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The White House

President Obama Announces More Key Administration Posts, 5-21-09

THE WHITE HOUSE

Office of the Press Secretary
_________________________________________________________________________
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE                                                     May 21, 2009

President Obama Announces More Key Administration Posts
WASHINGTON, DC – Today, President Barack Obama announced his intent to nominate the following individuals for key administration posts: Christopher Schroeder, Assistant Attorney General for the Office of Legal Policy, Department of Justice; Paul Anastas, Assistant Administrator for Office of Research and Development, Environmental Protection Agency; Sherry Glied, Assistant Secretary for Planning and Evaluation, Department of Health and Human Services; Winslow Sargeant, Chief Counsel for Advocacy, Small Business Administration; Ambassador Nancy Powell, Director General of the Foreign Service, Department of State; and Deborah Matz, Chair, National Credit Union Administration. President Obama also announced his intent to appoint Max Cleland as Secretary of the American Battle Monuments Commission.

President Obama said, "I’m grateful that such experienced and dedicated individuals have joined my administration at a time when our nation faces great challenges. Their deep commitment to their individual areas of work gives me confidence that they will help us put America back on a path to prosperity and security. I thank them for their service and look forward to working alongside them in the years to come."

President Obama announced his intent to nominate the following individuals today:

Christopher Schroeder, Nominee for Assistant Attorney General for the Office of Legal Policy, Department of Justice
Christopher H. Schroeder is Charles S. Murphy Professor of Law and Professor of Public Policy Studies, and director of the Program in Public Law at Duke University.  His publications include a leading environmental law casebook, Environmental Regulation: Law, Science and Policy (6th Edition, 2008), Presidential Power Stories (with Curtis A. Bradley, 2008), A New Progressive Agenda for Public Health and the Environment (2005), a project of the Center for Progressive Reform (CPR), co-edited with Rena Steinzor.  He has served on National Academy of Sciences and Institute of Medicine committees to evaluate the use of human intentional dosing studies by EPA and the adequacy of the U.S. drug safety system.   Schroeder has served as acting assistant attorney general in the Office of Legal Counsel at the Department of Justice, where he was responsible for legal advice to the attorney general, the executive office of the president and other executive branch agencies on a broad range of issues, including separation of powers, other constitutional issues, and matters of statutory interpretation and administrative law.  He has also served as chief counsel to the Senate Judiciary Committee.  He is of counsel to the firm of O'Melveny and Myers.  Schroeder received his B.A. degree from Princeton University in 1968, a M.Div. from Yale University in 1971, and his J.D. degree from University of California, Berkeley (Boalt Hall) in 1974, where he was editor-in-chief of the California Law Review.

Paul Anastas, Nominee for Assistant Administrator for Office of Research and Development, Environmental Protection Agency
Paul T. Anastas is the Teresa and H. John Heinz III Professor in the Practice of Chemistry for the Environment at Yale University and also the Director of the Yale Center for Green Chemistry and Green Engineering. Professor Anastas received his B.S. in Chemistry at the University of Massachusetts and received his Ph.D. in Chemistry from Brandeis University. Previously he served in the Office of Science and Technology Policy in the Executive Office of the President from 1999 to 2004, most recently as the Assistant Director for Environment. In 1989, he joined the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s Office of Prevention, Pesticides and Toxic Substances where he was Chief of the Industrial Chemistry Branch. Prof. Anastas has written numerous scholarly articles and authored and edited ten books on the subject of science for environmental protection.  He has been recognized both nationally and internationally for contributions to science and the environment and is considered the "Father of Green Chemistry", a field of scientific innovation designed to meet environmental and economic goals.

Sherry Glied, Nominee for Assistant Secretary for Planning and Evaluation, Department of Health and Human Services
Sherry Glied is Professor and Chair in the Department of Health Policy and Management of Columbia University's Mailman School of Public Health. She has extensive experience in health care financing and mental health policy research. From 1992-1993, she served as a Senior Economist for health care and labor market policy to the President's Council of Economic Advisers, under President Bush and President Clinton. Professor Glied was a participant in President Clinton's Health Care Task Force and headed working groups on global budgets and on the economic impacts of the health plan. Her book on health care reform, Chronic Condition, was published by Harvard University Press in January 1998. She also has substantial experience in mental health policy, particularly around issues of child and adolescent mental health policy and financing.  Professor Glied is a member of the MacArthur Foundation’s Network on Mental Health Policy and is co-author of Better but Not Well: Mental Health Policy in the US Since 1950, published by Johns Hopkins University Press in July 2006.  She is a member of the Institute of Medicine, a member of the board of AcademyHealth, a member of the National Academy of Social Insurance, and a research associate of the National Bureau of Economic Research. In 2004, she won the Research! America’s Eugene Garfield Economic Impact of Health Research Award, and is a past recipient of a Robert Wood Johnson Investigator Award, through which she studied the U.S. employer-based health insurance system. Glied holds a B.A. in economics from Yale University, an M.A. in economics from the University of Toronto, and a Ph.D. in economics from Harvard University. 

Winslow Sargeant, Nominee for Chief Counsel for Advocacy, Small Business Administration
Winslow Sargeant has been a Managing Director in the technology practice at Venture Investors since 2006. From 2001 to 2005, he was the program manager for the Small Business Innovations Research (SBIR) Program in Electronics, a new office in the National Science Foundation’s (NSF) Engineering Directorate. Previously, Sargeant co-founded Aanetcom, a fabless semiconductor chip startup company with seed funding from Cisco systems which was acquired by PMC-Sierra. Prior to Aanetcom, he held senior engineering positions at Lucent, AT&T Bell Labs and IBM. Sargeant currently serves on the Boards of Silatronix and Pattern Insight. He also serves as a Director of the University of Wisconsin Foundation and is the Vice Chairman of the UW-Madison Astronomy Board of Visitors. He is a member of the Boards of Directors of WiCell, WiSys and the Waisman Center. Sargeant is a Trustee for the Wisconsin Alumni Research Foundation (WARF) and also serves on Purdue University Discovery Center’s Research Board of Visitors. He is a member of the Advisory Board of NSF’s Industrial Innovation and Partnership Division (NSF/SBIR). Winslow received the inaugural 2002 Wisconsin Distinguished Young Alumni Award and was a 2003 Outstanding Engineering Alumni Awardee from Northeastern University. He received a B.S. from Northeastern University, an M.S. from Iowa State University and his Ph.D. from the University of Wisconsin-Madison, all in Electrical Engineering.  Sargeant is also a Kauffman Fellow - Class 11.

Ambassador Nancy Powell, Nominee for Director General of the Foreign Service, Department of State
Ambassador Nancy Powell currently serves as Ambassador to Nepal.  She was U.S. Ambassador to Pakistan (2002-2004), Ghana (2001-2002), and Uganda (1997-1999).  Previous overseas assignments have included Ottawa, Kathmandu, Islamabad, Lome, Calcutta, New Delhi, and Dhaka.  In Washington she has served as a Refugee Assistance Officer, Principal Deputy Assistant Secretary for African Affairs,  Acting Assistant Secretary for International Narcotics and Law Enforcement Activities, Senior Coordinator for Avian Influenza, and the National Intelligence Officer for South Asia at the National Intelligence Council.  Born in Cedar Falls, Iowa, Ambassador Powell joined the Foreign Service in 1977 following 6 1/2 years as a high school social studies teacher in Dayton, Iowa. She is a 1970 graduate of the University of Northern Iowa. She has studied French, Nepali, Hindi and Urdu. She is the recipient of the Partnership for Public Service 2006 Service to America Homeland Security Medal and the Arnold L. Raphel Memorial Award. 

Deborah Matz, Nominee for Chair, National Credit Union Administration
Deborah Matz was the Executive Vice President and Chief Operating Officer of the $800 million Andrews Federal Credit Union located in Suitland, Maryland until June 2008.  Prior to that she served on the board of the National Credit Union Administration (NCUA), confirmed by the U.S. Senate on March 22, 2002. A public servant for 26 years, Matz was appointed by President Bill Clinton to serve in the U.S. Department of Agriculture from 1993 to 2001. As Deputy Assistant Secretary for Administration, she oversaw the administrative arm of the 100,000-employee agency.  Matz served for nine years as an economist with the Congressional Joint Economic Committee, where she advised Members of Congress on a wide range of domestic policy issues including state and local government finance, economic development, and housing and infrastructure financing. She has been published extensively on these issues. Previously she served as a project director in the Office of Technology Assessment of the U.S. Congress, as a legislative assistant to a Member of Congress, and as a community development representative for the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development. Matz earned a Master’s degree from George Washington University and a Bachelor’s degree from Cornell University.

President Obama also made the following announcement today:

Max Cleland, Candidate for Secretary, American Battle Monuments Commission
Max Cleland has served his country for more than 40 years. After graduating from Stetson University in 1964 where he was commissioned in the United States Army, Cleland obtained a Master's Degree in American History from Emory University in Atlanta.  He went on active duty in the Fall of 1965. He volunteered for Vietnam in 1967.  Rising to the rank of captain, Cleland was wounded in combat and after a year-and-a- half in military and VA Hospitals, Cleland returned to his home state of Georgia.  Elected to the State Senate in 1970, where he served two terms, Cleland was appointed head of the Veteran's Administration under President Carter in 1977.  In 1981, he returned to Georgia and was elected first as Secretary of State and then as United States Senator.