worked at the University of Texas and has consulted for private foundations, the World Bank, the Brookings Institution and other nongovernmental organizations.
Work experience: Abbott is a faculty member of the University of Texas, Austin's, College of Liberal Arts and is director of the Center for Science and Practice of Sustainability in the Office of the Executive Vice President and Provost. She also worked at the National Academies' National Research Council for 17 years.
Resume: Abbott earned a bachelor's degree in biology at Goucher College in Baltimore and a master's degree in environmental science and natural resource policy at Yale University. She is a contributing editor of Environment magazine. Abbott is married to James Braidy Steinberg, the director of policy planning at the State Department. They have two daughters.
Status: Confirmed.
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Phil Schiliro
Selected for: Assistant to the President for Legislative Affairs
Areas of expertise: Schiliro will serve as Obama's chief liaison to Congress, continuing in the role he held in the Obama campaign during the general election. He brings to the White House more than two decades of Capitol Hill experience, in particular working under House Energy and Commerce Chairman Henry Waxman (D-Calif.), who is expected to be a key player in moving Obama's domestic agenda. He has developed a slew of contacts on both sides of Capitol Hill, which could be particularly important to a president who has spent only a few years in Congress.
Work experience: Prior to joining the Obama campaign, Schiliro served as Waxman's chief of staff and as policy director for the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee. Prior to that, he worked on the Senate side as policy director for then-Senate Majority Leader Tom Daschle (D-S.D.) -- a close Obama ally and the nominee for the top spot at Health and Human Services -- and as staff director for the Senate Democratic Leadership Committees. Schiliro first started on Capitol Hill in 1981, where he worked on the staff of Rep. Tim Wirth (D-Colo.), and was hired by Waxman in 1982 to work on the Clean Air Act. He worked for the California congressman for the next 25 years, with the exception of the brief Senate stint earlier this decade.
Resume: Schiliro was born Aug. 6, 1956, in Brooklyn and grew up in Long Island. He graduated from Hofstra University and later received a law degree from Lewis and Clark Law School. He twice ran for a congressional seat from New York -- in 1992 and 1994 -- and lost, and reportedly played an integral role in pushing the House Oversight Committee to investigate steroid use in Major League Baseball. He is married to Jody Schiliro, a documentary filmmaker, and has one daughter.
Status: Appointed, no confirmation required.
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Cass Sunstein
Selected for: Administrator of the Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs
Areas of expertise: Sunstein has spent much of his career as a constitutional law scholar and professor and has written extensively on federal regulations and cost-benefit analysis. If confirmed as OIRA administrator, Sunstein would be responsible for the White House review of agencies' draft rules and for assessing their costs and benefits.
Work experience: Sunstein is the Felix Frankfurter Professor of Law at Harvard Law School. He was the Harry Kalven Visiting Professor of Law at the University of Chicago Law School from 1981 until 2008. Prior to that, he worked as an attorney-adviser in the Office of the Legal Counsel of the U.S. Department of Justice. He clerked for Justice Benjamin Kaplan of the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court from 1978 to 1979 and for Justice Thurgood Marshall of the U.S. Supreme Court from 1979 to 1980.
Resume: Born Sept. 21, 1954, in Salem, Mass., Sunstein graduated from Harvard College in 1975 and from Harvard Law School magna cum laude in 1978. He is the author of many articles and a number of books, including "Why Societies Need Dissent," "The Second Bill of Rights" and "Laws of Fear: Beyond the Precautionary Principle," and he co-authored "Nudge: Improving Decisions about Health, Wealth, and Happiness." He is married to Samantha Power, a professor at Harvard University's Kennedy School of Government.
Status: Confirmed.
Photo courtesy of Matthew Hutchins, Harvard Law Record.
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Gary Guzy
Selected for: Deputy director, White House Council on Environmental Quality
Areas of expertise: Guzy has worked on environment issues for more than 25 years. He served as U.S. EPA's general counsel in the Clinton administration and as a top aide then-Administrator Carol Browner, President Obama's assistant on energy and climate change. While at EPA, Guzy argued that greenhouse gas emissions from motor vehicles could be subject to regulation under the Clean Air Act. That was overturned by the Bush administration, only to have the Supreme Court in 2007 order it to conduct another analysis of the issue.
Work experience: Guzy currently works for APX Inc., a firm that provides infrastructure for environment and energy markets, and is an adjunct environmental law professor at the Georgetown University Law Center. He previously was Global Practice Leader for Climate Risk and Sustainability at Marsh, a risk and insurance services company. He also was a partner at the law firm Foley Hoag LLP and was a consultant for the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee and the Chesapeake Bay Foundation. Foley also served as a senior attorney in the Justice Department's environment division.
Resume: Guzy graduated magna cum laude from Cornell University and cum laude from Cornell Law School.
Status: Confirmed.
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Lawrence Summers
Selected for: Director of the National Economic Council
Areas of expertise: Summers is known for his work in studying and managing cross-border economic vulnerabilities. He is credited with having pushed for greater global financial transparency through the International Monetary Fund and debt relief for the developing world during his tenure as Treasury secretary. He was also active in the response to the 1997 Asian financial crisis. Domestically, he took advantage of Clinton-era budget surpluses to pay down part of the national debt for the first time since the 1920s. Summers is believed to have been chosen for his past work on financial crises and for his experience working with international financial institutions in battling downturns. He is also well-known on Wall Street and in economic circles for his experience with managing U.S. debt and extending the life of the Social Security and Medicare trust funds.
Work experience: Secretary of Treasury from 1999 to 2001, Summers also served as the department's deputy secretary and undersecretary for international affairs. Summers is a former president of Harvard University and a former professor of political economy there. He has also served as chief economist at the World Bank.
Resume: Born Nov. 30, 1954, in New Haven, Conn., Summers earned a bachelor's degree from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and a doctorate from Harvard University. He is married to Elisa New and has six children.
Status: Named. Does not require confirmation.
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Christine Romer
Selected for: Chairwoman of the Council of Economic Advisers
Areas of expertise: Romer has written several papers on the Great Depression and is known for her expertise on the impact of government fiscal policies during economic crises. In particular she has studied the effectiveness of tax cuts on stimulating economic growth. Romer has concluded in her study of past U.S. economic cycles that tax cuts can provide a good short-term boost to the economy but almost never restrain government spending patterns, leading to tax increases later down the road. Most believe Romer will recommend no tax increases of any kind as the nation winds its way through the recession.
Work experience: Both she and her husband David Romer served as advisers to the Obama campaign and are members of the National Bureau of Economic Research's Business Cycle Dating Committee, the body that officially calls the beginning and end of recessions. Before joining the faculty at the University of California, Berkeley, in 1988, she was assistant professor of economics and public policy at Princeton University's Woodrow Wilson School of Public Affairs.
Resume: Born Christine Duckworth on Dec. 25, 1958, in Alton, Ill., Romer received a bachelor's degree from the College of William and Mary and a doctorate from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. She is married to fellow UC Berkeley economist David Romer and has three children.
Status: Confirmed.
Photo courtesy Obama-Biden Transition Project
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Paul Volcker
Selected for: Chairman of the Economic Recovery Advisory Board
Areas of expertise: Volcker, the former chairman of the Federal Reserve, is a respected voice on economics who will chair the new body that Obama says will provide him independent, nonpartisan advice on recovery policy. Obama has linked policies to reinvigorate the economy with his energy agenda, calling for creating jobs through projects such as increasing the efficiency of federal buildings and other energy-related initiatives.
Work experience: Volcker chaired the Fed from 1979 to 1987 and before that was president of the Federal Reserve Bank of New York. Other positions in a federal career that spanned five presidential administrations included a stint at the Treasury Department in the early 1960s as director of the Office of Financial Analysis and serving as undersecretary of the Treasury for monetary affairs from 1969 to 1974. Private sector roles included stints in the 1950s and 1960s at Chase Manhattan as an economist and later an executive and as a professor of economic policy at Princeton University. He headed the independent U.N. panel that investigated corruption and abuses in the U.N. oil-for-food program for Iraq several years ago.
Resume: Born Sept. 5, 1927, in Cape May, N.J., Volcker earned a bachelor's degree from Princeton University in 1949 and a master's degree in political economy and government from Harvard University in 1951.
Status: Appointed, no confirmation required.
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Adolfo Carrion
Selected for: Director of Urban Affairs
Areas of expertise: At the helm of the newly created White House Urban Affairs Office, Carrion will be charged with developing the Obama administration's policy strategy for U.S. metropolitan areas and guiding federal urban spending -- tasks in which his experience with New York City planning should serve him well.
Work experience: During two terms as Bronx Borough president, Carrion oversaw the creation of 40,000 new housing units, 50 new schools, $7 billion in capital and infrastructure spending and more than $400 million to build and renovate parks. Prior to that, Carrion served on New York's City Council, worked as an urban planner at the New York City Department of City Planning and taught in New York City's public schools. He also served a term as president of the National Association of Latino Elected and Appointed Officials.
Resume: Born March 6, 1961 in Manhattan, Carrion received a bachelor's degree in world religions and philosophy from King's College and a master's degree in urban planning from Hunter College in 1990. He is married to Linda Baldwin; they have three daughters and one son.
Status: Appointed, no confirmation required.
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Derek Douglas
Selected for: Special Assistant to the President for Urban Affairs
Areas of expertise: Douglas has served as Washington counsel to New York Gov. David Paterson (D) and as director of the governor's Washington, D.C., office since 2007, where he oversaw federal policy development and advocacy on domestic, economic and urban policy issues for New York state.
Work experience: Prior to joining the governor's staff in 2007, Douglas was the associate director of economic policy at the Center for American Progress. He also worked as counsel at O'Melveny & Myers LLP and as assistant counsel at the NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund, Inc.
Resume: Douglas received a bachelor's degree in economics from the University of Michigan and a law degree from Yale Law School.
Status: Appointed, no confirmation required.
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Gregory Craig
Selected for: White House Counsel
Areas of expertise: Craig brings an impressive resume to the Obama White House as a trial lawyer. He was chief lawyer on the team that successfully defended President Bill Clinton against impeachment by the GOP-led Congress. Craig also won a "not guilty by reason of insanity" verdict in defending John Hinckley, who shot President Ronald Reagan in 1981. Other notable clients include William Kennedy Smith, the nephew of Sen. Edward Kennedy (D-Mass.) who was acquitted of a criminal rape charge in 1991, and Juan Miguel Gonzalez, the father of Elian Gonzalez, the 6-year-old Cuban boy whose custody and immigration status drew international attention after his mother drowned while trying to reach South Florida.
Work experience: A foreign policy adviser to President Barack Obama during the presidential campaign, Craig played the role of Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) in mock debates as Obama prepared for the first televised debate. In the Clinton White House, Craig served as assistant to the president and special counsel and was named in 1997 as a senior adviser to Secretary of State Madeleine Albright. He also was a special coordinator on China's treatment of Tibetan cultural and religious traditions; senior adviser on defense, foreign policy and national security issues to Sen. Kennedy from 1984 to 1988; and a partner at Williams & Connolly LLP.
Resume: Born March 4, 1945, in Norfolk, Va., Craig graduated from Harvard College, Cambridge University and Yale Law School. He is married to Margaret Noyes, a graphic designer, and has five children.
Status: Appointed, no confirmation required.
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Peter Orszag
Selected for: Director of the Office of Management and Budget
Areas of expertise: Orszag put significant emphasis on climate change issues during a two-year stint as director of the Congressional Budget Office. He likened global warming to health care, describing it as "one of those gradual, long-term problems" that the federal government has difficulty responding to. At OMB, Orszag would have jurisdiction over Obama's annual environment and energy spending plans, as well as a raft of government regulations. He would face challenges in trying to implement Obama's major energy initiatives amid record budget deficits and a gloomy economic outlook.
Work experience: Orszag led CBO in 2007 and 2008, and was a senior economic adviser during the Clinton administration. Between jobs in government, Orszag formed the Sebago Associates consulting group and later became director of the Hamilton Project while working as a senior fellow at the Brookings Institution.
Resume: Born Dec. 16, 1968, in Boston, Orszag graduated summa cum laude from Princeton University and obtained master's and doctoral degrees from the London School of Economics. He is the co-author and co-editor of several books, including "Protecting the Homeland 2006/7," and was elected in 2007 to the Institute of Medicine of the National Academies. Orszag is divorced and has two young children, Leila and Joshua.
Status: Confirmed.
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Rahm Emanuel
Selected for: White House Chief of Staff
Areas of expertise: Emanuel is a political heavy-hitter with expert knowledge of Congress. He is well-known for his aggressive manner and take-no-prisoners approach to accomplishing his political goals, characteristics he put into play in his role as top adviser to President Bill Clinton and as a leader in Congress and in the Democratic Party. He is a close friend of Obama, a fellow Chicagoan.
Work experience: Emanuel was a senior adviser to Clinton during his presidency and was instrumental in shaping domestic policy during that time, including legislation dealing with crime, health care, welfare and trade. He has served as a U.S. House representative for the 5th District of Illinois since 2002, and in 2007 was elected Democratic Caucus chairman, the fourth-highest party leadership position.
Resume: Born Nov. 29, 1959, in Chicago, Emanuel graduated with a liberal arts degree from Sarah Lawrence College in 1981 and earned a master's degree in speech and communication from Northwestern University in 1985. He lives in Chicago with his wife and three children.
Status: Appointed, no confirmation required.
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Dennis Blair
Selected for: Director of National Intelligence
Areas of expertise: Blair is a former commander in chief of the Pacific Command, specializing in fighting terrorism in Asia. After a 34-year military career, he joined the Energy Security Leadership Council, a group of business and military leaders focused on reducing dependence on oil and increasing energy security. The group released a policy paper in September emphasizing electric vehicles, domestic oil and natural gas drilling, and alternative energy sources.
Work experience: In the Navy, Blair commanded the largest combatant force, the U.S. Pacific Command. He also served on guided missile destroyers in the Atlantic and Pacific fleets. He served as Joint Staff Director and Associate Director of Central Intelligence for Military Support at the CIA and was a member of the National Security Council. After his military career, he served as president of the Institute for Defense Analyses from 2003 to 2006.
Resume: Born Feb. 4, 1947, in Kittery, Maine, Blair graduated from the U.S. Naval Academy and earned a master's degree in history and languages from Oxford University as a Rhodes Scholar. He co-wrote two Council on Foreign Relations reports, on U.S.-China relations and on the Indonesian province of Papua. Jones is married and has two grown children.
Status: Nominated, needs to be confirmed.
Photo courtesy of Council on Foreign Relations.
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Robert Gibbs
Selected for: White House Press Secretary
Areas of expertise: Gibbs is well-versed in policy issues and has worked with President Barack Obama since 2004, serving as one of his closest advisers during the presidential campaign.
Work experience: Gibbs worked as communications director for former Sen. Fritz Hollings (D-S.C.) early in his career and worked on Sen. Debbie Stabenow's (D-Mich.) 2000 campaign. He was press secretary for the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee and spokesman for Sen. John Kerry (D-Mass.) during the early stages of his 2004 presidential campaign. Gibbs joined Obama in April 2004 as communications director for his Senate race, later becoming Obama's Senate communications director. He served in that role during Obama's presidential campaign before being promoted to senior strategist during the general election.
Resume: Born March 29, 1971, in Auburn, Ala., Gibbs graduated from North Carolina State University and lives in Alexandria, Va., with his wife, Mary Catherine Gibbs, and their 5-year-old son Ethan.
Status: Appointed, no confirmation required.
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Updated: Sept. 10, 2009.
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| DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE |
Tom Vilsack
Selected for: Secretary of Agriculture
Areas of expertise: As governor of Iowa, Vilsack was in the vanguard of ethanol support and has been an advocate for wind, solar power and biofuels, as well as cap-and-trade. Obama said Vilsack would be a key part of his energy team, especially with oversight of "advanced biofuels" development on farmland. As a lawyer, Vilsack has represented clients in renewable energy and agribusiness. As co-chairman of a Council on Foreign Relations task force on climate change, Vilsack said last summer that the next president should make climate a "signature issue."
Work experience: Vilsack was the first Democratic governor of Iowa in 32 years when he was elected in 1998. He was governor until 2006, when he declined to run for re-election because of a previous pledge to serve only two terms. He is currently a lawyer in Des Moines at the Dorsey & Whitney firm and an instructor at Drake University Law School. He served as co-chairman of a Council on Foreign Relations task force on climate change. Vilsack first entered politics in 1986 when he became mayor of Mount Pleasant, Iowa.
Resume: Vilsack was born Dec. 13, 1950, in Pittsburgh, Pa. Adopted as an infant, he moved to Iowa in 1975 after he married his college sweetheart Christie, an Iowa native. He and his wife have two children, Jess, 24, and Doug, 21. Vilsack has a bachelor's degree from Hamilton College in New York and a law degree from Albany Law School.
Status: Confirmed.
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Kathleen Merrigan
Selected for: Deputy Secretary of Agriculture
Areas of expertise: Merrigan is a sustainable food and farming expert who has taken a particular interest in organic farming. As second-in-command to Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack, she will likely play an important role in leading policy at the department and working with lawmakers on Capitol Hill. She could play a key role in bringing local foods into the debate of the Child Nutrition Act this year. In her confirmation hearing, Merrigan said it is her "goal and passion" to make sure the bill improves access to fresh goods, especially fruits and vegetables.
Work experience: Merrigan served as a professor at Tufts University in Boston. She worked previously as the administrator for the Agriculture Marketing Service from 1999 to 2001 and was an aide to the Senate Agriculture Committee from 1987 to 1992 under then-Chairman Patrick Leahy (D-Vt.). As administrator for the Agriculture Marketing Service, Merrigan was key in advancing a proposed rule for the national organic program and worked to integrate organic agriculture into existing USDA programs. At Tufts, she led the agriculture food and environment program and has focused research on sustainable agriculture projects. One of her projects works to assist new farmers with limited resources interested in small-scale commercial agriculture.
Resume: Merrigan earned her Ph.D. from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in environmental planning and policy, a Master of Public Affairs from the University of Texas and a B.A. from Williams College. She is married and has two children, Fiona and Seamus.
Status: Confirmed.
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Harris Sherman
Selected for: Undersecretary for Natural Resources and Environment
Areas of expertise: Sherman formerly served as executive director for the Colorado Department of Natural Resources. Under his guidance, Colorado worked on its own roadless rule to govern more than 4 million acres of national forest, including some of the nation's best known backcountry recreation areas. Sherman also is a longtime associate of Interior Secretary Ken Salazar, who also was once executive director of the Colorado Department of Natural Resources.
Work experience: Sherman has been director of compact negotiations for the Colorado Interbasin Compact Commission, chairman of the Colorado Oil and Gas Conservation Commission, and co-chairman of the Governor's Forest Health Advisory Council. He has previously served as chairman of the Colorado Water Quality Control Commission, the Colorado Mined Land Reclamation Board, the Denver Regional Air Quality Council and as a commissioner of both Mines and the Denver Water Board. Sherman also served as Colorado DNR director once before, under Gov. Richard Lamm (D). Between his two stints as DNR director, he served as managing and senior partner of Arnold & Porter LLP's Denver office.
Resume: Sherman graduated from Colorado College and earned his law degree from Columbia University Law School.
Status: Confirmed.
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Jay Jensen
Selected for: Deputy Undersecretary for Natural Resources and Environment
Areas of expertise: As director of USDA's Forest Service and the Natural Resources Conservation Service, Jensen will work to balance the demands of rural communities and industry groups whose revenue depends on resource conservation and environmental groups dedicated to forest conservation. His appointment was applauded by groups ranging from the National Resource Defense Council to American Forest Resource Council, a timber coalition.
Work experience: Before his appointment, Jensen worked on the Western Governors' Association's biomass energy program. He also served executive director of the Council of Western State Foresters/Western Forestry Leadership Coalition, a partnership between the state and federal governments. He served as a lead forestry adviser for the House Agriculture Committee during the 2002 farm bill.
Resume: Jensen, a southern California native, holds a bachelor's degree from the University of California at Los Angeles and a master's in forestry from Colorado State University. Jensen in married with a daughter.
Status: Appointed. No confirmation needed.
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Dave White
Selected for: Chief of Natural Resources Conservation Service, U.S. Department of Agriculture
Areas of expertise: White could play a key role in on-the-ground implementation of Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack's goal for agriculture to take a more proactive role in mitigating climate change. Vilsack has said he wants the agency and farmers to take the lead on the issue. He will also need to address internal issues in the NRCS, whose accounting practices were found to be severely deficient in an audit last fall from the USDA inspector general.
Work experience: White has worked for NRCS for more than 30 years and has been serving as acting chief of NRCS since Arlen Lancaster stepped down at the end of the Bush administration. While in the service, he helped the Senate Agriculture Committee craft the Conservation Title for both the 2002 and 2008 farm bills. During the same period, he provided technical expertise for USDA Montana, where he served as state conservationist from 2002 to 2008. He also served on the White House Task Force for Livable Communities during the Clinton administration.
Resume: White, 56, is a Missouri native and graduated from the University of Missouri.
Status: Appointed, no confirmation needed.
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Tom Tidwell
Selected for: Chief of the Forest Service
Areas of expertise: Tidwell serves as regional forester for the Forest Service's Northern Region. He has worked in eight different national forests in a variety of positions. As a legislative affairs staffer for the agency, he worked on several hot-button issues including the National Fire Plan, the agency's planning rule, the roadless rule and the Secure Rural Schools Act.
Work experience: Tidwell began his 30-plus-year Forest Service career as a firefighter on the Boise National Forest. He has served as deputy regional forester for the Pacific Southwest Region, forest supervisor on the Wasatch-Cache National Forest in Utah, district ranger for the Uinta National Forest and acting forest supervisor on the Fishlake National Forest in Utah and the Sawtooth National Forest in Idaho.
Resume: Tidwell grew up in Boise, Idaho and attended classes at both Washington State University and the University of Idaho. He and his wife, Kim, have one daughter. He currently lives in Missoula, Mont.
Status: Appointed.
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Jonathan Adelstein
Selected for: Administrator of the Rural Utilities Service
Areas of expertise: Adelstein has a long history in information technology work. For more than two decades he has advised and coordinated federal policy on communications, including advising key players in the Senate on broadband development.
Work experience: Adelstein in 2002 was elected as a commissioner of the Federal Communications Commission, winning reelection in 2004. Prior to that he served for 15 years as an advisor to various senators, with the final seven years on the staff of then-Majority Leader Tom Daschle (D-S.D.), where he worked on telecommunications, housing and transportation. Before serving in the Senate, he taught history at Harvard University.
Resume: Adelstein has bachelor's and master's degrees from Stanford University. He was born and raised in Rapid City, S.D. and is married with two children.
Status: Confirmed.
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Dallas Tonsager
Selected for: Under Secretary for Rural Development
Areas of expertise: A longtime advocate for farmers, Tonsager has worked on rural development issues for South Dakota and on prominent national agriculture boards. He was one of three board members for the Farm Credit Administration, an organization that handles about one-third of agricultural credit in the United States. During Obama's presidential campaign, Tonsager helped develop Obama's agricultural policy and served as co-chair for Agriculture and Rural Americans for Obama. He will take the helm of an agency that oversees billions of dollars each year in grants and loans for rural energy development, as well as water, sewer, electric and phone service in rural areas.
Work experience: Tonsager currently serves as a board member of the Farm Credit Administration and is on the board of the Farm Credit System Insurance Corporation, a national board that oversee farm banking and payments. Before that he was executive director of the South Dakota Value-Added Agriculture Development Center in Huron, where he coordinated initiatives for producers. In 1993 he was appointed by President Clinton to serve as South Dakota's rural development director, a position that he held through 2001.
Resume: A South Dakota native, Tonsager received a bachelor's in agriculture from South Dakota Sate University in 1976. USDA gave him one of two awards for outstanding state directors in 1999, and the South Dakota Corn Growers Association gave him a "Most Valuable Player in Agriculture Award." He owns Plainview Farm in Oldham, S.D., in partnership with his brother. The farm raises corn, soybeans, wheat and hay. He and his wife, Sharon, have two sons, Keith and Joshua.
Status: Confirmed.
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Krysta Harden
Selected for: Assistant Secretary for Congressional Relations
Areas of expertise: Harden, who has been the CEO of the National Association of Conservation Districts for the past five years, is well known on Capitol Hill for her advocacy for conservation programs. The association -- which represents 3,000 local conservation districts -- offered her a unique perspective on how federal farm programs play out on the local level. In her new post, Harden would oversee USDA's liaison with Congress and promote the department's legislative agenda and budget proposals.
Work experience: Harden has led the conservation association since 2004. Prior to that, she worked as a consultant at Gordley Associates, where she focused on conservation, environmental and energy issues. At Gordley she worked with major commodity organizations, including the American Soybean Association. She previously worked on Capitol Hill for 12 years.
Resume: A native of Camilla, Ga., Harden holds a bachelor's degree in journalism from the University of Georgia. Her family owns a farm in Camilla.
Status: Confirmed.
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Updated: Sept. 11, 2009.
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| DEPARTMENT OF ENERGY |
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Steven Chu
Selected for: Secretary of Energy
Areas of expertise: Chu is a Nobel Prize-winning physicist and an ardent advocate for scientific research whose record complements President Barack Obama's pledges to boost federal research, deploy low-carbon energy technologies and achieve cuts in global warming pollution. As director of Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, Chu has extensive expertise in renewable energy, energy efficiency and climate change, and he has been outspoken about the risks posed by global warming, including "resource wars" over water and arable land. As chief of LBNL, Chu has significant management experience, but if confirmed he would face the twin challenges of running a sprawling agency while negotiating his role within the high-powered scrum of Obama energy and climate appointees.
Work experience: Chu has directed LBNL since 2004. He has made energy research and global warming a priority at the lab and launched a research center, with major funding from energy company BP, on advanced methods to produce biofuels from non-food biomass. Before joining the lab Chu was a professor of physics at Stanford University, where he joined the faculty in 1987. Before that he worked at Bell Labs, where his work on cooling and trapping atoms with laser light won him a share of the Nobel Prize in physics.
Resume: Born Feb. 28, 1948, in St. Louis, Chu grew up in Garden City, N.Y. He graduated from the University of Rochester in 1970 with degrees in mathematics and physics and earned a Ph.D. in physics from the University of California at Berkeley in 1976. In 1997 he shared the Nobel Prize in physics for his work at Bell Labs. Chu co-chaired an InterAcademy Council group that wrote "Lighting the Way: Toward a Sustainable Energy Future," and also helped author the National Academies' widely cited 2005 report, "Rising Above The Gathering Storm: Energizing and Employing America for a Brighter Economic Future." Married to Jean Chu, an Oxford-trained physicist, Chu has two grown sons, Geoffrey and Michael, from a previous marriage.
Status: Confirmed.
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Daniel Poneman
Selected for: Deputy Secretary of Energy
Area of expertise: Longtime Washington insider Poneman would bring extensive experience in defense policy and arms control to the department in charge of managing the nation's nuclear stockpile. His areas of expertise include U.S. national security, nonproliferation and export controls, weapons of mass destruction, nuclear energy and regional security issues. Poneman, along with co-authors Joel Wit and Robert Gallucci, wrote Going Critical: The First North Korean Nuclear Crisis, which won the 2005 Douglas Dillon Award for Distinguished Writing on American Diplomacy. Poneman is well-versed in business and foreign policy in Russia, Iran, South Korea and Central Asia. He also is a member of the DOE Nuclear Energy Advisory Committee.
Work experience: Since 2001, Poneman has been a principal at the international business advisory firm The Scowcroft Group, based in Washington, D.C. He is also an adjunct senior fellow of the Council on Foreign Relations, where he has published numerous articles on nuclear arms, science and national security. Before coming to the council, Poneman was a partner in the law firm Hogan & Hartson, where he assisted clients in a range of regulatory matters dealing with export controls and sanctions. Poneman began work with the National Security Council in 1990 as director of defense policy and arms control, before going on to serve as special assistant to the president and senior director for nonproliferation and export controls.
Resume: Poneman received bachelor's and law degrees from Harvard University, and a master of letters in politics from Oxford University.
Status: Confirmed.
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Kristina Johnson
Selected for: Undersecretary for Energy
Areas of expertise: Johnson, an electrical engineer and Johns Hopkins University administrator, was tapped to oversee DOE's Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy and the Office of Fossil Energy, which monitors efforts to develop carbon capture and sequestration programs. In that role she would be responsible for leading the administration's initiatives to promote energy efficiency, "clean cars," and wind, solar and geothermal power. The Office of Electricity Delivery and Energy Reliability would also fall under her purview, as well as environmental cleanup of Cold War-era nuclear weapons materials production.
Work experience: Johnson is a career academic and won the John Fritz Medal, a top engineering award, last year. She served on the climate change task force at Johns Hopkins University, where she is provost and senior vice president for academic affairs. She worked on a variety of issues including energy and the environment while dean of Duke University's Pratt School of Engineering from 1999 to 2007. She was on the faculty of the University of Colorado, Boulder, from the mid-1980s to the late 1990s.
Resume: Johnson earned both a bachelor's and master's degree in electrical engineering from Stanford University in 1981, and her doctorate there in 1984.
Status: Confirmed.
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Steven Koonin
Selected for: Undersecretary for Science
Areas of expertise: As BP PLC's chief scientist, Steven Koonin was responsible for guiding the company's long-range technology strategy, particularly on alternative and renewable energy sources. He has served on the advisory boards of the National Science Foundation, Department of Defense, Department of Energy and various national laboratories, and has research interests including theoretical and computational physics and global environmental science.
Work experience: Koonin has worked for BP since 2004, when he joined the company as the chief scientist. For 10 years before that he was a professor at the California Institute of Technology, his alma mater, whose faculty he joined shortly after finishing his doctorate in 1975. From 1995 until 2004 he also served as the school's provost.
Resume: Koonin was born in Brooklyn, N.Y. and attended Caltech, graduating with a bachelor's degree in physics in 1972. He earned his doctorate in theoretical physics in 1975 from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and has written several books on computational physics. He and his wife, Laurie, live in London.
Status: Confirmed.
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William Brinkman
Selected for: Director of the Office of Science
Areas of expertise: Brinkman is an expert in the physical sciences, particularly physics, with a strong research background. This expertise could serve him well as director of the science office, which provides more than 40 percent of funding for basic research in the physical sciences in the United States, covering high-energy physics, nuclear physics and fusion energy sciences.
Work experience: Brinkman currently is senior research physicist in the Physics Department at Princeton University. Like Energy Secretary Steven Chu, Brinkman is a product of DOE's national labs, having served as the physical sciences research vice president and vice president of research at Sandia National Laboratories in Albuquerque, N.M. He also was vice president of research at Bell Laboratories at Lucent Technologies, where he directed the company's technology research.
Resume: Brinkman received his bachelor's degree and Ph.D. in physics from the University of Missouri in 1960 and 1965, respectively. He subsequently spent a year as a National Science Foundation Postdoctoral Fellow at Oxford University.
Status: Confirmed.
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Steve Isakowitz
Selected for: Chief Financial Officer
Areas of expertise: Isakowitz has served as the Energy Department's chief financial officer since June 2007, overseeing the department's financial management, budget formulation and execution, program analysis and evaluation, corporate information systems, cost analysis and loan guarantee program. He previously held a variety of positions in policy, finance, program management and engineering.
Work experience: Isakowitz held several positions in the federal government. He helped oversee science and technology programs at the Office of Management and Budget, was deputy chief financial officer and comptroller at the National Aeronautics and Space Administration, and a senior manager with the Science & Technology Directorate at the Central Intelligence Agency. Isakowitz was also a corporate manager and senior engineer at Lockheed Martin Corp. and a senior consultant at Booz Allen Hamilton.
Resume: Isakowitz is a native of Cleveland, Ohio. He earned a bachelor's and master's degree in aerospace engineering from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. He lives in Virginia with his wife, Monica, and four children.
Status: Confirmed.
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Inés Triay
Selected for: Assistant Secretary for Environmental Management
Areas of expertise: Triay has been working in DOE's Environmental Management program for 24 years, including field work and as a top official in Washington. President Obama and Energy Secretary Steven Chu will need an experienced, steady hand as the Environmental Management program has been plagued with cost overruns and delays, and Chu figures to be occupied with basic science and renewable energy. The Cold War cleanup program is also under close scrutiny, as it received $6 billion from the economic stimulus package on top of its annual appropriations of around $5 billion.
Work experience: Triay has been Environmental Management's acting assistant secretary since November 2008 and was the principal deputy assistant secretary for a year before that. Before that, she was the program's chief operations officer, playing a key role in starting remote-handled transuranic waste disposal at the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant in New Mexico. She also managed the field office at Carlsbad, N.M., and spent 14 years at the Los Alamos National Laboratory.
Resume: Triay was born in Cuba and moved to Puerto Rico when she was three years old. She earned her bachelor's degree in chemistry and her doctorate in physical chemistry from the University of Miami. Triay conducted post-doctoral studies at Los Alamos, N.M., and has received numerous awards for her work, including the Dixy Lee Ray Award from the American Society of Mechanical Engineers and the Wendell Weart Waste Management Lifetime Achievement Award.
Status: Confirmed.
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David Sandalow
Selected for: Assistant Secretary for Policy and International Affairs
Areas of expertise: As Energy & Environment Scholar and senior fellow in the Foreign Policy Studies Program at the Brookings Institution, Sandalow is well-versed in international energy issues. He has written widely on energy and environmental policy and is the author of the 2008 book Freedom From Oil.
Work experience: In addition to his roles at the Brookings Institution, Sandalow is a senior advisor to Good Energies and has served as chairman of the Energy & Climate Working Group of the Clinton Global Initiative. His previous jobs include assistant secretary of State for oceans, environment and science, senior director for environmental affairs at the National Security Council, associate director for the global environment at the White House Council on Environmental Quality and executive vice president of the World Wildlife Fund-US.
Resume: Sandalow earned his bachelor's degree in philosophy from Yale College and holds a law degree from the University of Michigan.
Status: Confirmed.
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Scott Blake Harris
Selected for: General Counsel
Areas of expertise: As a private-sector attorney, Scott Blake Harris has specialized in communications, Internet, trade, intellectual property and export control issues. Harris has no substantive experience in energy law, but has worked as a government lawyer for both the Commerce Department and the Federal Communications Commission.
Work experience: Harris helped found telecommunications firm Harris, Wiltshire & Grannis in 1998, where he is now managing partner. Prior to that he was a partner and chair of the communications practice group at Gibson, Dunn & Crutcher. From 1994 to 1996 Harris served as the first chief of the international bureau at FCC, before which he was briefly chief counsel for the export administration at the Commerce Department. Before joining Commerce Harris was a partner at Williams & Connolly.
Resume: Harris graduated from Brown University in 1973 and received his law degree from Harvard University in 1976. He and his wife, Barbara, have two children, Colin and Margot.
Status: Confirmed.
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Jacques Beaudry-Losique
Selected for: Deputy Assistant Secretary for Renewable Energy
Areas of expertise: As manager of the Energy Department's $200 million Office of Biomass Program, Beaudry-Losique helped build the largest biofuels deployment program in the world. Under his leadership, the office invested $272 million in four major cellulosic ethanol projects and $240 million in a group of cellulosic biofuels demonstration projects. He also led efforts to help the industry address environmental sustainability issues and supply-chain bottlenecks like the ethanol blend wall.
Work experience: Before joining DOE in 2005, Beaudry-Losique worked as the business development leader for General Electric Power Systems' investment activities. He has also worked for Aspen Technologies, an engineering and supply-chain software company, and as a management consultant with McKinsey and Co. At DOE, Beaudry-Losique has served as manager of the Industrial Technologies Program and as program manager for the biomass program.
Resume: Beaudry-Losique has a bachelor's degree in chemical engineering from the University of Montreal and a master's in industrial engineering and engineering management from Stanford University. He also holds a master's degree in management from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.
Status: Selected.
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Cathy Zoi
Selected for: assistant secretary for energy efficiency and renewable energy, Department of Energy
Areas of expertise: Cathy Zoi has spent two decades in the energy and environmental sector and is renowned for her work in U.S. EPA's Energy Star program and in smart meter research. In Australia, she helped implement the first nationwide green power program in 1997 and the world's largest solar-powered suburb in 1998. Most recently, she has worked with former Vice President Al Gore at his Alliance for Climate Protection, leading the expansion of the alliance's grassroots efforts, online mobilization and paid media.
Work experience: Zoi worked as an energy analyst for Pacific Gas and Electric Co. and ICF Inc. before working in government service in both the United States and Australia. She joined U.S. EPA in 1989, where she helped pioneer the Energy Star program. She later served as chief of staff in the White House Office of Environmental Policy during the Clinton administration. In 1995, she moved to Australia, where she served as the assistant director general of New South Wales' EPA for eight years. In 2003, she moved to the private sector, joining the Bayard Group, an energy measurement technology firm. There she worked as the group executive director in the Sydney office, studying the use of smart meters in markets in North America, Europe, India, China, Brazil and Australia. In 2007, she came back to the United States to join Al Gore's Alliance for Climate Protection as its founding CEO. She also sits on the board of the California Clean Energy Fund, which was founded in 2004 to invest $30 million in emerging clean energy technology companies.
Resume: Zoi graduated from Duke University in 1983 with a bachelor's degree in geology and from Dartmouth with a multidisciplinary engineering master's degree in 1985. She and her husband, Robin Roy, have two children.
Status: Confirmed.
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Warren "Pete" Miller
Selected for: assistant secretary for nuclear energy, Department of Energy
Areas of expertise: Miller has a strong research and policy background in nuclear energy. His present status at the Nuclear Security Science and Policy Institute puts him in the nation's largest nuclear engineering program. If confirmed, Miller will oversee Department of Energy research and development of advanced reactors and fuel reprocessing technologies.
Work experience: Miller is currently a research professor of nuclear engineering at Texas A&M University as well as associate director of the school's Nuclear Security Science and Policy Institute. For many years prior to that post, Miller held both research and administrative roles in Los Alamos National Laboratory, retiring in 2004. In 1996, he was elected to membership in the National Academy of Engineering and in 1982, he was elected as Fellow of the American Nuclear Society.
Resume: Miller earned a bachelor's degree in engineering science from the U.S. Military Academy at West Point in 1964 and both his master's and doctorate in engineering sciences from Northwestern University in 1970 and 1973. He is a Vietnam War veteran. Originally from Chicago, he now resides in Albuquerque, N.M.
Status: Confirmed.
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James Markowsky
Selected for: Assistant Secretary for Fossil Energy, Department of Energy
Areas of expertise: For nearly three decades, Markowsky worked for American Electric Power Co. Inc, holding a number of positions including executive vice president of engineering and construction, senior vice president and chief engineer and finally executive vice president of power generation. His management of AEP's extensive coal and hydropower generating facilities will help in his role to oversee programs to speed the deployment of carbon capture and sequestration technologies.
Work experience: Markowsky is currently a consultant in the energy and electric power generation area. He sits on the National Research Council's Committee on American's Energy Future and also chairs a National Academy of Engineering committee on energy and electric systems. From 2004-2005, he served as president of Research and Development Solution, LLC, which provided planning and analysis services to the Department of Energy's National Technology Laboratory. In 2002, Markowsky received the Washington Coal's Club Lifetime Achievement Award.
Resume: Markowsky earned his bachelor's in mechanical engineering from the Pratt Institute in 1967, his master's and doctorate in industrial management from Cornell University in 1971 and his other master's in industrial management from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in 1981.
Status: Confirmed.
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Richard Newell
Selected for: Administrator of the Energy Information Administration
Areas of expertise: Richard Newell is a professor of energy and environmental economics at Duke University's Nicholas School of the Environment. His years of experience in academia leave him well-suited to lead the policy-neutral Energy Information Administration, the independent statistical wing of the Department of Energy. Newell has published numerous articles on the role of energy markets and policies for the environment and related technologies. At EIA, he will be in charge of providing nonpartisan energy data, forecasts and analyses for policy makers, Wall Street investors and the general public, a service that will be crucial to understanding the economic implications to climate change legislation. Newell's economic credentials earned him the position of Senior Economist for energy and environment on the President's Council of Economic Advisers from 2005 to 2006.
Work experience: As Duke's inaugural Gendell Associate Professor of Energy and Environmental Economics, Newell was hired to support an expanded curriculum in energy studies that includes a master's degree in environmental management. Newell also currently serves as a research associate at the National Bureau of Economic Research, a private, nonprofit research organization to promote greater understanding of how the economy works. For 12 years, Newell was a fellow at Resources for the Future, a Washington think tank. Newell also serves on the National Academy of Sciences Committee on Energy R&D and the editorial board of Energy Economics.
Resume: Newell received a bachelor's degrees in materials engineering and philosophy from Rutgers University, an M.P.A. from Princeton University's Woodrow Wilson School, and a Ph.D. in Public Policy from Harvard University.
Status: Confirmed.
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Arun Majumdar
Selected for: Director, Advanced Research Projects Agency-Energy, Department of Energy
Areas of expertise: Majumdar's fields of interest include energy efficiency technology and using nanotechnology to harness energy lost as heat during electricity production, according to the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, where he is associate laboratory director for energy and environmental sciences.
Work experience: Majumdar took over the lab's Environmental Energy Technologies Division in 2007 and has been associate lab director for energy and environmental sciences since February. Majumdar is also an engineering and materials science professor at the University of California, Berkeley. He has been on the University of California faculty since 1997.
Resume: Majumdar earned a degree in mechanical engineering from the Indian Institute of Technology, Bombay, in 1985, and a doctorate in mechanical engineering from the University of California, Berkeley, in 1989. His affiliations include membership in the National Academy of Engineering. Majumdar has also served on advisory boards for the National Science Foundation and DOE's Basic Energy Sciences division.
Status: Confirmed.
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Patricia Hoffman
Selected for: Assistant Secretary for Electricity Delivery and Energy Reliability, Department of Energy
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Larry Persily
Selected for: Federal Coordinator of Alaska Natural Gas Transportation Projects, Department of Energy
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Updated: Jan. 4, 2010.
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| U.S. EPA |
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Lisa Jackson
Selected for: U.S. EPA Administrator
Areas of expertise: With experience both within U.S. EPA and as New Jersey's top environmental regulator, Jackson is viewed by many in the environmental community as a strong pick to reinvigorate an agency whose morale has suffered during the Bush administration. Her selection has been criticized, however, by some New Jersey advocates who charge that her brownfield and Superfund cleanup efforts have been lackluster, as well as by industry groups wary of a tougher regulatory approach.
Jackson, an engineer, was the first African-American woman to run New Jersey's environment agency. She has been a strong advocate for aggressive action on climate change and guided the state's entry into the Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative (RGGI), the nation's first mandatory cap-and-trade program for greenhouse gases. She is also well-versed in land-use management issues.
Work experience: Tapped to lead EPA while serving on Obama's transition team, Jackson also became chief of staff to New Jersey Gov. Jon Corzine (D) in late 2008. Before that, she was administrator of the New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection for two and a half years. She worked at U.S. EPA from 1987 to 2002, both in its headquarters and at its New York City regional offices, and has headed enforcement programs at EPA and in New Jersey.
Resume: Born Feb. 8, 1962, Jackson grew up in the 9th Ward in New Orleans. She graduated summa cum laude from Tulane University's School of Chemical Engineering and received a master's degree in chemical engineering from Princeton University. She is married to Kenny Jackson and has two sons.
Status: Confirmed.
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Bob Perciasepe
Selected for: Deputy U.S. EPA Administrator
Areas of expertise: Perciasepe has twice been an assistant administrator for U.S. EPA, first serving as Assistant Administrator for Water and then for Air and Radiation, both during the Clinton administration. Under these titles he was responsible for managing all aspects of air and water pollution control as well as state drinking-water-protection programs for the U.S.
Work experience: Perciasepe is currently the chief operating officer for the National Audubon Society and is responsible for coordinating programs and support services throughout Audubon's national and state offices. He previously served as Audubon's senior vice president for public policy and as head of the organization's Washington, D.C., office. From 1990 to 1993 he served as Maryland's environmental secretary and was Baltimore's assistant planning director before that.
Resume: Perciasepe earned a bachelor's degree in natural resources from Cornell University in 1974 and a master's degree in planning and public administration from Maxwell School of Syracuse University in 1976. He lives in Brooklyn, N.Y.
Status: Confirmed.
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Barbara Bennett
Selected for: Chief Financial Officer, U.S. EPA
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Arthur Elkins Jr.
Selected for: Inspector General, U.S. EPA
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Patrick Sungwook Chang
Selected for: Senior Counsel for External Civil Rights, U.S. EPA
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Lisa Garcia
Selected for: Senior Adviser to Administrator Lisa Jackson, U.S. EPA
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Scott Fulton
Selected for: General Counsel, U.S. EPA
Areas of expertise: Fulton is currently serving as acting assistant administrator in the Office of International Affairs at U.S. EPA, providing him with in-depth knowledge and experience of international environmental policy development and program implementation. His extensive involvement in international environmental protection efforts, particularly in the effort to build good governance mechanisms, will help in his new appointment.
Work experience: Fulton has held leadership positions within EPA for almost three decades. He first served as director of civil enforcement from February 1990 to December 1991, and then as principal deputy assistant administrator for the Office of Enforcement and Compliance Assurance. From 1995 to January 1999, he served as the agency's principal deputy counsel and as senior career legal counselor. From that position he went on to serve as judge on the agency's Environmental Appeals Board until August 2007.
Resume: Fulton received his bachelor's in business administration from the University of Massachusetts in 1976 and his law degree from the University of South Carolina Law School in 1982.
Status: Confirmed.
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Lisa Heinzerling
Named for: Senior Policy Counsel on Climate Change
Areas of expertise: Heinzerling is on leave from a professorship at the Georgetown University Law Center, and was a member of Obama's EPA transition team. She wrote the Supreme Court briefs in the landmark Massachusetts v. EPA case, in which the Supreme Court decided that the federal government has the power to regulate greenhouse gas emissions to curb global warming. She has been an outspoken critic of the Bush administration's regulatory policies and environmental cost-benefit analyses.
Work experience: Heinzerling served as an assistant attorney general in Massachusetts, where she specialized in environmental law, before becoming a faculty member at Georgetown. She also clerked for Judge Richard Posner on the 7th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals and for Justice William Brennan Jr. on the U.S. Supreme Court.
Resume: Graduated with a bachelor's degree in philosophy from Princeton University and a law degree from the University of Chicago Law School, where she was editor-in-chief of the law review. She has co-written a number of books and book chapters, including "Priceless: On Knowing the Price of Everything and the Value of Nothing."
Status: Appointed.
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David McIntosh
Selected for: Senior Counsel for Congressional and Intergovernmental Relations, focus on climate legislation
Areas of expertise: As the former point person for Sen. Joseph Lieberman (I-Conn.) on climate legislation, McIntosh brings to EPA plenty of experience with how climate issues play out on the Hill.
Work experience: McIntosh previously served as Lieberman's counsel and legislative assistant for energy and the environment. Prior to joining that staff in early 2006, he served briefly as a Maryland assistant attorney general representing the state’s air agency, before which he spent nearly five years working at the Natural Resources Defense Council as a Clean Air Act litigator and regulatory lawyer.
Resume: McIntosh has a law degree from Harvard Law School and clerked for a U.S. District Court judge in Washington, D.C., before joining Covington & Burling for a year as a litigation associate.
Status: Appointed.
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Cameron Davis
Selected for: Special adviser for Great Lakes restoration, U.S. EPA
Areas of expertise: Davis currently serves as the president and CEO of the Alliance for Great Lakes, a position he has held for more than a decade. Under his leadership, the Alliance has experienced a wide range of success, including receiving the American Bar Association's Distinguished Achievement Award for Environmental Law and Policy. He also worked on the Great Lakes Legacy Act and the Great Lakes Compact. His strong committment to the Great Lakes will help fuel the administration's goal to restore its waters.
Work experience: Before joining the Alliance, Davis was a litigating attorney and served as an adjunct clinical assistant professor of law at the University of Michigan Law School. He also worked on the Montreal Protocol with the United Nations Environment Program in Nairobi, Kenya, and served in EPA's regional office in Chicago.
Resume: Davis graduated from Boston University in 1986 and received his juris doctorate and certification in environment law from the Chicago-Kent College of law in 1992. He lives with his wife and son near Lake Michigan.
Status: Appointed.
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Robert Sussman
Selected for: Senior Policy Counsel to the Administrator
Areas of expertise: Sussman was co-chairman of Obama's U.S. EPA transition team and is a former partner at Latham & Watkins, where he headed the law firm's environmental practice for 10 years. Sussman was involved in air issues for transportation companies and power plants, including EPA mobile source rulemakings and related enforcement issues, New Source Review rulemaking and enforcement, and climate change issues.
Work experience: While serving as EPA's deputy administrator during the Clinton administration, Sussman played a leading role on global warming, Superfund and science policy and worked on environmental components of the North American Free Trade Agreement. Before his appointment to EPA, he was a partner at Latham & Watkins from 1987 to 1992 and at Covington & Burling from 1981 to 1987.
Resume: Sussman graduated magna cum laude from Yale College in 1969 and received a law degree from Yale Law School in 1973 where he was an editor of The Yale Law Journal. He is married to Judith Hidden Lanius and has a son, Benjamin.
Status: Appointed.
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Gina McCarthy
Selected for: Assistant Administrator for Air and Radiation
Areas of expertise: As the head of Connecticut's Department of Environmental Protection, McCarthy has gained recognition as a pioneer in cap-and-trade programs that limit greenhouse gas emissions. In 2005, McCarthy helped coordinate a multi-state effort to create the Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative, the nation's first mandatory cap-and-trade program. That experience will come in handy if she is confirmed as EPA's air chief, a position with broad jurisdiction over climate change issues. McCarthy has also gained experience dealing with conventional air pollutants as Connecticut's representative to the Ozone Transport Commission, a multi-state organization charged with advising EPA on air quality issues and coordinating region-wide pollution reductions.
Work experience: McCarthy has served as commissioner at the Connecticut DEP since she was appointed by Gov. M. Jodi Rell (R) in 2004. Prior to that, she spent 25 years working on environmental issues in Massachusetts in a variety of positions at the state and local levels. Just prior to joining the Connecticut DEP, she was the deputy secretary of operations in former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney's (R) Office for Commonwealth Development.
Resume: McCarthy received a bachelor's degree in social anthropology from the University of Massachusetts, Boston, and a joint master's degree in environmental health engineering and planning and policy from Tufts University. She is married and has three children.
Status: Confirmed.
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Stephen Owens
Selected for: Assistant Administrator for Prevention, Pesticides and Toxics Substances
Areas of Expertise: Owens has headed the Arizona Department of Environmental Quality for seven years and has made climate issues a priority for his department. He chaired the state's Climate Change Advisory Group, served as co-chairman of the Western Climate Initiative and was secretary of the Climate Registry. Last year, Owens was elected president of the Environmental Council of the States, a national group for state environmental regulators. He also established an office of Children's Environmental Health at the department.
Work experience: Owens served as counsel to the House Science and Technology Committee's Investigations and Oversight Subcommittee from 1982 to 1984, before becoming chief counsel for then-Sen. Al Gore (D-Tenn.) from 1985 until 1988. Before joining ADEQ, Owens was an environmental attorney for 14 years.
Resume: Owens graduated with honors from Brown University in 1978 and received his law degree in 1981 from Vanderbilt Law School, where he was editor in chief of the Vanderbilt Law Review. He is married to Karen Owens, an attorney with Coppersmith Gordon in Phoenix.
Status: Confirmed.
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Cynthia Giles
Selected for: Assistant Administrator for Enforcement and Compliance Assurance
Areas of expertise: Giles has experience advocating state and local programs to curb global warming emissions and has worked as a federal enforcement official. As vice president and director of the Conservation Law Foundation's Rhode Island Advocacy Center, Giles pressed Rhode Island to join the Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative, a regional cap-and-trade program aimed at slashing carbon emissions from power plants. She also worked for her state to adopt California's standards for reducing greenhouse gas emissions from cars and trucks.
Work experience: Prior to joining the advocacy center in 2005, Giles led the Bureau of Resource Protection at the Massachusetts Department of Environmental Protection. She also led enforcement at EPA's Region 3 office in Philadelphia from 1995 to 1997, directing a mid-Atlantic ozone compliance initiative to reduce smog-causing emissions from stationary sources like power plants. Before joining EPA, she was an assistant U.S. attorney in Philadelphia, where she prosecuted violations of federal environmental laws.
Resume: Giles received a bachelor's degree from Cornell University, a law degree from the University of California at Berkeley and a master's degree in public administration from the Harvard University Kennedy School of Government.
Status: Confirmed.
Photo courtesy of the Conservation Law Foundation.
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Mathy Stanislaus
Selected for: Assistant Administrator for the Office of Solid Waste and Emergency Response
Areas of expertise: Stanislaus has more than 20 years of experience working with environmental issues such as Superfund and brownfields. He currently co-directs the New Partners for Community Revitalization (NPCR), a New York-based organization focused on revitalizing brownfields around New York's low- and moderate-income level neighborhoods.
Work experience: Stanislaus served for three years as a member of EPA's National Environmental Justice Advisory Council under President Bill Clinton, where he worked on the waste and facility siting subcommittee. There, he focused on advising EPA on how to integrate environmental justice into federal environmental programs. Prior to his current position, Stanislaus was the senior environmental associate for Huber Lawrence & Abell. Before that, he served as assistant regional counsel for EPA's Region II Office in New York, where he was in charge of all of the enforcement cases brought under the Superfund law and the Emergency Planning & Community Right to Know Act.
Biography: Stanislaus was born in Sri Lanka and holds a law degree and a chemical engineering degree.
Status: Confirmed.
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Michelle DePass
Selected for: Assistant Administrator for International Affairs
Areas of expertise: DePass has an extensive background working on environmental justice and public health policies. She now works as a program officer at the Ford Foundation, where she manages the foundation's initiative on environmental justice and healthy communities. There, her work concentrates on the environmental and social justice intersections in the United States and supporting international environmental justice policies and practices.
Work experience: DePass has worked as assistant to the city manager of San Jose, Calif., where she was an adviser on environmental policy matters and served as an environmental compliance manager for the city of San Jose. She has also taught environmental law at the City University of New York and served as executive director of the New York City Environmental Justice Alliance.
Resume: DePass received a bachelor's degree in political science from Tufts University, a law degree from Fordham University School of Law and a master's of public administration degree from Baruch College School of Public Affairs.
Status: Confirmed.
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Peter Silva
Selected for: Assistant Administrator for Water
Areas of expertise: Silva brings executive experience and a background in municipal water management to his new position, where he will oversee the significant portion of EPA's budget devoted to water pollution. He is tasked with curbing nutrient runoff, patching up spotty funding for wastewater treatment, curbing nutrient runoff -- including into the Chesapeake Bay -- and addressing the impacts to the nation's water supply from climate change.
Work experience: Before his nomination, Silva worked as a senior policy adviser for the Southern California Metropolitan Water District. He has also served as vice chairman of the California Water Resources Control Board and as deputy director for San Diego's water utilities. During the Clinton administration, he served on the Border Environment Cooperation Commission, spending three years as the commission's deputy general manager in Ciudad Juárez, Mexico.
Resume: Silva earned his bachelor's degree in civil environmental engineering from California State Polytechnic University at Pomona. He is married and has one son, Diego.
Status: Confirmed.
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Craig Hooks
Selected for: Assistant Administrator for the Office of Administration and Resources Management
Areas of expertise: Hooks has worked at EPA for 21 years, where he has served in the agency's administration, water, environmental information and enforcement offices. As a career EPA staffer, Hooks would bring deep institutional knowledge of the agency to a post that has authority over EPA's human resource programs, grants and contracts, and the management and maintenance of EPA facilities. One of Hooks' principal tasks would be to prepare the agency for the flood of retirements expected from EPA's work force over the next few years.
Work experience: Hooks has served as acting assistant administrator of EPA's Office of Administration and Resources Management since February. He was also director of the Office of Wetlands, Oceans and Watersheds within EPA's Water Office; acting principal assistant administrator in the Office of Environmental Information; and the director of the Federal Facilities Enforcement Office within the Office of Enforcement and Compliance Assurance. Before joining EPA, Hooks was a physical scientist at the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.
Resume: Hooks received a bachelor's degree in zoology from the University of Florida and a master's degree in oceanography from Texas A&M University.
Status: Confirmed.
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Updated: Sept. 8, 2009.
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| DEPARTMENT OF THE INTERIOR |
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Ken Salazar
Selected for: Secretary of the Interior
Areas of expertise: Salazar's private experience as an environmental and water lawyer, combined with his years of searching for politically tenable compromise between environmental groups and resource users in state and federal government, will be called on to help the new administration push through Obama's pledged housecleaning at Interior. Some environmental groups fear Salazar -- a life-long farmer and rancher -- will cave to industry interests, but others are comforted by a strong legislative record of environmental protection.
Work experience: Salazar won an open seat in the Senate in 2004 by defeating conservative brewing magnate and political outsider Pete Coors. During his tenure he has clashed repeatedly with the Bush administration over energy and environmental issues in Colorado and the West, most recently over regulations for the development of oil shale that Salazar viewed as insufficient to protect the environment. He previously served as the Colorado attorney general from 1998 to 2004. He was the executive director of the state Department of Natural Resources from 1990 to 1994 and chief legal counsel to Gov. Roy Romer (D) from 1987 to 1990. Prior to that he worked as a private attorney.
Resume: Salazar was born March 2, 1955, in Alamosa, Colo. He graduated from Colorado College with a degree in political science in 1977 and recieved a law degree from the University of Michigan in 1981. His brother, John Salazar (D), represents western Colorado in the House. He and his wife, Hope, have two daughters.
Status: Confirmed.
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David Hayes
Nominated for: Deputy Interior Secretary
Areas of expertise: Hayes held this position during the Clinton administration and also oversaw the energy and natural resources transition for President Obama. While at Interior he played a lead role in acquiring and protecting threatened lands, restoring ecosystems, introducing modern water management approaches in the West, negotiating habitat conservation plans under the Endangered Species Act, and settling long-standing Indian water and land disputes.
Work experience: Hayes was confirmed by a unanimous Senate vote to serve as second-in-command at Interior under former Secretary Bruce Babbitt. He has been partner and global chair of the Environment, Land and Resources Department at Latham & Watkins. He also served as chairman of the board of the Environmental Law Institute, as vice chair of the board of directors of American Rivers, and as a senior fellow at the World Wildlife Fund and the Progressive Policy Institute. In the fall of 2007, he served as a consulting professor at Stanford University's Woods Institute for the Environment, directing a project on carbon offsets.
Resume: Hayes earned a bachelor's degree from the University of Notre Dame in 1975 and a law degree from Stanford University Law School in 1978, where he was Notes Editor of the Stanford Law Review.
Status: Confirmed.
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Hilary Tompkins
Nominated for: Solicitor of the Interior Department
Areas of expertise: An enrolled member of the Navajo Nation, Tompkins served as counsel to New Mexico Gov. Bill Richardson (D) from 2003 to 2008. She also managed the legal staff in his office, supervised the general counsels in more than 20 state executive agencies, advised the governor on American Indian issues and served on several state commissions. From 2000 to 2002, Tompkins was an associate at Sonosky, Chambers, Sachse, Endreson & Perry, where she focused on water and environmental law, served as general counsel to several Indian tribes nationwide and was responsible for federal and tribal court litigation practice.
Work experience: Tompkins is an adjunct professor at the University of New Mexico School of Law for the spring semester. From 1998 to 1999, she worked as special assistant U.S. attorney in Brooklyn, N.Y. From 1996 to 1998, she was an honors program trial attorney with the Justice Department in the Environment and Natural Resources Division. She was a law clerk for the Navajo Nation Supreme Court in 1995. Before that she was a legal intern at both the Justice Department and the Office of the White House Counsel.
Resume: Tompkins graduated from Dartmouth College and earned a law degree from Stanford University, where she was associate editor of the Stanford Law Review.
Status: Confirmed.
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Rhea Suh
Nominated for: Assistant Secretary for Policy, Management and Budget, Interior Department
Areas of expertise: Suh is a program officer at the David and Lucile Packard Foundation, where she manages a $200 million, six-year initiative designed to build ecological integrity and resilience in key lands and watersheds in western North America. She previously was a program officer at the William and Flora Hewlett Foundation, where she managed the program's portfolio of grants designed to protect the ecosystems of the western part of North America.
Work experience: Suh has served as a consultant for the National Park Service, where she wrote educational strategy and developed educational programs for underserved constituencies. She served as senior legislative assistant to former Sen. Ben Nighthorse Campbell (R-Colo.) and previously was a high school science teacher in New York City. She serves on the board of the Environmental Grantmakers Association and is a member of Asian American/Pacific Islanders in Philanthropy.
Resume: Suh graduated from Columbia University and earned a master's degree in education from Harvard University. She received both a Fulbright Fellowship and a Marshall Fellowship.
Status: Confirmed.
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Robert Stanton
Nominated for: Deputy Assistant Secretary for Policy, Management and Budget, Interior Department
Areas of expertise: Stanton, who served as a member of Obama's Interior transition team, became the first African-American to head the National Park Service in 1997 and held the position until 2001. As director, he oversaw major planning and resource preservation programs at the White House, Yellowstone, Yosemite, Gettysburg and other national parks, and launched and oversaw the National Resource Challenge, a plan to revise and expand the agency's natural resource programs.
Work experience: Stanton began his career as a National Park Service ranger 47 years ago during summers at Grand Teton National Park. In 1966, he took a full-time job in the Washington, D.C., headquarters and later served as superintendent of Virgin Islands National Park in St. Thomas and as deputy regional director of the NPS Southeast Region before returning to Washington. From 1988 to 1997, Stanton served as the regional director of the Park Service's National Capital Region, which includes 40 national park units in the D.C. area and surrounding states.
Resume: Stanton earned a bachelor's degree in science from Huston-Tillotson University in Austin. He has received honorary doctorate degrees from Texas A&M, Unity College, Southern University and Huston-Tillotson.
Status: Appointed.
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Michael Connor
Nominated for: Commissioner of the Bureau of Reclamation
Areas of expertise: Connor, the general counsel for the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee, has worked on legislation related to water reclamation, American Indian lands and energy. His work also extended to the Water and Power Subcommittee, which has jurisdiction over the Bureau of Reclamation and the U.S. Geological Survey.
Work experience: Previously, Connor served as deputy director and then director of the Interior Department's Indian Water Rights Office.
Resume: Connor has a law degree from the University of Colorado and a bachelor's degree from New Mexico State University.
Status: Confirmed.
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Liz Birnbaum
Selected for: Director of the Minerals Management Service
Areas of Expertise: Birnbaum is an attorney specializing in energy and environment issues and a Capitol Hill veteran. She also has previously worked for the Interior Department, where she developed regulations for and litigated minerals issues for MMS, the Bureau of Land Management and the Office of Surface Mining and Reclamation.In announcing her appointment, Interior Secretary Ken Salazar said her background was significant "as we advance President Obama's new energy frontier and lay the foundation for a clean energy economy."
Work Experience: Birnbaum spent the past two years as staff director of the House Administration Committee. Before that, she was vice president for government affairs and general counsel for the advocacy group American Rivers. She has also worked as associate solicitor for mineral resources at Interior and as a counsel for the House Natural Resources Committee and the National Wildlife Federation.
Resume: Birnbaum earned a bachelor's degree from Brown University in 1979 and a law degree from Harvard University in 1984.
Status: Appointed.
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Anne Castle
Nominated for: Assistant Secretary for Water and Science
Areas of expertise: As a Denver attorney with the firm Holland & Hart LLP, Castle has worked with small and large municipal water and wastewater treatment providers, farmers and ranchers, water and conservation districts, and operators of commercial facilities.
Work experience: Castle has been with Holland & Hart since 1981 and has served as chairwoman of the firm's Natural Resources Department. Colorado Gov. Bill Ritter (D) appointed Castle to the South Platte River Task Force in 2007. She also served as chairwoman and an elected member of the board of directors for Colorado's Genesee Water and Sanitation District from 1989 to 2002. Castle was a member of the Colorado Ground Water Commission from 1994 to 2002 at the behest of former Colorado Gov. Roy Romer (D).
Resume: Castle earned a bachelor's degree in applied mathematics from the University of Colorado in 1973 and a law degree from the University of Colorado School of Law in 1981.
Status: Confirmed.
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Sam Hamilton
Nominated for: Director, Fish and Wildlife Service
Areas of expertise: For more than a decade, Hamilton has served as the Fish and Wildlife Service's Southeast regional director in Atlanta, Ga., where he oversees the management, restoration and conservation of 125 national refuges. As director, he played a leading role in creating wildlife habitat by restoring nearly 80,000 acres of bottomless hardwoods in the lower Mississippi River Basin.
Work experience: Before serving as FWS regional director to the Southeast, Hamilton was the service's assistant regional director of ecological services, also in Atlanta. Before that, he served as the FWS Texas State Administrator in Austin, where he presided over controversial decisions on endangered species protection and habitat. Hamilton also spent four years in Washington as special assistant to both the FWS director and deputy director, and another seven years in Mississippi and Alabama, adding to his 30 years of service with the FWS.
Resume: Hamilton graduated from Mississippi State University in 1977 with a bachelor's degree in biology. He is a native of Starkville, Miss., and his wife Becky is a native of Jackson. They have two two sons.
Status: Confirmed.
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Bob Abbey
Nominated for: Director, Bureau of Land Management
Areas of expertise: Abbey spent eight years as the U.S. Bureau of Land Management's Nevada state director, where he managed nearly 48 million acres of public land, a staff of more than 700 employees in nine offices and a $51 million annual budget. From 1999 to 2005, he served as chairman of the executive committee for the implementation of the Southern Nevada Public Lands Management Act, where he oversaw resource management and environmental projects within the state. He was the principal BLM proponent for the Great Basin Restoration Initiative, which earned him a certificate of commendation from the U.S. Senate. He has been applauded for his strong conservation ethic.
Work experience: Abbey has more than 32 years working with state and federal land management agencies. In addition to his post as Nevada State Director for BLM, Abbey served as the bureau's Colorado associate state director and acting state director, as well as the district manager in his home state of Mississippi. During his initial years with the bureau, Abbey served several tours of duty as a budget analyst in Washington. Before joining BLM, he worked for the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers. Abbey is currently a partner at Abbey, Strubbs & Ford LLC, which specializes in Western land and resource strategies.
Resume: Abbey earned a bachelor's degree in resource management from the University of Southern Mississippi. He and his wife, Linda, live in Reno, Nev. They have one daughter.
Status: Confirmed.
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Larry EchoHawk
Nominated for: Assistant Secretary for Indian Affairs
Areas of expertise: A member of the Pawnee Nation, EchoHawk became the first American Indian elected to statewide office when he won the Idaho attorney general's race in 1990. EchoHawk ran for governor in 1994 but lost. He then became a professor at Brigham Young University's J. Reuben Clark Law School, where he teaches courses in criminal law, criminal procedure and federal Indian law. EchoHawk is also involved in the EchoHawk Law Offices in Pocatello, Idaho, where his sons work.
Work experience: EchoHawk, 60, began his career as a legal services attorney working for impoverished Indian people in California, then opened a private law office in Salt Lake City. In 1977 he became general legal counsel for the Fort Hall, Idaho-based Shoshone-Bannock Tribes. He won a seat in the Idaho House of Representatives in 1982 and served two terms. Four years later he was elected Bannock County prosecuting attorney.
Resume: A former U.S. Marine, he attended Brigham Young University on a football scholarship and earned a law degree from the University of Utah. A member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, EchoHawk is presently serving as a president of a stake of the church at Brigham Young University. He and his wife, Terry, have six children and 22 grandchildren.
Status: Confirmed.
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Thomas Strickland
Selected for: Assistant Secretary for Fish, Wildlife and Parks, Department of Interior
Areas of expertise: Strickland has advocated urban planning policies that reduce traffic congestion, preserve open space and promote growth in ways that ensure a high quality of life. He has a legal background in water rights, and was involved in a 2000 settlement in San Luis Valley that set a precedent for previously unachieved protection of watersheds in the Rio Grande and Gunnison national forests.
Work experience: Before his nomination, Strickland served as chief of staff to Interior Secretary Ken Salazar. Prior to that he worked as a private attorney. He served as a U.S. attorney in Colorado from 1999 to 2000, and ran unsuccessfully for the U.S. Senate in 1996 and 2002, losing both times to incumbent Sen. Wayne Allard (R). He chaired the Colorado Transportation Commission from 1985 to 1989, and from 1982 to 1984 Strickland served as director of policy to Colorado Gov. Richard Lamm (D), advising him on policy and intergovernmental issues.
Resume: Strickland holds a bachelor's degree in English literature from Louisiana State University, where he was an All-SEC Academic Football Selection, and a law degree from the University of Texas School of Law.
Status: Confirmed.
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Rowan Gould
Selected for: Deputy Director for Operations, Fish and Wildlife Service
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Dan Ashe
Selected for: Deputy Director for Policy, Fish and Wildlife Service
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Wilma Lewis
Selected for: Assistant Secretary for Land and Mineral Management, Department of Interior
Areas of expertise: From 1995 to the beginning of 1998 Lewis served as Interior inspector general, the first African-American to hold that position. She initiated a fraud awareness outreach program for department employees and focused on issues including the underpayment of royalties on federal mineral leases, the recovery of delinquent coal reclamation fees and environmental violations of the Outer Continental Shelf Lands Act, Interior said. She also worked as Interior associate solicitor from 1993 to 1995, managing the division responsible for equal opportunity compliance, administrative law, personnel, torts, contracts and ethics matters.
Work experience: Lewis served as the U.S. attorney for the District of Columbia from 1998 to 2001, the first woman appointed to that position. She focused on public corruption; launched initiatives addressing gangs, guns and drugs; and expanded a "community prosecution" program to focus on the law enforcement needs of specific neighborhoods. She was managing associate general counsel with Freddie Mac from October 2007 through December 2008, and for the six previous years was a partner at Crowell & Moring LLP, focusing on civil litigation and internal investigations. She served as an assistant U.S. attorney for the District of Columbia from 1986 to 1993, becoming deputy chief of the Civil Division, and as an associate in the Washington-based law firm Steptoe & Johnson from 1981 to 1986.
Resume: A native of the U.S. Virgin Islands, Lewis graduated from Swarthmore College in 1978 and earned her law degree from Harvard Law School in 1981. In 2003, the Harvard Law Bulletin featured Lewis as one of 50 female graduates of Harvard Law School who have used their legal education "to take them to extraordinary places."
Status: Confirmed.
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Will Shafroth
Selected for: Deputy Assistant Secretary for Fish and Wildlife and Parks, Department of Interior
Areas of expertise: Shafroth helped found the nonprofit Colorado Conservation Trust and served as its executive director from 2000 to 2008. Raising millions in private donations and leveraging public funds, the group under his leadership helped preserve 30,000 acres of wildlife habitat and open space, according to Interior. From 1994 to 2000, Shafroth served as the first executive director of the Great Outdoors Colorado Trust Fund, a statewide land conservation program.
Work experience: From 1991 to 1994, Shafroth served as assistant secretary for land and coastal resources in the California Resources Agency. From 1982 to 1990, Shafroth was Western regional director of the American Farmland Trust. He has served on the board of the National Fish and Wildlife Foundation and chaired the boards of the Land Trust Alliance and the Resources Legacy Fund in Sacramento, Calif. He also ran unsuccessfully in the Democratic primary for Colorado's 2nd District last year.
Resume: A fourth-generation Coloradan, Shafroth graduated from the University of California, Santa Barbara, and earned a master's of public administration degree from Harvard University. He is married and has three children.
Status: Appointed.
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Deanna Archuleta
Selected for: Deputy Assistant Secretary for Water and Science
Areas of expertise: Archuletta, the board chairwoman of the Bernalillo County Water Utility, has been overseeing one of the largest water treatment facility projects in the nation, the San Juan Chama Drinking Water Project, since 2008. She is an expert in developing water policy and public-private partnerships and has extensive experience in dealing with Western water issues including climate change, population growth and drought.
Work experience: Archuleta most recently served as the Southwest Regional Director for the Wilderness Society, where she has led efforts to establish wild land protections. She also was a member of President Obama's transition team. Previously, Archuletta won two terms as county commissioner of Bernalillo County and was elected chairwoman of the commission earlier this year.
Resume: Archuleta received bachelor's degrees in sociology and communications from the University of Washington in 1997 and earned a master's degree in sociology from the University of New Mexico in 2000. She is finishing her doctoral degree in sociology at the University of New Mexico.
Status: Appointed.
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John Tubbs
Selected for: Deputy Assistant Secretary for Water and Science
Areas of expertise: Tubbs has more than two decades of experience working on Montana's water issues, largely for the state's Department of Natural Resources and Conservation. He presently oversees the state's water resources and has put in place programs such as water right processing, water management, operation of state-owned water projects, floodplain management and dam safety regulations. His vast experience in water resource issues will help him advise and consult the assistant secretary for water and science.
Work experience: Tubbs currently heads Montana DNRC's Water Resources Division, a position he has held since November 2006. Before acquiring his current position with the department, Tubbs served for six years as chief to the Resource Development Bureau, and prior to that he worked as an economist in the Energy and Water Resources division.
Resume: Tubbs earned a bachelor's degree in forestry in 1983 and a master's degree in economics in 1991, both from the University of Montana. He was born in Helena, Mont., and is married to Stephanie Ambrose Tubbs. They have two sons, both attending the University of Montana.
Status: Appointed.
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Ned Farquhar
Selected for: Deputy Assistant Secretary for Land and Minerals Management, Interior Department
Areas of expertise: Farquhar served on Obama's energy and natural resources transition team. He worked as an energy and climate advocate at the Natural Resources Defense Council and has worked as a senior policy adviser to the state of New Mexico and Gov. Bill Richardson, whom he has represented at the Western Governors' Association.
Work experience: Farquhar served on the boards of Western Progress and Conservation Voters New Mexico. In 2007 Richardson appointed him chairman of the new New Mexico Renewable Energy Transmission Authority. Previously he was program officer for Western lands at the Packard Foundation, executive director of the Vermont Natural Resources Council and 1000 Friends of New Mexico, staff director for the Alaska House Resources Committee, and special assistant to Alaska's natural resources commissioner. He also has taught at the University of Vermont and the University of New Mexico.
Resume: Farquhar grew up in Washington, D.C., and is a resident of Albuquerque, N.M. He graduated from Middlebury College in 1980 and earned a master's degree from the University of Cambridge in 1982. He and wife Janis have two children, Norman and Sola.
Status: Appointed.
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Sylvia Baca
Selected for: Deputy Assistant Secretary for Land and Minerals Management, Interior Department
Areas of expertise: Baca is a Clinton-era Interior official and current general manager for Social Investment Programs and Strategic Partnerships at BP America Inc. in Houston, where she oversees cooperative projects with private and public organizations while working on climate change, biodiversity and sustainability. Her experience will be especially helpful in managing long-standing conflicts between conservation groups and resource users. From 1995 to 2001, Baca served as the assistant secretary for land and minerals management at the Interior under the Clinton administration, and before that she held the same post she has been selected for in the Obama administration.
Work experience: Baca has held numerous positions focused on developing and employing environmental initiatives, including several private sector posts as director of Global Health, Safety, Environment and Emergency Response for BP Shipping Ltd. in London and as vice president for health, safety and environment for BP North America in Los Angeles. She also served as acting director of the Bureau of Land Management and held several senior positions in the New Mexico government and within the city of Alberquerque.
Resume: Baca earned a bachelor's and master's degree from the University of New Mexico, where she received the Distinguished Alumni in Career Achievement in 2008. Her master's degree is in Public Administration and Finance. She also has received advanced management training at the University of Cambridge; Rice University School of Management; and Stanford Graduate School of Business Education.
Status: Appointed, no confirmation required.
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Jon Jarvis
Selected for: Director of the National Park Service
Areas of expertise: As director of the Pacific West Region for the National Park Service since 2002, Jarvis oversees 56 national parks in Washington, Idaho, Oregon, California, Hawaii and the Pacific Islands. He has experience with terrains including remote wilderness, rainforests and deserts, as well as major urban parks and important cultural sites, and has worked on government–to–government relations with Native American tribes, gateway community planning, major facility design and construction, and wilderness and general management planning.
Work experience: Jarvis previously served as superintendent of Mount Rainier National Park, of Craters of the Moon National Monument in Idaho and of Wrangell–St. Elias National Park and Preserve in Alaska, the largest unit of the National Park System. He also was president of the George Wright Society, which sponsors a biennial conference on science and management of protected lands around the world.
Resume: A native of Lexington, Va., Jarvis has a bachelor's in biology from the College of William and Mary and has done graduate work in public policy and natural resources. He and his wife Paula have two children.
Status: Confirmed.
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Joseph Pizarchik
Selected for: Director of the Office of Surface Mining
Areas of Expertise: Pizarchik has served as the director of Pennsylvania's Bureau of Mining and Reclamation since 2002. In thst capacity, he wrote Pennsylvania's Environmental Good Samaritan Act, which helped protect landowners from liability when they voluntarily clean up abandoned mines and oil and gas wells. He also helped develop a program for volunteers to clean up abandoned mines and create a program for mine operators to establish trust funds to treat discharges from their mining sites.
Work Experience: Before becoming director of the Pennsylvania program, Pizarchik served for 11 years as assistant director and general counsel for the agency. He also worked with the state's Department of Transportation and in private practice.
Resume: Pizarchik received his bachelor's degree from Pennsylvania State University and his law degree from the University of Arkansas at Little Rock.
Status: Confirmed.
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Marcia McNutt
Selected for: Director of the United States Geological Survey and Science Adviser to the Secretary of the Interior
Areas of Expertise: McNutt is the head of the Monterey Bay Aquarium Research Institute in California. She chaired the President's Panel on Ocean Exploration convened by President Clinton to examine the possibility of initiating a major U.S. program in exploring the oceans. She also has participated in 15 major oceanographic expeditions and served as chief scientist on more than half of those voyages.
Work Experience: McNutt spent three years at the beginning of her career working for USGS in Menlo Park, Calif., on earthquake prediction. In 1982, she joined the faculty at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. She served as director of the Joint Program in Oceanography and Applied Ocean Science and Engineering offered by MIT and the Woods Hole Oceanography Institution. In 1997, she became president and CEO of the Monterey Bay research center. She also served as president of the American Geophysical Union from 2000 to 2002.
Resume: A Minnesota native, McNutt graduated from Colorado College and earned her doctorate in earth sciences from Scripps Institution of Oceanography in La Jolla, Calif., in 1978. A certified scuba diver, McNutt, 57, once took a special Navy Seal training course in underwater demolition and explosives handling. She is the chairwoman of the University-National Oceanographic Laboratory System. She serves on numerous evaluation and advisory boards for institutions such as the Monterey Bay Aquarium, Stanford University, Harvard University and Science magazine.
Status: Confirmed.
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Gary Machlis
Selected for: Science Adviser to the Director of the National Park Service
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Updated: Jan. 4, 2010.
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| DEPARTMENT OF STATE |
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Hillary Rodham Clinton
Selected for: Secretary of State
Areas of expertise: Clinton brings two decades of political experience -- and a well-known resume -- to the position of top U.S. diplomat. Obama hopes to restore the United States' image abroad, and it will be up to Clinton to get that message across. Clinton's State Department will likely take a lead role in negotiations on a new international global warming agreement that includes binding emission cuts for developed countries, plus a package of financial aid to stimulate technology deployment and adaptation measures in developing countries.
Work experience: Clinton has served as the junior U.S. Senator from New York since 2001 and is a member of the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee. She was first lady of the United States from 1993 to 2001.
Resume: Born Oct. 26, 1947, Clinton was raised in Park Ridge, Ill. She earned her undergraduate degree from Wellesley and a law degree from Yale University. She has published several best-selling books, including "It Takes a Village: And Other Lessons Children Teach Us," "An Invitation to the White House: At Home with History" and "Living History." She is married to former President Bill Clinton and has a daughter, Chelsea.
Status: Confirmed.
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Todd Stern
Selected for: Climate envoy at the State Department
Areas of expertise: Stern has both global and domestic political experience with a heavy emphasis on environmental issues, having served as energy policy adviser to Hillary Rodham Clinton during the 2008 Democratic presidential primary and as a senior White House negotiator at international climate talks. As a partner in Washington law firm Wilmer Cutler Pickering Hale and Dorr, he has focused on public policy advice, congressional investigations, strategic counseling, crisis management and anti-money laundering.
Work experience: Stern was then-presidential-candidate Hillary Clinton's energy policy adviser during the Democratic primary and served as staff secretary under President Bill Clinton. He later coordinated the administration's Initiative on Global Climate Change from 1997 to 1999. He acted as the senior White House negotiator at climate talks in Kyoto, Japan and Buenos Aires, Argentina, and later served at the U.S. Treasury Department on a broad range of economic and financial issues. A senior fellow at the Center for American Progress, he served as the lead author of the liberal think tank's energy strategy blueprint for the new Democratic administration.
Resume: Stern was born on May 4, 1951, in Chicago. He received a bachelor's degree in 1973 from Dartmouth College and a law degree from Harvard Law School in 1977. He married Jennifer Klein in 1995.
Status: Named, no confirmation necessary.
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Jonathan Pershing
Selected for: Deputy Climate Envoy, State Department
Areas of expertise: Pershing will serve as second-in-command to Todd Stern, the State Department's climate envoy, in negotiating a post-Kyoto Protocol treaty to reduce global greenhouse gas emissions. Pershing is lauded by environmental and industrial leaders as an expert in both the technical and political challenges to curbing climate change. His previous post was as director of the Climate, Energy and Pollution Program at the World Research Institute, a Washington, D.C.-based environmental think tank. He brings extensive experience in market-based solutions for reducing carbon emissions, after serving on the California Market Advisory Committee and advising the Northeastern states' Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative. In May 2008, Pershing testified before the Commission on Security & Cooperation in Europe about the link between climate change and energy security.
Work experience: Before joining WRI, Pershing headed the energy and environment division at the Paris-based International Energy Agency and served for almost a decade under President Clinton as deputy director and science adviser for the State Department's Office of Global Climate Change. He has also served on multinational advisory boards supporting the development of both U.S. domestic and international climate policy. Pershing is a regular participant in international U.N. climate negotiations and is one of the lead authors for the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change.
Resume: Pershing received his Ph.D. in geology and geophysics from the University of Minnesota. He did his undergraduate training at the City University of New York and the University of London. From 1981 to 1985, Pershing worked in Alaska for ARCO Exploration Co. as an oil geologist, and for a small mining company exploring for gold, silver, platinum and base metals.
Status: Named, no confirmation necessary.
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Robert Hormats
Selected for: Undersecretary for Economic, Energy and Agricultural Affairs, State Department
Areas of expertise: Hormats, who most recently worked for Goldman Sachs, has held a variety of posts in the State Department. He was assistant secretary of State for Economic and Business Affairs from 1981 to 1982, ambassador and deputy U.S. Trade Representative from 1979 to 1981, and senior deputy assistant secretary for Economic and Business Affairs at the State Department from 1977 to 1979, according to the White House.
Work experience: Hormats previously was vice chairman of Goldman Sachs (International). Hormats was also a senior National Security Council staff member from 1969 to 1977, advising Henry Kissinger, Gen. Brent Scowcroft and Zbigniew Brzezinski.
Resume: Hormats earned a bachelor's, master's and a Ph.D. in international economics from Tufts University.
Status: Confirmed.
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Susan Rice
Selected for: Ambassador to the United Nations
Areas of expertise: Well-known in Democratic foreign policy circles following eight years in the Clinton administration, Rice has close ties to former Secretary of State Madeleine Albright. She has focused largely on African affairs, including the 1998 terrorist bombings of U.S. embassies in Tanzania and Kenya. At the United Nations, Rice will be in a position to present the Obama administration's positions on a wide range of issues, from the Iraq and Afghanistan wars to global warming negotiations.
Work experience: Rice served as a senior foreign policy adviser to Obama's 2008 presidential campaign and is currently on leave from the Brookings Institution, where she has been a senior fellow since 2002. She held several jobs during the Clinton administration, including serving as a member of the National Security Council from 1993-97, as director for international organizations and peacekeeping from 1993-95, and as special assistant to the president and senior director for African affairs from 1995-97. In the early 1990s, Rice was a management consultant at McKinsey & Co.
Resume: Born Nov. 17, 1964, in Washington, D.C., Rice graduated with a bachelor of arts degree from Stanford University. She won a Rhodes Scholarship and earned a master's degree and a doctorate in international relations from New College at Oxford University. Rice is married to Ian Cameron, an ABC News executive producer, and has two children.
Status: Confirmed.
Photo courtesy of Brookings Institution.
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Philip Crowley
Selected for: Assistant Secretary of State for Public Affairs
Areas of expertise: Crowley is a longtime government spokesman and expert in homeland security. He spent 28 years as a spokesman for the U.S. government and military. For three of those years, he served under President Bill Clinton as senior director of public affairs for the National Security Council and as principal deputy assistant secretary of Defense for public affairs.
Work experience: Crowley is currently the senior fellow and director of homeland security for the liberal Center for American Progress, where he has stressed the importance of passing comprehensive chemical-security legislation this year. He has also delved into border and port security.
Resume: Born in Massachusetts, Crowley now lives in Alexandria, Va., with his wife, Paula Kougeas, also a retired Air Force colonel and now a teacher, and their two children. He graduated from the College of the Holy Cross.
Status: Confirmed.
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Updated: Oct. 13, 2009.
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| DEPARTMENT OF TRANSPORTATION |
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Ray LaHood
Selected for: Secretary of Transportation
Areas of expertise: LaHood, a Republican, served on the Agriculture, Rural Development, Food and Drug Administration, and Legislative Branch Appropriations subcommittees in the 110th Congress. He also was ranking member of the Select Intelligence Oversight Subcommittee. While he has previously served on the Transportation and Infrastructure Committee, he held no transportation-related posts in his final term in Congress. He has, however, reached across the aisle in support of increased fuel efficiency standards and he voted several times in favor of the 2007 House energy bill that carried a mandatory increase in auto fuel economy.
Work experience: LaHood represented Illinois' 18th congressional district for seven terms. Before being elected in 1994, he served for 12 years as the chief of staff to then-House Minority Leader Robert Michel (R-Ill.). Prior to that he was a member of the Illinois House of Representatives. He was a junior high school social studies teacher for six years before entering politics.
Resume: Born Dec. 6, 1945, in Peoria, Ill., LaHood graduated from Bradley University with a bachelor's degree in education and sociology in 1971. He has received four honorary doctorates, the most recent in 2006 from MacMurray College in Jacksonville, Ill., for public service. He wife is named Kathy and he has four children and seven grandchildren.
Status: Confirmed.
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Roy Kienitz
Selected for: Undersecretary for Policy
Areas of expertise: While working for Pennsylvania Gov. Ed Rendell (D), Kienitz worked on a number of transportation, alternative energy and environmental initiatives. He also advised Rendell on the governor's ultimately failed effort to enter into a public-private partnership that would have leased the Pennsylvania Turnpike for $12.8 billion to a Spanish toll-road operator and a U.S. investment firm for 75 years. Prior to joining the governor's office, Kienitz oversaw "smart growth" policies at the Maryland Department of Planning.
Work experience: Kienitz is currently Rendell's deputy chief of staff. Prior to that he worked at the Maryland Department of Planning and also served as the executive director of the Surface Transportation Policy Project. He previously worked on Capitol Hill with the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee and as the chief of staff for the late Sen. Daniel Patrick Moynihan (D-N.Y.).
Resume: Kienitz is originally from California and graduated from the University of California in 1983 with a bachelor's degree in Aquatic Biology.
Status: Confirmed.
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Polly Trottenberg
Selected for: Assistant Secretary for Transportation Policy, Department of Transportation
Areas of expertise: Trottenberg held a handful of transportation-related positions as a Senate Democratic staffer that will help in her role to recommend overall surface transportation policy initiatives to Secretary Ray LaHood. She is currently the executive director of Build America's Future, a national bipartisan coalition that supports U.S. infrastructure investment and a more accountable, sustainable and performance-driven national transportation policy.
Work experience: Trottenberg spent 12 years in the U.S. Senate, most recently as Deputy Chief of Staff and Legislative Director for Senator Barbara Boxer (D-Calif.), Chairman of the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee. She also served as Legislative Director for Senator Charles Schumer (D-N.Y.) and as Legislative Assistant for Transportation, Public Works and Environment for the late Senator Daniel Patrick Moynihan (D-N.Y.). Prior to her time in Washington, Trottenberg worked at the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey and the Massachusetts Port Authority on aviation and transportation finance issues.
Resume: Trottenberg was born in Boston and earned her bachelor's in american history from Columbia University, Bernard College in 1986 and her master's in Public Policy from Harvard University, Kennedy School of Government in 1992. She is married to Mark Zuckerman, Staff Director for the House Education and Labor Committee, and has two stepchildren.
Status: Confirmed.
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John Porcari
Selected for: Deputy Transportation Secretary
Areas of expertise: Porcari has served twice as the chief of Maryland's Department of Transportation, where he oversaw the groundbreaking for the planned Intercounty Connector -- an 18-mile toll road linking Interstate 270 and I-95 -- and the Woodrow Wilson Bridge project, a $2.4 billion effort to replace a portion of the Capital Beltway around Washington, D.C., with two new bridges and four new interchanges. Under Porcari, Maryland became the first state to meet a congressional mandate to use at least half the highway funding provided to it by the $787 billion economic stimulus. States had 120 days to use at least half their federal share or risk losing it to other states. Maryland met that deadline in 20 days by getting federal approval for 74 projects worth more than $200 million.
Work experience: He is currently in his second stint as Maryland Transportation Secretary, returning in 2007 to a post he held from 1999 to 2002. In between his time at Maryland DOT, Porcari was vice president for administrative affairs at the University of Maryland, where he also served as the chief administrative and financial officer.
Resume: Porcari, 50, received his undergraduate education from the University of Dayton and his master of public administration degree from the Rockefeller College of Public Affairs and Policy at the State University of New York at Albany.
Status: Confirmed.
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Peter Rogoff
Selected for: Administrator of the Federal Transit Administration
Areas of expertise: Rogoff spent 22 years as a staff member for the Senate Appropriations Committee, including 14 years as the Democratic staff director for the Transportation, Housing and Urban Development Appropriations Subcommittee. While with the committee, Rogoff worked on the last three surface transportation authorizations and served as a policy adviser for a number of infrastructure financing issues, including the capital and operational needs of Amtrak's high-speed Acela service.
Work experience: Most recently, Rogoff worked closely with Sen. Patty Murray (D-Wash.), the current chairwoman of the Appropriations transportation subcommittee. He played an instrumental role in advising lawmakers on the monetary needs for Amtrak and dozens of light-rail and bus systems. In addition, Rogoff also focused on safety initiatives, including a number of inspection efforts for trucks, cargo vessels and pipelines.
Resume: He has received the U.S. Coast Guard Distinguished Public Service Award and the Lester P. Lamm Memorial Award, given for outstanding leadership and dedication to U.S. highway programs. He has a master's of business administration degree from Georgetown University's McDonough School of Business and a bachelor's degree from Amherst College.
Status: Confirmed.
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J. Randolph Babbitt
Selected for: Administrator of the Federal Aviation Administration
Areas of expertise: J. Randolph "Randy" Babbitt's has been both an airline pilot and partner in the international airline consultancy firm Oliver Wyman, giving him expertise in the field of aviation safety and policy. He is also a recognized name in labor relations after serving as president and CEO of the US Airline Pilots Association, the world's largest professional organization of airline pilots. His expertise landed him appointments in 2000 under President Clinton's Management Advisory Council and in 2008 under then U.S. Secretary of Transportation Mary E. Peters' independent review team of aviation and safety experts.
Work experience: Babbitt flew for 25 years as a pilot for Eastern Airlines before serving as president and CEO of the union ALPA. He founded and led Reston, Va.-based Eclat Consulting until 2007, when the company was acquired by Oliver Wyman. As a partner in Oliver Wyman's global Aviation, Aerospace & Defense practice, Babbitt advised airlines and labor unions through complex restructuring negotiations.
Resume: Babbitt, 61, attended both the University of Georgia and the University of Miami.
Status: Confirmed.
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Joseph Szabo
Selected for: Administrator of the Federal Railroad Administration
Areas of Expertise: As administrator of the Federal Railroad Administration, Szabo would be in charge of writing and enforcing federal rail safety laws. The 51-year-old fifth-generation railroader has served in a variety of positions at the state and local level, helping policy makers craft transportation safety and regulation laws. His policy work earned him an interim assignment with the United Transportation Union's National Legislative Office in Washington, where he served as Alternate National Legislative Director. Since 2005, he has served on the FRA's Rail Safety Advisory Committee, where he helps draft rail-safety regulations. Szabo got his start in railroading in 1976, when he was hired by Illinois Central (now part of Canadian National) as a yard switchman, road trainman and commuter passenger conductor. If confirmed, Szabo would be the first FRA administrator to come from the ranks of rail labor, according to UTU International President Mike Futhey.
Work Experience: Szabo served as mayor of the Village of Riverdale, Ill., where he managed more than 100 employees and budget of $9 Million. In February 1996, Szabo was elected state director of the UTU Illinois Legislative Board, and was re-elected in 2000, 2004 and 2008. In October 2006, he was appointed vice president of the Illinois AFL-CIO. Szabo was a member of the South Suburban Mayors Transportation Committee and Vice Chairman of the Chicago Area Transportation Study's Executive Committee. In January, he began an interim assignment to UTU's National Legislative Office in Washington.
Resume: Szabo earned his bachelor's degree in labor relations from Governors State University in 1990.
Status: Confirmed.
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Dana Gresham
Selected for: Assistant Secretary for Governmental Affairs
Areas of expertise: Gresham has more than 14 years of congressional experience, working primarily with moderate Democrats. From 2003 until last November, he helped guide the New Democrat Coalition, a moderate group that describes itself as pro-growth. Previously, he took on roles within the Blue Dog Coalition and with a number of House Appropriations subcommittees, including the Transportation Appropriations Subcommittee, and with the House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee.
Work experience: resham served as chief of staff for Rep. Artur Davis (D-Ala.) for four years, and prior to that worked as legislative director for Rep. Bud Cramer (D-Ala.).
Resume: Gresham graduated from Georgetown University in 1994 with a bachelor's degree in foreign service.
Status: Confirmed.
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Updated: July 9, 2009.
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| OTHER FEDERAL AGENCIES |
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Leon Panetta
Selected for: Director of the Central Intelligence Agency
Areas of expertise: Panetta's direct experience with the intelligence community is limited, but his management skills in the federal arena are well-known. As White House chief of staff from 1994 to 1997 for President Bill Clinton, he took part in national security decisions. His expertise with energy and environmental issues is better established, through his private life and his role as a legislator in the House of Representatives, but it's unclear how this expertise would inform his position at the CIA. He has an affinity for oceans issues and while in the House wrote a number of successful pieces of legislation to protect the California coastline. He later served on the Joint Ocean Commission Initiative and helped spearhead efforts to protect the Monterey Bay National Marine Sanctuary.
Work experience: Panetta is chairman of the Pew Oceans Commission and co-chairman of the Joint Ocean Commission Initiative, and also directs the Leon and Sylvia Panetta Institute for Public Policy at California State University, Monterey Bay. Before serving as chief of staff in the Clinton White House, Panetta directed the Office of Management and Budget. From 1977 to 1993, he represented California's 16th Congressional District in the House of Representatives.
Resume: Born June 28, 1938, in Monterey, Calif., Panetta graduated from Santa Clara University magna cum laude with a bachelor's degree in political science in 1960 and earned a law degree there in 1963. In 1964, he joined the U.S. Army as a second lieutenant, and he was discharged in 1966. He and his wife, Sylvia Panetta, have three sons.
Status: Confirmed.
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Gary Gensler
Selected for: Chairman of the Commodity Futures Trading Commission
Areas of expertise: Gensler has extensive financial experience in both the private sector and in government, which could be a boon to Obama as he attempts to reform the U.S. financial regulatory agencies and bring confidence back to the market. Gensler was a key player in creating the Sarbanes-Oxley Act and more recently was a senior adviser to Hillary Rodham Clinton's presidential campaign.
Work experience: Gensler was an undersecretary for domestic finance and assistant secretary for financial markets at the Treasury Department under President Clinton, and was a senior adviser to Sen. Paul Sarbanes (D-Md.). He worked 18 years at Goldman Sachs, making partner when he was 30 and eventually becoming the co-head of finance.
Resume: Gensler has a bachelor's degree in economics and a master's degree in business administration from the Wharton School of Business at the University of Pennsylvania, and published "The Great Mutual Fund Trap" in 2002. His wife, artist Francesca Danieli, passed away in 2006. Gensler has three daughters, and his brother Robert Gensler is a fund manager at T. Rowe Price.
Status: Confirmed.
Courtesy of the Treasury Department.
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Jon Wellinghoff
Selected for: Chairman of the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission
Areas of expertise: As a FERC commissioner for the past three years, Wellinghoff has been a strong voice for promoting policies that facilitate energy efficiency, demand-side resources and renewable energy -- key areas Obama is looking at to transition the U.S. to a low-carbon economy.
Work experience: Wellinghoff has worked in the energy law field for more than 30 years, with the last three at FERC as part of a term that expires in 2013. Previously he was in private practice and focused on renewable energy, energy efficiency and distributed generation for clients including federal agencies, nonprofits and large power consumers. He was also one of the lead authors of the Nevada Renewable Portfolio Standard Act. Following private practice, he served for two terms as Nevada's first Consumer Advocate for Customers of Public Utilities.
Resume: Born May 30, 1949 in Santa Monica, Calif., Wellinghoff moved with his family to Reno, Nev. at age 4. He graduated from the University of Nevada, Reno with a bachelor’s degree in mathematics in 1971, got an M.A.T. from Howard University in 1972, and obtained a law degree from the Antioch School of Law in 1975. He is married with two sons and two daughters.
Status: Confirmed.
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John Norris
Selected for: Commissioner of the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission
Areas of expertise: As chairman of the Iowa Utilities Board (IUB), a position he recently held for four years, Norris oversaw the allocation of two separate production tax credits for electricity generated by eligible renewable-energy facilities under new state legislation. If confirmed, he will bring a wealth of experience, having worked on the National Association of Regulatory Utility Commissioners'(NARUC) electricity committee and on the FERC-NARUC Demand Response Collaborative. He would be the only commissioner from a state east of the Rockies.
Work experience: Norris currently serves as the chief of staff to Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack, a position he's held since January. He also was chief of staff to Vilsack when he was the Democratic governor of Iowa. Prior to joining the USDA, he served as chairman of the IUB from 2005 to 2009. In 2004, he was then-presidential nominee John Kerry's (D) Iowa caucus campaign manager and national field director for the Kerry-Edwards campaign. In 1999 and 2000, while serving as chief of staff to Vilsack, Norris was chairman of the Iowa Electric Restructuring Task Force. During the farm crisis of the 1980s, he was state director of the Iowa Farm Unity Coalition.
Resume: Norris received his bachelor's degree from Simpson College in Indianola, Iowa, in 1981. He graduated with distinction from the University of Iowa law school in 1995. His wife, Jackie, was former chief of staff to first lady Michelle Obama and is now senior adviser to the Corporation for National and Community Service. Both worked for Obama's presidential campaign. They have three sons.
Status: Confirmed.
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Francis Collins
Selected for: Director of the National Institutes of Health
Areas of Expertise: Collins served as director of NIH's National Human Genome Research Institute from 1993 to 2008, where he oversaw the completion of the Human Genome Project in 2003, resulting in the completion of a finished sequence of the human DNA code.
Work Experience: Prior to working at NIH, Collins taught for nine years at the University of Michigan. He wrote a book, "The Language of God: A Scientist Presents Evidence for Belief," which explored the connection between science and faith. He is also author of a book that addresses the emerging field of personalized medicine.
Resume: Collins received a bachelor's degree in chemistry from the University of Virginia, a doctorate in physical chemistry from Yale University, and a master's degree from the University of North Carolina.
Status: Confirmed.
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Daniel Tarullo
Selected for: Federal Reserve Board of Governors
Areas of expertise: A lawyer by training, Tarullo is an expert in banking and international economic law. He served as a top adviser on international economic policy to President Bill Clinton and was Clinton's representative to the 1995 Group of Eight summit. He is a critic of the existing international financial architecture and has argued that a major overhaul is needed to prevent future economic meltdowns. Observers believe he could be instrumental in helping the incoming administration to tighten up financial oversight. He is also knowledgeable of World Trade Organization rules and could help inform President Obama's trade policy.
Work experience: Currently a professor of law at Georgetown University Law Center, Tarullo also has been a visiting professor at Harvard Law School. He was a principal at the National Economic Council and National Security Council, and was a former top adviser to the Clinton administration. For three years he served as assistant secretary of state for economic and business affairs. Earlier in his career he worked on the staff of Sen. Edward Kennedy (D-Mass.).
Resume: Tarullo earned a bachelor's degree from Georgetown University, a master's from Duke University and a law degree summa cum laude from the University of Michigan Law School. He wrote "Banking on Basel: The Future of International Financial Regulation," published in September 2008.
Status: Confirmed.
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Jon Leibowitz
Selected for: Chairman of the Federal Trade Commission
Areas of expertise: Leibowitz has been on the Commission since 2004 and is currently it's only Democratic member. As a commissioner he has helped to oversee competition in oil and gas markets, including review of mergers. The body is currently crafting new rules to deter manipulation in wholesale petroleum markets.
Work experience: Leibowitz has worked on Capitol Hill and the private sector. His positions included chief counsel and staff director for the Senate Subcommittee on Terrorism and Technology from 1995 to 1996 and the Senate Subcommittee on Juvenile Justice from 1991 to 1994. He was chief counsel to Sen. Herb Kohl (D-Wis.) from 1989 to 2000, and before that worked for the late Sen. Paul Simon (D-Ill.). His private sector work includes vice president for congressional affairs for the Motion Picture Association of America from 2000 to 2004.
Resume: Leibowitz has a bachelor's degree in American history from the University of Wisconsin and a law degree from the New York University School of Law. He lives in Bethesda with his wife, Ruth Marcus and two daughters, Emma and Julia. Marcus is a columnist for the Washington Post.
Status: Appointed as chairman; confirmed as a commissioner by the Senate in 2004.
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Gregory Jaczko
Selected for: Chairman of the Nuclear Regulatory Commission
Areas of expertise: Jaczko is the only Democratic commissioner on NRC and is a former senior adviser to Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.). NRC is slated to accept or reject the Energy Department's application for a nuclear waste repository at Yucca Mountain, Nev., during Obama's first term and Jaczko is expected by many to oppose the license, as Reid and Obama have called for. Jaczko is known for his commitment to transparency and public communication.
Work experience: Jaczko joined NRC in 2005 and is currently serving his second term. Immediately before that he was Reid's appropriations director and science policy adviser. He has worked as an adviser on nuclear policy for the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee and as a congressional science fellow for Rep. Edward Markey (D-Mass.), and is an adjunct professor of science and policy at Georgetown University.
Resume: Jaczko was born in Philadelphia and raised in upstate New York. He graduated from Cornell University with a bachelor's degree in physics and philosophy, followed by a doctorate in physics from the University of Wisconsin-Madison. He is married and lives in Washington, D.C.
Status: Selected.
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George Apostolakis
Selected for: Commissioner, Nuclear Regulatory Commission
Areas of expertise: Apostolakis, a professor of nuclear science and engineering systems at MIT, lists risk assessment of complex technological systems and risk management among his research interests.
Work experience: Apostolakis is the former chairman of the Nuclear Regulatory Commission's Advisory Committee on Reactor Safeguards. He is a fellow of the American Nuclear Society and the Society for Risk Analysis and a member of the National Academy of Engineering, and received the Tommy Thompson Award for his contributions to improvement of reactor safety, as well as other top-level awards in the field.
Resume: Apostolakis holds a diploma in electrical engineering from the National Technical University of Athens, Greece. He has a master of engineering science degree and a doctorate in engineering science and applied mathematics from the California Institute of Technology.
Status: Nominated, needs to be confirmed.
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William Magwood IV
Selected for: Commissioner, Nuclear Regulatory Commission
Areas of expertise: Magwood is the longest-serving director of the Department of Energy's civilian nuclear technology program, having headed the program from 1998 to 2005, during which he led the creation of the "Nuclear Power 2010" program, according to the White House.
Work experience: Magwood is a principal and founder of the energy consultancy Advanced Energy Strategies. Before he worked at DOE, Magwood managed the electric utility research and nuclear policy program at the Edison Electric Institute and was a scientist focusing on nuclear waste at Westinghouse Electric Corp.
Resume: He holds bachelor's degrees in physics and English from Carnegie Mellon University, and a master of fine arts degree from the University of Pittsburgh. Magwood is also the chairman of the Generation IV International Forum and the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development Steering Committee for Nuclear Energy.
Status: Nominated, needs to be confirmed.
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William Ostendorff
Selected for: Commissioner, Nuclear Regulatory Commission
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Mary Schapiro
Selected for: Chairwoman of the Securities and Exchange Commission
Areas of expertise: Schapiro has worked as a financial regulator for the past 20 years for four different presidents. Her past experience overhauling derivatives trading and as head of the Commodity Futures Trading Commission could be assets to the Obama administration is it overhauls federal financial regulations and seeks to restore confidence in the markets and economy. Schapiro would be the first woman to chair the SEC.
Work experience: Schapiro is CEO of the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority (FINRA), a non-governmental regulator for all securities firms doing business with the U.S. public. She helped to create FINRA when, as CEO of the National Association of Securities Dealers, her group was merged with the New York Stock Exchange Member Regulation. She is also a member of the boards of Duke Energy and Kraft Foods, positions she will have to resign if confirmed. Before joining NASD in 2002 she was appointed by President Bill Clinton first as acting chairwoman of the SEC and then as chairwoman of the Commodities Futures Trading Commission in 1994. Prior to that she was appointed to the Securities and Exchange Commission by President Ronald Reagan and reappointed by President George H.W. Bush.
Resume: Born June 19, 1955, in New York, Schapiro graduated with a bachelor's degree from Franklin and Marshall College in 1977 and earned her law degree with honors from George Washington University in 1980. She was named Financial Women's Association Public Sector Woman of the Year in 2000 and in 2008 received a Visionary Award from the National Council on Economic Education, honoring her as a "champion of economic empowerment." She is married and has two daughters.
Status: Confirmed.
Photo courtesy of the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority.
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Karen Gordon Mills
Selected for: Administrator of the Small Business Administration
Areas of expertise: Mills has been a principal in the private equity and venture capital industry for 25 years and has been a key figure in the growth of more than 20 companies in the consumer products, food, distribution, textile and industrial sectors. As SBA administrator, Mills would head up an independent agency of the federal government that brokers loans and offers other assistance to small businesses.
Work experience: Mills is president of MMP Group, a private equity company based in Brunswick, Maine. She is also the lead director of the lawn products maker ScottsMiracle-Gro Co. and a director of the semiconductor distributor Arrow Electronics Inc. From 1999 to 2007, she was a founding partner and managing director of the New York-based venture capital firm Solera Capital LLC. Previously, she worked for McKinsey & Co. and the former General Foods Corp. Mills is currently chairwoman of Maine Gov. John Baldacci's Council on Competitiveness and the Economy and sits on the Democratic governor's Council for the Redevelopment of the Brunswick Naval Air Station. She also serves on the boards of the Maine Technology Institute and the Maine chapter of The Nature Conservancy.
Resume: Mills was born in 1953 and earned a bachelor's degree in economics from Harvard University in 1975 and a master's of business administration from Harvard Business School in 1977. She authored a Brookings Institution paper on economic development clusters, and those recommendations were introduced as legislation by Sen. Susan Collins (R-Maine) and Hillary Rodham Clinton (D-N.Y.) in June 2008. She is a member of the Council on Foreign Relations and has been vice chairwoman of the Harvard Overseers. She is married to Barry Mills, president of Bowdoin College. They have three sons.
Status: Confirmed.
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Martha Johnson
Selected for: Administrator of the General Services Administration
Areas of expertise: As a former General Services Administration chief of staff, Johnson was charged with supporting the strategic reinvention of the agency from a mandatory supplier of goods and services to a competitive supplier-of-choice. The experience could help her execute her mandate to overhaul GSA facilities by making federal buildings more energy efficient and environmentally friendly, an Obama priority. Johnson also was co-leader of Obama's transition review team for GSA.
Work experience: Johnson is vice president of culture at Virginia-based Computer Sciences Corp., a 90,000-employee company. She served as assistant deputy secretary in the Department of Commerce during the Clinton administration and before that was a search manager for the Office of Presidential Personnel.
Resume: Johnson earned her bachelor's degree from Oberlin College in 1974 and her master's of business administration from Yale University in 1979.
Status: Nominated, needs to be confirmed.
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Charles Bolden Jr.
Selected for: Administrator of NASA
Areas of expertise: Through his military and NASA experiences, including serving as an assistant deputy administrator, Bolden understands the inner workings of NASA as well as the outward significance of keeping America on top of science and technology through space exploration. As head of the agency, Bolden would manage its transition from decades-old shuttle programs, of which he flew four, to achieving the president's goal of returning a man to the moon by 2020 as well as deploying a climate change research and monitoring system in space.
Work experience: Bolden began his career in the U.S. Marine Corps as an aviator, in which time he flew more than 100 assaults over North and South Vietnam, Laos and Cambodia. In 1980, he was selected by NASA and became an astronaut a year later. During his time with the agency, Bolden flew in four space shuttle missions, the first in 1986 and the last in 1994, and was mission commander twice. Upon his return from the last mission, Bolden left NASA and returned to active duty in the Marine Corps as the Deputy Commandant of Midshipmen at the U.S. Naval Academy. He also served in the Persian Gulf before retiring from the Marine Corps in 2004. Bolden is currently the chief executive officer of JackandPanther, a Houston-based military and aerospace consulting firm.
Resume: Bolden was born in Columbia, S.C., in 1946. He earned his bachelor's degree in electrical science from the U.S. Naval Academy in 1968 and his master's degree in systems management from the University of Southern California in 1977. He is married with two children.
Status: Confirmed.
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Edward Montgomery
Selected for: Director of Recovery for Auto Communities, Presidential Task Force on the Auto Industry
Areas of expertise: As the recovery director, Montgomery will work with employees, unions, local governments and the private sector to develop strategies to provide relief and recovery for regions that are hit hardest by the auto industry's restructuring. He previously served as deputy secretary and chief operating officer of Labor in 2000 and 2001, where he directed the day-to-day operations at the federal agency. As an economics scholar, his work has focused on community development and labor markets, fields that will serve him well as he oversees massive changes in states and communities that rely both directly and indirectly on the auto industry for jobs and tax revenues.
Work experience: Montgomery has served as dean of Maryland University's College of Behavioral and Social Sciences since July 2003. He is also a professor of economics and former senior associate dean at the college. Montgomery has been widely published on topics such as local economic development, labor unions and comparative labor market performance. He has also served on the board of visitors to the National Science Foundation's Social Behavioral and Economic Science Division, and as a fellow or research associate at the National Bureau for Economic Research, the UpJohn Institute for Employment Research and the Joint Center for Political and Economic Studies.
Resume: Born July 3, 1955, in New York City, Montgomery earned his master's and Ph.D. in economics from Harvard University and his bachelor's degree from Pennsylvania State University. He and his wife, Kari, have twin daughters, Lindsay and Elizabeth, and a son, E.J. They live in Fulton, Md.
Status: appointed, no confirmation needed.
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Updated: Oct. 13, 2009.
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