Press Release - 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:

• Janette L. Dates – Member, Board of Directors of the Corporation for Public Broadcasting
• Mary Ellen Barbera – Member, Board of Directors of the State Justice Institute
• John D. Minton, Jr. – Member, Board of Directors of the State Justice Institute
• Joseph R. Donovan, Jr. – Ambassador to the Republic of Indonesia, Department of State
• Pepón Osorio – Member, National Council on the Arts
• John A. Herrera – Member, National Credit Union Administration Board
• Grant T. Harris – Member, United States Institute of Peace Board

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

• David Chard – Member, National Board for Education Sciences
• Larry Hedges – Member, National Board for Education Sciences
• Jeannie Oakes – Member, National Board for Education Sciences
• Michael B. Filler – Member, National Council on Federal Labor-Management Relations
• Cindy Simon Skjodt – Member, United States Holocaust Memorial Council

President Obama said, "I am confident that these experienced and hardworking individuals will help us tackle the important challenges facing America, and I am grateful for their service. I look forward to working with them."

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

Dr. Jannette L. Dates, Nominee for Member, Board of Directors of the Corporation for Public Broadcasting

Dr. Jannette L. Dates is the Dean Emerita of the Howard University School of Communications, a position she has held since 2012. Dr. Dates served as Dean of the Howard University School of Communications from 1996 to 2012, Acting Dean from 1993 to 1996, and Associate Dean from 1987 to 1992, having first joined the University as an Assistant Professor in 1981. She was a Freedom Forum Media Studies Center Fellow at Columbia University from 1992 to 1993, an Associate Professor at Coppin State College from 1985 to 1987, and an Assistant Professor at Morgan State University from 1977 to 1980. Dr. Dates was Anchor and Co-Producer for the series The Negro in U.S. History from 1973 to 1974, and Producer, Writer, and Anchor on the weekly television program North Star from 1972 to 1973. She served as a member of the Baltimore Mayor's Cable Communication Commission from 1990 to 1994. Dr. Dates was first appointed to the Board of Directors of the Corporation for Public Broadcasting in 2013. Dr. Dates received a B.S. from Coppin State College, an M.Ed. from Johns Hopkins University, and a Ph.D. from the University of Maryland, College Park.

Mary Ellen Barbera, Nominee for Member, Board of Directors of the State Justice Institute

Mary Ellen Barbera is Chief Judge Judge of the Court of Appeals of Maryland, a position she has held since 2013. She was appointed to the Maryland Court of Appeals in 2008 for the Seventh Appellate Judicial Circuit, Montgomery County. Prior to that, she served as a Judge for the Maryland Court of Special Appeals from 2002 to 2008. From 1998 to 2002, she served as Deputy Legal Counsel and then Legal Counsel in the Office of the Maryland Governor. Previously, Ms. Barbera was Deputy Chief of the Office of the Maryland Attorney General's Criminal Appeals Division from 1989 to 1998 and an Assistant Attorney General from 1985 to 1989. Ms. Barbera is an Adjunct Faculty Member at the American University Washington College of Law. In 1998, she was awarded the University of Baltimore School of Law's Outstanding Teaching by an Adjunct Faculty Member Award. Ms. Barbera was Chair of the Judicial Institute of Maryland's Board of Directors and a Member of the Maryland Access to Justice Commission from 2009 to 2014. She has served as Chair of the Maryland Judicial Conference since 2013. Ms. Barbera received a B.S. from Towson State College and a J.D. from the University of Maryland School of Law.

John D. Minton, Jr., Nominee for Member, Board of Directors of the State Justice Institute

John D. Minton, Jr. is Chief Justice of Kentucky, a position he has held since 2008. He has served on the Kentucky Supreme Court since 2006. Previously, Mr. Minton served as a Judge on the Kentucky Court of Appeals from 2003 to 2006. From 1992 to 2003, he was a Circuit Judge in Kentucky's Eighth Judicial Circuit. From 1996 to 2003, he also served as Chief Administrative Judge for the 21-county Green River Region. He is currently a Member and President-Elect of the Conference of Chief Justices. He is also a Member of the Board of Directors of the National Center for State Courts. Mr. Minton received a B.A. from Western Kentucky University and a J.D. from the University of Kentucky College of Law.

Joseph R. Donovan, Jr., Nominee for Ambassador to the Republic of Indonesia, Department of State 

Joseph R. Donovan, Jr., a career member of the Foreign Service, Class of Minister-Counselor, is Managing Director of the Washington Office of the American Institute in Taiwan, a position he has held since 2014. Previously, Mr. Donovan served as Foreign Policy Advisor to the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff at the Pentagon from 2012 to 2014, Associate Professor at the National Defense University in Washington, D.C. from 2011 to 2012, and Principal Deputy Assistant Secretary in the Bureau of East Asian and Pacific Affairs at the Department of State from 2009 to 2011. He was the U.S. Consul General in Hong Kong from 2008 to 2009, Deputy Chief of Mission at the U.S. Embassy in Tokyo, Japan from 2005 to 2008, and Director of the Department of State's Office of Chinese and Mongolian Affairs from 2003 to 2005. Prior to that, Mr. Donovan was Political Section Chief at the Taipei Office of the American Institute in Taiwan from 2000 to 2003 and Political/Military Unit Chief at the U.S. Embassy in Tokyo, Japan from 1997 to 2000. Earlier assignments in the Foreign Service include posts in Taiwan, China, South Korea and Qatar. Before joining the Foreign Service, he served as a Peace Corps Volunteer in Seoul, South Korea. Mr. Donovan received a B.S.F.S. from Georgetown University's School of Foreign Service and an M.A. from the U.S. Naval Postgraduate School.

Pepón Osorio, Nominee for Member, National Council on the Arts

Pepón Osorio is a Laura Carnell Professor of Community Art at Temple University's Tyler School of Art, a position he has held since 2004. Mr. Osorio is a visual artist with a number of installations featured in galleries, including the Whitney Museum of American Art, the Smithsonian American Art Museum, El Museo del Barrio, and Museo de Arte de Puerto Rico. In 1999, he was awarded a MacArthur Foundation Fellowship. Mr. Osorio received a B.S. from the City University of New York, Herbert H. Lehman College and an M.A. from Columbia University.

John A. Herrera, Nominee for Member, National Credit Union Administration Board

John A. Herrera is the Senior Vice President for Latino and Hispanic Affairs at Self-Help, a nonprofit community development financial institution, a position he has held since 1999. From 2003 to 2010, he served as a Commissioner for the North Carolina Credit Union Commission. He was twice elected as a Town Alderman in Carrboro, North Carolina in 2001 and 2005. Mr. Herrera has served on the Board of the Latino Community Development Center in Durham, North Carolina since 2001 and also cofounded the state-charted Latino Community Credit Union in 2000. Mr. Herrera received a B.S. from the University of Delaware and an M.S. from North Carolina State University.

Grant T. Harris, Nominee for Member, United States Institute of Peace Board??

Grant T. Harris is the Chief Executive Officer at Harris Africa Partners LLC, a position he has held since 2015. Mr. Harris was Special Assistant to the President and Senior Director for African Affairs on the National Security Council staff from 2011 to 2015. He served at the U.S. Mission to the United Nations as Deputy Chief of Staff and Counselor from 2010 to 2011 and as a Senior Policy Advisor from 2009 to 2010. From 2005 to 2009, Mr. Harris was an attorney at Cleary Gottlieb Steen and Hamilton LLP. He previously served in the African Affairs Directorate of the National Security Council staff from 2000 to 2001, and at the U.S. Mission to the United Nations from 1999 to 2000. Mr. Harris received a B.A. from the University of California, Berkeley, an M.P.A. from Princeton University, and a J.D. from Yale Law School.

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

Dr. David Chard, Appointee for Member, National Board for Education Sciences

Dr. David Chard is the President of Wheelock College in Boston, Massachusetts, a position he has held since July 2016. He was the Leon Simmons Endowed Dean and a Professor at the Southern Methodist University's Annette Caldwell Simmons School of Education and Human Development from 2007 to 2015. Dr. Chard served as the Director of Graduate Studies for the Department of Special Education at the University of Oregon from 2003 to 2005. He also served as Associate Dean of the College of Education at the University of Oregon from 2005 to 2007, Director of Middle-Secondary Education at the University of Oregon from 2000 to 2003, and Director of Research and Evaluation of the Texas Center for Reading and Language Arts from 1997 to 2000. From 1986 to 1990, Dr. Chard served as a classroom teacher for the Peace Corps in Lesotho, Africa. He has served on a number of boards supporting high quality educational opportunities for children, including the International Academy for Research in Learning Disabilities, the American Mathematical Association, and President for the Division for Research and the Division for Learning Disabilities at the Council for Exceptional Children. Dr. Chard received a B.S. from Central Michigan University and a Ph.D. from the University of Oregon.

Dr. Larry Hedges, Appointee for Member, National Board for Education Sciences

Dr. Larry Hedges is a Board of Trustees Professor of Statistics and Social Policy at Northwestern University, a position he has held since 2005. Prior to joining the faculty at Northwestern, he was a faculty member in the Department of Education at the University of Chicago from 1980 to 2005, where he was named the Stella M. Rowley Distinguished Service Professor. He is an elected member of the National Academy of Education and is a fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, the American Statistical Association, the American Psychological Association, and the American Educational Research Association. He is also a former President of the Society for Research on Educational Effectiveness. He was elected 2013-2014 Statistician of the Year by the Chicago chapter of the American Statistical Association. Dr. Hedges received a B.A. from the University of California, San Diego, and an M.A and Ph.D. from Stanford University.

Dr. Jeannie Oakes, Appointee for Member, National Board for Education Sciences

Dr. Jeannie Oakes is a Senior Fellow in Residence at the Learning Policy Institute, a position she has held since its founding in 2015. Prior to this, she served as Director of Educational Opportunity and Scholarship at the Ford Foundation and Presidential Professor in Educational Equity at the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) Graduate School of Education and Information Studies. At UCLA, Dr. Oakes directed the Institute for Democracy, Education, and Access and the University of California's All Campus Consortium on Research. She is the author of Keeping Track: How Schools Structure Inequality. Dr. Oakes is the recipient of the California Educational Research Association's Lifetime Achievement Award, the American Association of Colleges of Teacher Education's Margaret Lindsey Research Award, the National Association for Multicultural Education's Multicultural Research Award, the Educational Press Association's Distinguished Achievement Award, and the Southern Christian Leadership Conference's Ralph David Abernathy Award for Community Service. She is also immediate past President of the American Educational Research Association and a member of the National Academy of Education. Dr. Oakes received a B.A. from San Diego State University, an M.A. from California State University, Los Angeles, and a Ph.D. from University of California, Los Angeles.

Michael B. Filler, Appointee for Member, National Council on Federal Labor-Management Relations

Michael B. Filler is the Director of the Public Services Division of the International Brotherhood of Teamsters (IBT), a role he has held since 2010. He was appointed by President Obama to the National Council on Federal Labor-Management Relations in 2010 and again in 2012. Previously, Mr. Filler was Associate Director of the Public Services Division from 2006 to 2009, and Associate Director of the Teamsters Education Department from 2003 to 2005. Before joining IBT, Mr. Filler was an official at the National Treasury Employees Union from 1985 to 1997, a 12 year tenure that included the positions of Director of Negotiations, Northeast Regional Director, and National Field Representative. From 1976 to 1985, Mr. Filler worked at the Federal Election Commission, first as a Reports Analyst and then as a Branch Chief. He currently serves as Co-Chair of the Public Sector Industry Council of the Labor and Employment Relations Association. Mr. Filler received a B.A. from American University.

Cindy Simon Skjodt, Appointee for Member, United States Holocaust Memorial Council

Cindy Simon Skjodt is the Chairman and Founder of the Samerian Foundation, Inc., a position she has held since 2003. Ms. Simon Skjodt is also Chair of the Central Indiana Community Foundation and Vice Chair of the Pacers Foundation, positions she has held since 2014 and 2011 respectively. She serves on the Board of Directors of Riley's Hospital for Children Foundation, Indiana University Foundation, Coalition for Homelessness Intervention & Prevention, and the Advisory Board for Schools on Wheels – Indianapolis. In 2014, she was named Leading Philanthropist of the Year by Indiana University. Ms. Simon Skjodt received a B.A. from Indiana University and an M.S. from Butler University.