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Briefing Room

The White House
Office of the Press Secretary
For Immediate Release
July 31, 2013

President Obama Announces More Key Administration Posts

WASHINGTON, DC – Today, President Obama announced his intent to nominate the following individuals to key Administration posts:

  • France Anne Cordova – Director, National Science Foundation
  • Sarah Bloom Raskin – Deputy Secretary, Department of the Treasury
  • Sylvia I. Garcia – Chief Financial Officer and Assistant Secretary for Budget and Programs, Department of Transportation
  • Jo Handelsman – Associate Director for Science, Office of Science and Technology Policy
  • Gregory B. Starr – Assistant Secretary of State for Diplomatic Security, Department of State
  • Karen Stanton – Ambassador to the Democratic Republic of Timor-Leste, Department of State
  • Amy J. Hyatt – Ambassador to the Republic of Palau, Department of State 

President Obama said, “The extraordinary dedication these individuals bring to their new roles will greatly serve the American people.  I am grateful they have agreed to serve in this Administration and I look forward to working with them in the months and years to come.”

President Obama announced his intent to nominate the following individuals to key Administration posts:

Dr. France Anne Cordova, Nominee for Director, National Science Foundation

Dr. France Anne Cordova is President Emerita of Purdue University, where she served as President from 2007 to 2012.  From 2002 to 2007, Dr. Cordova served as Chancellor of the University of California at Riverside, where she was a Distinguished Professor of Physics and Astronomy.  Previously, Dr. Cordova was the Vice Chancellor for Research and Professor of Physics at the University of California at Santa Barbara from 1996 to 2002.  She served as NASA’s Chief Scientist from 1993 to 1996.  She was on the faculty of the Pennsylvania State University, where she served as Head of the Department of Astronomy and Astrophysics from 1989 to 1993.  Dr. Cordova served as Deputy Group Leader in the Earth and Space Sciences Division at Los Alamos National Laboratory from 1988 to 1989 and Staff Scientist from 1979 to 1989.  She is Chair of the Board of Regents of the Smithsonian Institution and a member of the National Science Board.  Dr. Cordova received a  B.A. from Stanford University and a Ph.D. from the California Institute of Technology.

Sarah Bloom Raskin, Nominee for Deputy Secretary, Department of the Treasury

Sarah Bloom Raskin is a Governor on the Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System, a position she has held since 2010.  Ms. Raskin was Commissioner of Financial Regulation for the State of Maryland from 2007 to 2010.  Prior to this, from 2003 to 2007, she was the Managing Director of Promontory Financial Group.  She also was General Counsel of Columbia Energy Services from 1998 to 2001, and the Worldwide Retail Exchange from 2001 to 2003.  Ms. Raskin was Banking Counsel to the U.S. Senate Committee on Banking, Housing, and Urban Affairs from 1993 to 1998.  Ms. Raskin began her career as a lawyer for Mayer Brown and Platt in New York, and later for Arnold & Porter, in both New York and Washington D.C., where she engaged in corporate finance work as well as regulatory work.  Earlier in her career, she worked for the Federal Reserve Bank of New York and the Joint Economic Committee of Congress.  Ms. Raskin received a B.A. from Amherst College and a J.D. from Harvard Law School.

Sylvia I. Garcia, Nominee for Chief Financial Officer and Assistant Secretary for Budget and Programs, Department of Transportation

Sylvia I. Garcia is the Acting Assistant Secretary for Budget and Programs and served as Acting Chief Financial Officer at the Department of Transportation (DOT) from December 2012 to July 2013.  She has also served as Deputy Assistant Secretary for Management and Budget at DOT since April 2011, and previously served as a Program Analyst in the Office of Budget and Program Performance.  From 2009 to 2011, she served as Professional Staff for the Subcommittee on Transportation, Housing and Urban Development in the U.S. House of Representatives.  Ms. Garcia was a Budget Analyst in the Office of Public and Indian Housing at the Department of Housing and Urban Development from 2006 to 2009 and served as a Presidential Management Fellow from 2006 to 2008.  Ms. Garcia was a Community Outreach Coordinator for the Department of Enrollment Management at DePaul University from 2005 to 2006 and a Youth Outreach Coordinator for Alternatives, Inc. from 2004 to 2005.  Ms. Garcia received a B.A. from the University of Michigan and an M.S. from DePaul University.

Dr. Jo Handelsman, Nominee for Associate Director for Science, Office of Science and Technology Policy

Dr. Jo Handelsman is the Howard Hughes Medical Institute Professor and Frederick Phineas Rose Professor in the Department of Molecular, Cellular and Developmental Biology at Yale University, a position she has held since 2010.  Previously, she served on the University of Wisconsin-Madison faculty as a Professor in Plant Pathology from 1985 to 2009 and Professor and Chair of the Department of Bacteriology from 2007 to 2009.  She is currently President of the American Society for Microbiology.  In 2011, Dr. Handelsman received the Presidential Award for Excellence in Science Mentoring.  From 2002 to 2010, Dr. Handelsman was the Director of the Wisconsin Program for Scientific Teaching.  In 2004, Dr. Handelsman co-founded the National Academies Summer Institute on Undergraduate Education in Biology.  She received a B.S. from Cornell University and a Ph.D. from the University of Wisconsin-Madison.

Gregory B. Starr, Nominee for Assistant Secretary of State for Diplomatic Security, Department of State

Gregory B. Starr is Principal Deputy Assistant Secretary of State for Diplomatic Security, a position he has held since February 2013.  He also served as Acting Assistant Secretary of State for Diplomatic Security from February 2013 to July 2013.  Previously, Mr. Starr served as United Nations Under-Secretary-General for Safety and Security from 2009 to 2013.  From 2007 to 2009, he was Principal Deputy Assistant Secretary and Director of the Diplomatic Security Service.  From 2004 to 2007, he was Deputy Assistant Secretary of State for Countermeasures and from 2000 to 2004, he was Director of the Office of Physical Security Programs at the Department of State.  Previous overseas assignments include: Tel Aviv, Israel; Tunis, Tunisia; Dakar, Senegal; and Kinshasa, Zaire.  Mr. Starr began his career in the Foreign Service as a Special Agent in 1980 and joined the ranks of the Senior Foreign Service in 2001.  He retired from the Senior Foreign Service in 2009, with the rank of Minister-Counselor.  He received a B.A. and an M.S. from George Washington University.

Karen Stanton, Nominee for Ambassador to the Democratic Republic of Timor-Leste, Department of State

Karen Stanton, a career member of the Senior Foreign Service, Class of Minister-Counselor, is Executive Director of the Bureau of East Asian and Pacific Affairs, a position she has held since 2009.  Previously, she was the Deputy Executive Director in the Bureau of East Asian and Pacific Affairs from 2008 to 2009.  From 2004 to 2008, she was a Management Counselor at the U.S. Embassy in Singapore.  Previously, Ms. Stanton was the Supervisory Post Management Officer in the Bureau of East Asian and Pacific Affairs from 2001 to 2004, and in 2001 she was an Assignments Officer in the Bureau of Human Resources at the Department of State.  Other overseas assignments include: Personnel Officer at the U.S. Embassy in Beijing, China from 1995 to 1998; Consular Officer in the Visa Office in the Bureau of Consular Affairs in Washington D.C. from 1993 to 1995; Consular Officer at the U.S. Embassy in Islamabad, Pakistan from 1991 to 1993; and Consular Officer at the U.S. Embassy Beijing, China from 1987 to 1990.  Ms. Stanton received a B.A. from the University of Michigan and an M.S.S. from the National War College.

Amy J. Hyatt, Nominee for Ambassador to the Republic of Palau, Department of State

Amy J. Hyatt, a career member of the Senior Foreign Service, Class of Minster-Counselor is Management Counselor at the U.S. Embassy in Cairo, Egypt.  Previously, Ms. Hyatt served as a Diplomat in Residence at Arizona State University from 2008 to 2011.  From 2005 to 2008, she was the Deputy Chief of Mission at the U.S. Embassy in Helsinki, Finland.  Prior to this, she served as a Management Counselor at the U.S. Embassy in Prague, Czech Republic from 2001 to 2005.  From 1997 to 1998, she was Post Management Officer for the Bureau of East Asian and Pacific Affairs.  She was a Political Analyst for the Bureau of Intelligence and Research from 1992 to 1994.  Prior to entering the Foreign Service, Ms. Hyatt was a litigation attorney in San Francisco.  Ms. Hyatt received a B.A. from the State University of New York at Binghamton, a J.D. from Stanford University, and an M.S. from the National Defense University.