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:

•      Jay N. Anania – Ambassador to the Republic of Suriname, Department of State

•      Gene A. Cretz – Ambassador to the Republic of Ghana, Department of State

•      Susan Marsh Elliott – Ambassador to the Republic of Tajikistan, Department of State

•      David J. Lane – Rank of Ambassador during his tenure of service as the United States Representative to the United Nations Agencies for Food and Agriculture, Department of State

•      Charles P. Rose – Member, Board of Trustees of the Morris K. and Stewart L. Udall Foundation

The President also announced his intent to appoint the following individual to a key Administration post:

•      Carol W. Greider – Member, President's Committee on the National Medal of Science

President Obama said, "I am honored that these talented individuals have decided to join this Administration and serve our country. I look forward to working with them in the months and years to come."

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

Jay N. Anania, Nominee for Ambassador to the Republic of Suriname, Department of State

Jay N. Anania, a career member of the Senior Foreign Service with the rank of Minister-Counselor, currently serves as Management Counselor at the U.S. Embassy in Baghdad. From 2009 to 2011, he served at the State Department as Executive Director of the Bureau of Near Eastern Affairs and the Bureau of South and Central Asian Affairs. From 2006 to 2009, Mr. Anania was the Minister-Counselor for Management Affairs at the U.S. Embassy in Berlin, where he served for seven months as Acting Deputy Chief of Mission. Prior positions in Washington include Acting Chief Information Officer in the Bureau of Information Resource Management (2005-2006) and Director of the Office of Management Policy (2002-2005). Additional overseas posts include assignments at the U.S. Consulates General in Hong Kong and Tijuana, Mexico; U.S. Embassies in Jordan and the United Arab Emirates, and at the U.S Interests Section in Havana, Cuba. Mr. Anania holds a B.A. from Kenyon College and an M.B.A. from the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill.

Ambassador Gene A. Cretz, Nominee for Ambassador to the Republic of Ghana, Department of State

Ambassador Gene A. Cretz, a career member of the Senior Foreign Service with the rank of Minister-Counselor, is currently the U.S. Ambassador to Libya. In 2008, Ambassador Cretz served as Deputy Assistant Secretary of State in the Bureau of Near Eastern Affairs. From 2004 to 2007, he was the Deputy Chief of Mission at the U.S. Embassy in Tel Aviv. From 2003 to 2004, he was assigned to the U.S. Embassy in Damascus where he served as Deputy Chief of Mission and Charge d'Affaires. From 2001 to 2003, he was Minister-Counselor for Economic and Political Affairs at the U.S. Embassy in Egypt. Other overseas assignments include service in Beijing, New Delhi, and Islamabad. Assignments in Washington include State Department posts in the Bureau of International Organizations, the Operations Center, and in the Bureau of Near Eastern Affairs. From 1975 to 1977, Ambassador Cretz served as a Peace Corps Volunteer in Afghanistan. He received a B.A. from the University of Rochester and a M.Sc. from the State University College at Buffalo.

Susan Marsh Elliott, Nominee for Ambassador to the Republic of Tajikistan, Department of State

Susan Marsh Elliott, a career member of the Senior Foreign Service with the rank of Counselor, currently serves as Deputy Assistant Secretary in the Bureau of South and Central Asian Affairs at the Department of State. Prior to this role, Ms. Elliott served as Minister-Counselor for Political Affairs at the U.S. Embassy in Moscow (2009-2010) and as Principal Officer at the U.S. Consulate General in Belfast (2007-2009). Other assignments have included Deputy Executive Secretary (2005-2007), Office Director of the Executive Secretariat Staff (2003-2005), Visa Section Chief at the U.S. Embassy in Athens (2001-2003), Deputy Economic Counselor at the U.S. Embassy in Athens (1999-2001), and Desk Officer in the Office of the Coordinator for Regional Conflicts in the New Independent States (1994-1995). Ms. Elliott joined the Foreign Service in 1990 after serving as a nurse at the U.S. Embassy in Tegucigalpa. Ms. Elliott received a B.S. from Skidmore College, an M.S. from Russell Sage College, and a D.S.N. from Indiana University.

David J. Lane, Nominee for the rank of Ambassador during his tenure of service as the United States Representative to the United Nations Agencies for Food and Agriculture, Department of State

David J. Lane currently serves as Assistant to the President and Counselor to the Chief of Staff at the White House. From 2007 to 2011, he was President and Chief Executive Officer of ONE. Prior to joining ONE, Mr. Lane was the Director of Public Policy and External Affairs and Director of the East Coast Office for the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation. From 1993 to 2000, he served in a number of senior positions in the federal government, including Executive Director of the National Economic Council at the White House and Chief of Staff to the U.S. Secretary of Commerce. He received a B.A. from the University of Virginia and an M.P.A. from the Woodrow Wilson School at Princeton University.

Charles P. Rose, Nominee for Member, Board of Trustees of the Morris K. and Stewart L. Udall Foundation

Charles P. Rose is a partner at the law firm of Drinker Biddle & Reath LLP, where he focuses on representing businesses, educational institutions, and Indian tribal governments in labor and employment matters, education law and regulatory compliance. Mr. Rose was General Counsel of the U.S. Department of Education from 2009 until 2011, where he also served as the Secretary's designee to the Board of Trustees of the Udall Foundation. Before joining the Department of Education, he was a founding partner of Franczek Radelet PC in Chicago. Mr. Rose is a member of the Board of Directors of the Alliance for Excellent Education, a member of the National Association of College and University Attorneys, and a member of the National and Illinois Councils of School Attorneys. He was a founding member of the Board of Directors of Advance Illinois and formerly served on the Chicago Advisory Board of Facing History and Ourselves. Mr. Rose received the Illinois Association of School Administrators Exemplary Service to Education Award in 2011 and Champion of Public Education Award from FED-ED in 2009. He was elected as Fellow of the College of Labor & Employment Lawyers in 2008 and received the Vision in Education Award from ED-RED in 2006. Mr. Rose received a B.A. in Economics from Villanova University and a J.D. from DePaul University.

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

Dr. Carol W. Greider, Appointee for Member, President's Committee on the National Medal of Science

Dr. Carol W. Greider is the Daniel Nathans Professor and Director of Molecular Biology and Genetics at the Institute for Basic Biomedical Sciences at the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine. In 2009, Dr. Greider won the Nobel Prize in Medicine with Drs. Elizabeth Blackburn and Jack Szostak for their work on telomeres as well as telomerase, an enzyme that maintains chromosome ends, which Drs. Greider and Blackburn discovered in 1984. Before working at Johns Hopkins, Dr. Greider joined Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory as a Fellow in 1988 and served as an Investigator from 1994 to 1997. Dr. Greider received a B.A. in Biology from the University of California, Santa Barbara, and a Ph.D. in Molecular Biology from the University of California, Berkeley.