Press Release - President Obama Announces More Key Administration Posts

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

•      Robert P. Jackson, Ambassador to the Republic of Cameroon, Department of State

•      James F. Jeffrey, Ambassador to the Republic of Iraq, Department of State

•      Alejandro D. Wolff, Ambassador to the Republic of Chile, Department of State

•      Pamela Young-Holmes, Member, National Council on Disability

•      Ramona Emilia Romero, General Counsel, Department of Agriculture

President Obama also announced his intent to appoint several individuals to various administration posts. Their bios are below.

President Obama said, "I am grateful that these experienced men and women have agreed to serve in my administration as we work to meet our nation's most pressing challenges. I look forward to working with them in the coming months and years."

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

Robert P. Jackson, Nominee for Ambassador to the Republic of Cameroon, Department of State

Robert P. Jackson is a career member of the Senior Foreign Service. He is currently Deputy Chief of Mission at the U.S. Embassy in Morocco. Prior to that he was Deputy Chief of Mission and Charge d'Affaires, a.i., at the U.S. Embassy in Senegal. Mr. Jackson has also served as Director of the Office for the Promotion of Human Rights and Democracy; Coordinator of the Entry-Level Officer Training Program; and Country Officer for Botswana, Nigeria and Zimbabwe. His other overseas postings include Burundi, Canada, Cote d'Ivoire, Portugal and Zimbabwe. He received his B.A. from Bowdoin College, his M.A. from The George Washington University and his M.S. from National Defense University.

James F. Jeffrey, Nominee for Ambassador to the Republic of Iraq, Department of State

James Franklin Jeffrey is a career member of the U.S. Foreign Service, grade of Career Minister. He began his current assignment as Ambassador to Turkey in November 2008. Ambassador Jeffrey has previously served in Washington as Assistant to the President and Deputy National Security Advisor, Principal Deputy Assistant Secretary of State in the Near Eastern Bureau, and Special Advisor to the Secretary of State for Iraq. From 2004 to 2005, Mr. Jeffrey served in Baghdad as Deputy Chief of Mission and later Charge d'Affaires. His previous assignments have involved the Balkans, as Ambassador to Albania and Deputy Special Representative for Bosnia Implementation, and Deputy Chief of Mission in both Turkey and Kuwait. Ambassador Jeffrey earlier held a variety of assignments in Washington and abroad in the European and Near Eastern Bureaus, including postings in Munich, Adana, Ankara, Sofia, and Tunis. Ambassador Jeffrey served in the US Army as an infantry branch officer from 1969 to 1976, with service in Germany and Vietnam. He has a B.A. from Northeastern University and a M.S.B.A. from Boston University.

Alejandro D. Wolff, Nominee for Ambassador to the Republic of Chile, Department of State

Alex Wolff is currently Ambassador and Deputy Representative of the U.S. to the United Nations, a position he has held since December 2005. He is a career member of the Senior Foreign Service. Ambassador Wolff joined the State Department as a Foreign Service Officer in 1979. He served as the Deputy Chief of Mission at the U.S. Embassy in Paris, France. His assignments in Washington include tours on the Policy Planning Staff; in the Office of Soviet Union Affairs; in the Office of the Under Secretary for Political Affairs; as Deputy Executive Secretary of the State Department; and as the Executive Assistant to Secretaries of State Madeleine Albright and Colin Powell. Ambassador Wolff has also served overseas in Algeria, Morocco, Chile, Cyprus and the U.S. Mission to the EU in Brussels. Ambassador Wolff is the recipient of the State Department's Distinguished, Superior, and Meritorious Honor Awards. He graduated Magna Cum Laude in 1978 from the University of California at Los Angeles.

Pamela Young-Holmes, Nominee for Member, National Council on Disability

Pamela Young-Holmes is Director of Consumer and Regulatory Affairs and Director of CapTel Customer Service for Ultratec, Inc, a communications technology company that designs equipment to make telephone access more convenient and reliable for people with hearing loss. Working at Ultratec since 1987, she has worked extensively on issues related to the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) and has become a recognized expert on communication access related matters pertaining to this Act. Ms. Holmes previously worked at the Atlanta Area School for the Deaf and also served as a consultant for public-school mainstream programs for deaf and hard of hearing students for four Wisconsin public school systems. She was also a teacher for the deaf & hard of hearing students in mainstream programs in Madison, WI. Ms. Holmes was twice appointed to the U.S. Access Board (1994 & 1997), and was elected Chair of the Board in 2001. During her tenure on the Board, Ms. Holmes played a lead role in the Board's development of accessibility guidelines for telecommunications equipment and Federal Electronic and Information Technology. She currently serves as a member of the WI Public Service Commission Universal Service Fund Council. She previously served as Chair of the Gallaudet University Board of Trustees and as a Director on the Telecommunications for the Deaf, Inc. Board of Directors. Ms. Holmes has a MS in Deaf Education from the University of Tennessee and a BA in English from Gallaudet University.

Ramona Emilia Romero, Nominee for General Counsel, Department of Agriculture

Ramona Emilia Romero is currently Corporate Counsel at E.I. du Pont de Nemours and Company (DuPont), where she provides legal oversight for the acquisition of transportation, distribution, supply-chain management, travel and energy resources, and manages related strategic litigation. Since 2008, Ms. Romero has also served as General Counsel of Sentinel Transportation LLC, a DuPont joint venture. She has held other key positions at DuPont, including Senior Counsel and then Corporate Counsel for complex commercial and antitrust litigation (1998-2005), and Corporate Counsel and Manager of Operations and Partnering (2005-2007). In this last role, Ms. Romero directed all facets of DuPont Legal's industry-leading partnering program and oversaw litigation-related operations. From 1988 to 1998, she was a commercial, government contracts and white collar litigator at Crowell & Moring in Washington, DC. Ms. Romero has served on several boards and been affiliated with several professional organizations, including the American Constitution Society for Law and Policy, both the House of Delegates and the Presidential Initiative Commission on Diversity of the American Bar Association, the Advisory Committee of The O'Connor Judicial Selection Initiative at the University of Denver, and The Justice at Stake Campaign. She is also the Immediate Past President of the Hispanic National Bar Association, and a founding member and former officer of the Dominican American National Roundtable. Ms. Romero is the recipient of multiple honors, including the Lucero ("guiding star") Award from Latino Justice PRLDEF (formerly known as the Puerto Rican Legal Defense Fund) and Hispanic Business Magazine's recognition in 2007 as one of the 100 most influential Hispanics in the United States. She holds a B.A. from Barnard College and J.D. from Harvard Law School.

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

Mary Ciuniq Pete, Appointee for Member, United States Arctic Research Commission

Mary Ciuniq Pete is currently the Director of the Kuskokwim Campus of the University of Alaska Fairbanks in Bethel, Alaska. Prior to joining the University of Alaska, Ms. Pete served as Subsistence Research Specialist (from 1984 to 1993) and later Director (from 1996 to 2005) of the Division of Subsistence for the Alaska Department of Fish and Game. During her tenure as Director, she managed the applied social science research program charged with implementing the state's subsistence hunting and fishing priority law. In her role as Subsistence Research Specialist, she conducted and directed research in the Yukon-Kuskokwim Delta region of Alaska. From 1993 to 1996, Ms. Pete was an instructor at the University of Alaska Fairbanks' Department of Alaska Native and Rural Development. Ms. Pete has also served on various boards and committees, including the North Pacific Research Board Science Panel, the Oversight Committee convened by the National Science Foundation to review the science programs of the International Arctic Research Center, the Alaska Women's Commission and the Alaska Council on Domestic Violence and Sexual Assault. Ms. Pete holds a B.A. and an M.A. in Anthropology from the University of Alaska Fairbanks.

Joseph Jeu, Appointee for Member (Government Official), Committee for Purchase from People Who Are Blind or Severely Disabled

Joseph Jeu is the Assistant Commissioner for General Supplies and Services for GSA's Federal Acquisition Service, overseeing GSA's acquisition of a wide range of general supplies and services used by Federal agencies. Previously, Mr. Jeu served as the Assistant Commissioner for Global Supply in the legacy Federal Supply Service and the Assistant Commissioner for Transportation and Property Management. He is a member of the Senior Executive Service and has received many awards throughout his career, including the Department of the Navy's Distinguished, Superior and Meritorious Civilian Service Awards. Mr. Jeu is also a recipient of the Presidential Rank Award of Meritorious Executive. He completed the Harvard University Senior Officials in National Security Program in 1991 and holds a bachelor's degree in business administration from the College of William and Mary.

Michael J. Lyden, Appointee for Member (Government Official), Committee for Purchase from People Who Are Blind or Severely Disabled

Michael J. Lyden is the Commander of the Naval Supply Systems Command (NAVSUP) and 45th Chief of Supply Corps. He commands over 25,500 military and civilian personnel globally. As Chief of Supply Corps he manages over 3,500 active and Reserve Supply Corps officers and over 27,000 active and reserve enlisted personnel. Previous shore positions include the Director of Supply, Ordinance, and Logistics Operations at the Office of Chief of Naval Operations, Washington D.C., the Director of Logistics and Security Assistance at the Headquarters United States European Command in Stuttgart, Germany, and the Commander at the Defense Supply Center Richmond in Richmond, VA. Afloat, he served as supply officer aboard the frigate USS Valdez (FF-1096), stock control officer in the initial crew of the combat stores ship USNS Sirius (T-AFS-8), and as supply officer of the aircraft carrier USS Carl Vinson (CVN-70).