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The White House
Office of the Press Secretary
For Immediate Release

President Obama Announces More Key Administration Posts

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

  • Marie Therese Dominguez – Administrator of the Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Safety Administration, Department of Transportation
  • Sarah Feinberg – Administrator of the Federal Railroad Administration, Department of Transportation

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

  • Rebecca Richards-Kortum – Member, President’s Committee on the National Medal of Science
  • Andrew Viterbi – Member, President’s Committee on the National Medal of Science  

President Obama said, “It gives me great confidence that such dedicated and capable individuals will serve the American people as part of this Administration.  I look forward to working with them.”

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

Marie Therese Dominguez, Nominee for Administrator of the Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Safety Administration, Department of Transportation
Marie Therese Dominguez serves as Principal Deputy Assistant Secretary of the Army for Civil Works at the Department of Defense, a position she has held since 2013.  Prior to this position, she served as Vice President for Government Relations and Public Policy for the United States Postal Service from 2007 to 2013.  From 2004 to 2007, Ms. Dominguez was a Partner at Fieldworks, LLC and from 2006 to 2007, she was Senior Advisor to Governor Mark Warner at Forward Together PAC.  Prior to that role, she was the Director of Human Capital and Performance at Resource Consultants, Inc. from 2001 to 2004.  From 2000 to 2001, Ms. Dominguez served as Principal Deputy Assistant Secretary of the Army for Civil Works at DOD.  Previously, she served as the Deputy Chief of Staff and Counsel for the Federal Aviation Administration at the Department of Transportation from 1998 to 2000.  From 1997 to 1998, Ms. Dominguez served as Special Assistant to the President and Associate Director of Presidential Personnel at the White House.  Previously, she was Special Assistant to a Member of the National Transportation Safety Board from 1996 to 1997.  Ms. Dominguez received a B.A. from Smith College and a J.D. from Villanova University School of Law.
 
Sarah Feinberg, Nominee for Administrator of the Federal Railroad Administration, Department of Transportation
Sarah Feinberg serves as the Deputy Administrator and Acting Administrator of the Federal Railroad Administration at the Department of Transportation (DOT), positions she has held since January 2015.  Prior to this role, she was Chief of Staff at DOT from 2013 to 2014.  From 2011 to 2013, Ms. Feinberg was the Policy and Crisis Communications Director at Facebook.  She was the Director of Global Communications and Business Strategy at Bloomberg LP and Bloomberg Government from 2010 to 2011.  From 2008 to 2010, Ms. Feinberg served as Special Assistant to the President and Senior Advisor to the Chief of Staff at the White House.  Before that, she was the Communications Director for the House Democratic Caucus and Chairman Rahm Emanuel from 2007 to 2008.  From 2005 to 2006, Ms. Feinberg served as the National Press Secretary at the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee and as the National/Leadership Press Secretary in the Office of Senate Minority Leader Tom Daschle from 2003 to 2004.  She also previously served as the Deputy Director of the Senate Democratic Communications Committee.  Ms. Feinberg received a B.A. from Washington and Lee University.

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

Dr. Rebecca Richards-Kortum, Appointee for Member, President’s Committee on the National Medal of Science
Dr. Rebecca Richards-Kortum is the Stanley C. Moore Professor of Bioengineering and Professor of Electrical and Computer Engineering at Rice University, positions she has held since 2005.  Dr. Richards-Kortum has been Director of Rice 360°: Institute for Global Health Technologies since 2007, Director of the Institute of Biosciences and Bioengineering since 2014, and Founder of Beyond Traditional Borders since 2006.  She was named a Howard Hughes Medical Institute Professor in 2002 and 2006.  Dr. Richards-Kortum is a member of the National Academy of Sciences, the National Academy of Engineering, and the American Academy of Arts and Sciences.  She is a past member of the National Academies Committee on Conceptual Framework for New Science Education Standards and was an inaugural member of the National Advisory Council for Biomedical Imaging and Bioengineering for the National Institutes of Health.  Dr. Richards-Kortum is a fellow of the American Institute for Medical and Biological Engineering, the American Association for the Advancement of Science, the Biomedical Engineering Society, the Optical Society of America, and the National Academy of Inventors.  She is the recipient of the Sharon Keillor Award for Women in Engineering Education, the Presidential Young Investigator and Presidential Faculty Fellow awards from the National Science Foundation, and the Chester F. Carlson Award from the American Society for Engineering Education.  Dr. Richards-Kortum received a B.S. from University of Nebraska-Lincoln, and an M.S. and Ph.D. from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.
 
Dr. Andrew Viterbi, Appointee for Member, President’s Committee on the National Medal of Science
Dr. Andrew Viterbi is Presidential Chair in the Department of Electrical Engineering at the University of Southern California’s Viterbi School of Engineering, a position he has held since 2004.  He is also President of the advisory and investment firm The Viterbi Group, LLC, a position he has held since 2000.  Dr. Viterbi held various positions at Qualcomm Incorporated, which he co-founded in 1985, including Vice Chairman from 1985 to 2000 and Chief Technical Officer from 1985 to 1996.  He co-founded LINKABIT Corporation in 1968 and served as President from 1980 to 1983 and Executive Vice President from 1969 to 1980.  Dr. Viterbi was a Professor at the University of California, Los Angeles School of Engineering and Applied Science from 1963 to 1973.  He published the Viterbi algorithm in 1967.  Dr. Viterbi is a member of the National Academy of Engineering, the National Academy of Sciences, and the American Academy of Arts and Sciences and served on the President’s Information Technology Advisory Committee from 1997 to 2001.  He is a member of the Board of Trustees of the University of Southern California.  He has received numerous awards which include: the John Fritz Medal in 2011, the IEEE Medal of Honor in 2010, the National Medal of Science in 2007, and the Franklin Medal for Electrical Engineering in 2005.  Dr. Viterbi received an S.B. and S.M. from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and a Ph.D. from the University of Southern California.