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Briefing Room

The White House
Office of the Press Secretary
For Immediate Release
September 13, 2016

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:

  • Senator Chris Coons – Representative of the United States to the 71st Session of the General Assembly of the United Nations (U.S. Senator from the State of Delaware)
  • Senator Ron Johnson – Representative of the United States to the 71st Session of the General Assembly of the United Nations (U.S. Senator from the State of Wisconsin)
  • Valerie Biden Owens – Alternate Representative of the United States to the 71st Session of the General Assembly of the United Nations
  • Cynthia Ryan –  Alternate Representative of the United States to the 71st Session of the General Assembly of the United Nations

President Obama said, “I am pleased to announce that these experienced and committed individuals have decided to serve our country.  I look forward to working with them.”  

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

Senator Chris Coons, Nominee for Representative of the United States to the 71st Session of the General Assembly of the United Nations (U.S. Senator from the State of Delaware)
Senator Chris Coons was first elected to the Senate in 2010.  Senator Coons serves on the Committee on Appropriations, the Committee on Foreign Relations, the Committee on the Judiciary, the Committee on Small Business & Entrepreneurship, and the Select Committee on Ethics.  Prior to his election to the Senate, Senator Coons was County Executive of New Castle County, Delaware from 2005 to 2010 and President of the New Castle County Council from 2001 to 2005.  Senator Coons received a B.A. from Amherst College, a J.D. from Yale Law School, and an M.A.R. from Yale Divinity School. 

Senator Ron Johnson, Nominee for Representative of the United States to the 71st Session of the General Assembly of the United Nations (U.S. Senator from the State of Wisconsin)
Senator Ron Johnson was first elected to the Senate in 2010.  Senator Johnson serves as Chair of the Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs.  He also serves on the Committee on the Budget, the Committee on Commerce, Science, and Transportation, and the Committee on Foreign Relations.  In 2014, Senator Johnson served as a Representative of the United States to the 69th Session of the General Assembly of the United Nations.  Prior to his election to the Senate, Senator Johnson was CEO of PACUR, a plastic sheet producer he helped to start in 1979.  He was an accountant at Jostens from 1977 to 1979.  Senator Johnson received a B.S.B. from the University of Minnesota. 

Valerie Biden Owens, Nominee for Alternate Representative of the United States to the 71st Session of the General Assembly of the United Nations
Valerie Biden Owens serves as Executive Vice President of Joe Slade White and Company, a position she has held since 1997.  In 2014, Ms. Biden Owens was a Resident Fellow at Harvard University’s Institute of Politics at the John F. Kennedy School of Government where she taught a course titled “Politics – Up Close and Personal.”  In 2015, Ms. Biden Owens was honored by the Harvard University Law School as one of the 50 “Women Inspiring Change.”  In 2000, she started traveling with Women’s Campaign International to teach women in emerging democracies how to organize and develop communication and political skills.  From 1996 to 2000, she served on the National Board of the Women’s Leadership Forum of the Democratic National Committee, and she has served as a member of the board of The Ministry of Caring for more than 30 years.  Ms. Biden Owens began her career as a campaign manager in 1972 and worked on multiple political campaigns through 2008.  Ms. Biden Owens is among the first women in the United States to have managed modern U.S. Senatorial and Presidential campaigns.  During the periods when she was not managing election campaigns, she continued her work as Executive Vice President of Joe Slade White and Company.  Before serving as a campaign manager, Ms. Biden Owens was an educator in Wilmington, Delaware and Hyattsville, Maryland.  Ms. Biden Owens received a B.A. from the University of Delaware.

Cynthia Ryan, Nominee for Alternate Representative of the United States to the 71st Session of the General Assembly of the United Nations
Cynthia Ryan currently serves as the Director of the Schooner Africa Fund and Senior Africa Advisor of The Schooner Foundation in Nairobi, Kenya, positions she has held since 2015.  Prior to that, Ms. Ryan was Principal and Executive Director of The Schooner Foundation from 1998 to 2012.  She is a Trustee of the Fund for Global Human Rights and the Wangari Maathai Foundation.  Ms. Ryan also serves as a Kenya Advisory Board Member of Shining Hope for Communities, Member of the Nature Conservancy Africa Advisory Council, and as a Member of the African Philanthropy Forum.  She is an Associate Member of the Global Philanthropy Forum, Member of the African Grantmakers Network, and Member of the International Human Rights Funders Group.  Ms. Ryan received a B.A. from the Eugene Lang College of the New School for Social Research and an M.A. from the School of Oriental and African Studies at the University of London.