Press Release - President Obama Announces More Key Administration Posts

WASHINGTON, DC – Today, President Barack Obama announced his intent to nominate the following individual to a key Administration post:

•      Janet L. LaBreck – Commissioner, Rehabilitation Services Administration, Department of Education

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

•      Jonathan Safran Foer – Member, United States Holocaust Memorial Council

•      Robert Listenbee, Jr. – Administrator, Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention, Department of Justice

•      James Stock – Member, Council of Economic Advisors

President Obama said, "I am pleased to announce that these experienced and committed individuals have agreed to join this Administration, and I look forward to working with them in the months and years ahead."

President Obama announced his intent to nominate the following individual to a key Administration post:

Janet L. LaBreck, Nominee for Commissioner, Rehabilitation Services Administration, Department of Education

Janet L. LaBreck is the Commissioner of the Massachusetts Commission for the Blind (MCB), a position she has held since 2007. Ms. LaBreck joined the MCB in 1985 as Consumer Advocate. She has served in a number of positions at the MCB since then, including Independent Living Coordinator, Vocational Rehabilitation Counselor, and Regional Director of Central Massachusetts. Since 2005, she has worked as an Adjunct Professor at Assumption College, where she teaches courses in rehabilitation of the blind and case management in rehabilitation. She was awarded an honorary Doctorate of Humane Letters from the New England College of Optometry. She received a B.A. from the University of Massachusetts and an M.Ed. from Springfield College.

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

Jonathan Safran Foer, Appointee for Member, United States Holocaust Memorial Council

Jonathan Safran Foer is a professor in the Graduate Creative Writing Program at New York University. He is also an author of numerous publications, including the New York Times bestsellers Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close and Everything is Illuminated, which received the National Jewish Book Award and the Guardian First Book Award. He was a visiting professor at Yale University in 2008, and currently serves on the Board of Directors of Farm Forward. In 2010, he was selected as one of The New Yorker's "20 Under 40" writers to watch. Mr. Foer received a B.A. from Princeton University.

Robert Listenbee, Jr., Appointee for Administrator, Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention, Department of Justice

Robert Listenbee, Jr. is Chief of the Juvenile Unit of the Defender Association of Philadelphia, a position he has held since 1997. He has also been a trial lawyer at the Defender Association of Philadelphia since 1986. Previously, from 1991 to 1997, Mr. Listenbee was Assistant Chief of the Juvenile Unit. He is a member of the Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention Committee of the Pennsylvania Commission on Crime and Delinquency, which advises the Governor of Pennsylvania on juvenile justice policy. Mr. Listenbee serves on the policy committees of the National Legal Aid & Defender Association and the National Center for Juvenile Justice. He serves on the advisory board of the National Juvenile Defender Center and is a board member and former President of the Juvenile Defenders Association of Pennsylvania. Mr. Listenbee received a B.A. from Harvard University and a J.D. from the Boalt Hall School of Law at the University of California, Berkeley.

Dr. James Stock, Appointee for Member, Council of Economic Advisers

Dr. James Stock is the Chief Economist for the Council of Economic Advisers (CEA), a position he has held since 2012. Before joining CEA, he worked at Harvard University, where he has held a number of positions since 1983, including service as the Harold Hitchings Burbank Professor of Political Economy with a dual appointment in the Kennedy School of Government. In addition, Dr. Stock chaired the Harvard Economics Department from 2006 to 2009. He is formerly a member of the Academic Advisory Board of the Federal Reserve Bank of Boston, the National Bureau of Economic Research Business Cycle Dating Committee, and the Massachusetts Governor's Council of Economic Advisors. He received a B.S. from Yale University and an M.A. and Ph.D. from the University of California, Berkeley.