Press Release - President Bush to Nominate Four Individuals and Appoint Five Individuals to Serve in His Administration

President George W. Bush today announced his intention to nominate four individuals and his intention to appoint five individuals to serve in his administration.

The President intends to nominate Francis Joseph Ricciardone, Jr. to be Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary of the United States of America to the Republic of the Philippines and the Koror Republic of Palau. A career member of the Senior Foreign Service, Ricciardone has been serving as Senior Advisor in the Bureau of Near Eastern Affairs since 1999. His previous overseas assignment include service as Deputy Chief of Mission in Ankara from 1995 to 1999, Deputy Chief of Mission in Amman from 1991 to 1993, and Political Office in Cairo. He has served in Washington, D.C., as Staff Director for the Director General's Policy Coordination Office, Political/Economic Officer in the Office of Lebanon, Jordan and Syria Affairs and International Relations Officer and Special Assistant in the Bureau of Intelligence and Research. Ricciardone is a graduate of Dartmouth College.

The President intends to nominate Sean O?Keefe to be Administrator of the National Aeronautics and Space Administration. O?Keefe is currently the Deputy Director of the White House Office of Management and Budget. Previously he served as the Louis A. Bantle Professor of Business and Government Policy at the Syracuse University Maxwell School of Citizenship and Public Affairs. Additionally he served as the Director of National Security Studies which provides executive education programs for senior military and civilian Department of Defense managers. Before joining Syracuse University, O?Keefe was Professor of Business Administration and Assistant to the Senior Vice President for Research and Graduate Education at Pennsylvania State University. O?Keefe was appointed as the Secretary of the Navy in July 1992, had served as Comptroller and Chief Financial Office of the Department of Defense since 1989. Before joining the Department of Defense, he served on the staff of the U.S. Senate Appropriations Committee for eight years and was Staff Director of the Defense Appropriations Subcommittee. He received an undergraduate degree from Loyola University in New Orleans, Louisiana, and a Master's degree in Public Administration from The Maxwell School at Syracuse University.

The President intends to nominate Nancy Southard Bryson to be General Counsel of the Department of Agriculture. Bryson is currently a Partner with Crowell and Moring's Natural Resources and Environment and co-chair of the firm's Biotechnologies practice. Prior to entering private practice, Ms. Bryson was a staff attorney and Assistant Counsel for the Appellate Litigation in the Occupational Safety and Health Division of the Solicitor's Office at the Department of Labor. Additionally, she served as Assistant Chief of the Land and Natural Resources Division's Environmental Defense Sections at the Department of Justice. She is a graduate of Boston University and the Georgetown University School of Law.

The President intends to nominate Vickers B. Meadows to be Assistant Secretary of Housing and Urban Development for Administration. Most recently, Meadows was Special Assistant to the President and Director of White House Management and Director of Administration for the Bush-Cheney Transition. From 1995 to 2000, she was Director of Administration for then-Governor Bush. She served at the Department of Transportation from 1989 to 1993, as Deputy Director and then Director of the Executive Secretariat. From 1985 to 1989, Meadows served in the White House as Procurement Officer and Director of Presidential Gifts and then Special Assistant to the Vice President for Administration. She is a graduate of Green Mountain College in Poultney, Vermont.

The President intends to appoint the following four individuals to serve as Member of the J. William Fulbright Foreign Scholarship Board for the remainder of three-year terms expiring September 22, 2004.

John Willard Johnson of Houston, Texas Jan Donnelly O?Neill of Midland, Texas Donald Edward Vermeil of Palo Alto, California Steven Joel Uhlfelder of Tallahassee, Florida

The President intends to appoint Jennifer Cabranes Braceras to be a Member of the United States Commission on Civil Rights. Braceras is presently the John M. Olin Fellow in Law at Harvard University Law School and was previously the Charles Hamilton Houston Fellow. From 1996 to 2000, she was an Associate with the Boston law firm of Ropes and Gray. She is a graduate of the University of Massachusetts and Harvard Law School.