POSITION: ADMINISTRATOR, CENTER FOR MEDICARE AND MEDICAID SERVICES (CMS)

NOMINEE: Donald M. Berwick

BIRTHDATE: 1946 in New York City, NY

EDUCATION:

B.A., Harvard University

M.P.P., John F. Kennedy School of Government, Harvard University

M.D. 1972, Harvard Medical School, Harvard University

FAMILY: wife Ann (Greenberg) Berwick; father of four children (two sons and two daughters)

EXPERIENCE:

President and Chief Executive Officer, Institute for Healthcare Improvement (IHI)

Clinical Professor of Pediatrics and Health Care Policy, Harvard Medical School

Professor of Health Policy and Management, Harvard School of Public Health

Associate in Pediatrics at Boston’s Children’s Hospital

Consultant in Pediatrics at Massachusetts General Hospital

Liaison to the Institutive of Medicine‘s Global Health Board and serves on the governing council

1991-2001 Chair of the National Advisory Council of the Agency for Healthcare Research and

Quality

1995-1999 Chair of the Health Services Research Review Study Section of the Agency for Health

Care Policy and Research

1990-1996 Vice Chair of the U.S. Preventive Services Task Force

1987-1991, Co-founder and Co-Principal Investigator for the National Demonstration Project on

Quality Improvement in Health Care (NDP)

Member of the Institute of Medicine of the National Academy of Sciences

AWARDS:

2005 Honorary Knight Commander of the Most Excellent Order of the British Empire

2004 Inducted as Fellow of the Royal College of Physicians in London

2002 “Award of Honor” from the American Hospital Association

2001 Alfred I. DuPont Award for excellence in children’s health care

1999 Ernest A. Codman Award

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POSITION: Supreme Court nominee

NOMINEE: Elena Kagan

Born: April 28, 1960

Occupation: Dean of Harvard Law School and Charles Hamilton Houston Professor of Law at Harvard University.

Education: BA summa cum laude, Princeton University, 1981; MPhil, Worchester College, Oxford, 1983; JD magna cum laude, Harvard Law School, 1986

Clinton White House: 1995-1996 associate counsel to the President; 1997-1999 deputy assistant to the President for Domestic Policy; 1997-1999 deputy director Domestic Policy Council.

NOTE: From 1986 to 1987 Ms. Dean Kagan served as a judicial clerk for Judge Abner Mikva on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit.  From 1987-1988 she also served as a judicial clerk for Supreme Court Justice Thurgood Marshall.  Dean Kagan briefly served as a staff member for Michael Dukakis’s presidential campaign.  During the summer of 1993 she served as Special Counsel to the Senate Judiciary Committee to work on the confirmation of Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg.

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Nominee for Commissioner, Equal Employment Opportunity Commission

NOMINEE: Chai Feldblum

BIRTH DATE: c. 1959

EDUCATION: B.A. in Ancient Studies and Religion, Barnard College, 1979. J.D. from Harvard Law School, 1985.

FAMILY: Lives with a same-sex “domestic partner,” Georgetown Law Professor Nan Hunter. Previously lived in a “nonsexual domestic partnership” with three other women who pledged to care for each other.

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What’s in store for the Obama administration? FRC has been keeping track of the President’s nominees with detailed backgrounders. Here’s the list to date:

• President Barack Obama
• Vice President Joe Biden
• Melody Barnes, Director, Domestic Policy Council
• Regina Benjamin, Surgeon General of the United States
• Carol Browner, Assistant to the President for Energy & Climate Change
• Steven Chu, Secretary of Energy
• Hillary Rodham Clinton, Secretary of State
• Dr. Francis Collins, Director, National Institutes of Health
• Gregory Craig, White House Counsel
• Tom Daschle, Secretary of Health and Human Services
• Arne Duncan, Secretary of Education
• Rahm Emanuel, White House Chief of Staff
• Chai Feldblum, Commissioner, Equal Employment Opportunity Commission
• Robert Gates, Secretary of Defense
• Timothy Geithner, Secretary of Treasury
• Robert Gibbs, White House Press Secretary
• Sanjay Gupta, M.D., Surgeon General
• Dr. Margaret Hamburg, Administrator, Food and Drug Administration
• Eric Holder, Jr., Attorney General
• John Holdren, Science Advisor
• Lisa Jackson, EPA Administrator
• Kevin Jennings, Assistant Deputy Secretary for the Office of Safe and Drug Free Schools
• Dawn Johnsen, Assistant Attorney General
• Elena Kagan, Solicitor General
• Elena Kagan, U.S. Supreme Court Nominee
• Ray LaHood, Secretary of Transportation
• Eric Lander, Co-Chair, President’s Council of Advisors on Science and Technology
• Gary Locke, Secretary of Commerce
• Jane Lubchenco, NOAA Administrator
• Ellen Moran, White House Communications Director
• Janet Napolitano, Secretary of Homeland Security
• David Ogden, Deputy Attorney General
• Peter Orszag, Director, Office of Management and Budget
• Thomas Perrelli, Associate Attorney General
• Susan Rice, Ambassador to the United Nations
• Kathleen Sebelius, Secretary of Health & Human Services
• Dr. Joshua Sharfstein, Deputy Director, Food and Drug Administration
• James Steinberg, Deputy Secretary of State
• Cass Sunstein, Director of the Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs
• Dr. Harold Varmus, Co-Chair, President’s Council of Advisors on Science and Technology
• Thomas J. Vilsack, Secretary of Agriculture

Additionally, you can go to FRC Action’s web site to read more about the Obama Administration.

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POSITION: SURGEON GENERAL OF THE UNITED STATES

NOMINEE: Regina Benjamin

BIRTHDATE: October 26, 1956 in Mobile, Alabama

EDUCATION:

B.S.  Xavier University of Louisiana

M.D. 1984, University of Alabama at Birmingham, Atlanta’s Morehouse School of Medicine

M.B.A. Tulane University, Freeman School of Business

FAMILY: never married; no children

EXPERIENCE:

Completed residency in family practice at the Medical Center of Central Georgia

1987 Founded the Bayou La Batre Rural Health Clinic in Bayou La Batre, Alabama;
rebuilt after Hurricane George, Hurricane Katrina, and extensive fire damage

1995 Elected to the American Medical Association’s board of trustees

1996-2002 Board Member, Physicians for Human Rights, Physicians for Human Rights Advisory Council

1998 Nelson Mandela Award for Health and Human Rights

2000 National Caring Award (which was inspired by Mother Teresa)

2006 Papal honor Pro Ecclesia et Pontifice from Pope Benedict XVI

Served as President of the American Medical Association’s Education and Research Foundation

Named by Time Magazine as one of the “Nation’s 50 Future Leaders Age 40 and Under.

President of the Medical Association of Alabama

Appointed by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services Secretary Donna Shalala to the Clinical Laboratory Improvement Act Committee and to the Council of Graduate Medical Education, and also a member of the “Step 3 Committee

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POSITION: CO-CHAIR, PRESIDENT’S COUNCIL OF ADVISORS ON SCIENCE & TECHNOLOGY (PCAST)

APPOINTEE: Eric S. Lander

BIRTH DATE: February 3, 1957 in Brooklyn, New York

EDUCATION:

A.B. in Mathematics, Princeton University, 1978

D.Phil. in Mathematics, Rhodes Scholar, Oxford University, 1981

FAMILY: Wife-Lori Weiner; three children-Jessica, Daniel, David

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POSITION: DIRECTOR, NATIONAL INSTITUTES OF HEALTH (NIH)

NOMINEE: Francis S. Collins

BIRTHDATE: April 14, 1950 in Staunton, Virginia

EDUCATION:

B.S. in Chemistry, 1970, University of Virginia

Ph.D. in Physical Chemistry, 1974, Yale University

M.D. 1977, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill

FAMILY: wife Diane L. Baker; two daughters from previous marriage

EXPERIENCE:

2009  Founded Biologos Foundation, to address the tension between religion and science

2007 Presidential Medal of Freedom for contributions to genetic research.

2006  Published book The Language of God: A Scientist Presents Evidence for Belief

1993-2008  Director of National Human Genome Research Institute (NHGRI)

1989  Identified gene for cystic fibrosis

1984-1993  Faculty position at University of Michigan

1981-1984  Fellow in Human Genetics at Yale Medical School

1978-1981  Residency and Chief Residency in Internal Medicine, North Carolina Memorial Hospital, Chapel Hill

Member of the Institute of Medicine and the National Academy of Sciences

Physician volunteer in a rural missionary hospital in Nigeria

Member of the Obama transition team

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POSITION: ASSISTANT DEPUTY SECRETARY FOR THE OFFICE OF SAFE AND DRUG FREE SCHOOLS
NOMINEE: Kevin Jennings
Born: Winston-Salem, N.C.
Occupation: Executive Director, and founder, of GLSEN, the Gay, Lesbian and Straight Education Network.
Education: graduated magna cum laude from Harvard College

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Comments: 25 |

POSITION: CO-CHAIR, PRESIDENT’S COUNCIL OF ADVISORS ON SCIENCE & TECHNOLOGY (PCAST)

APPOINTEE: Harold E. Varmus

BIRTH DATE: December 18, 1939 in Oceanside, NY

EDUCATION:

B.A. in English Literature ; Amherst College

Graduate degree in English; Harvard

M.D., Columbia College of Physicians and Surgeons

FAMILY: Wife Constance Casey; sons Jacob and Christopher

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POSITION: DEPUTY DIRECTOR for THE FDA

NOMINEE: Joshua Sharfstein

Born: 1970

Occupation: Commissioner of Health for the City of Baltimore, Maryland

Education: Harvard College, 1991; Harvard Medical School 1996; Residency in pediatrics at Boston City Hospital and Boston Medical Center; completed a special pediatrics fellowship with Boston University

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POSITION: ADMINISTRATOR, FOOD AND DRUG ADMINISTRATION

NOMINEE: Dr. Margaret A. Hamburg

BIRTH DATE: 1955

EDUCATION: She earned her M.D. from Harvard Medical School, and completed her training at the New York Hospital/Cornell University Medical Center.

FAMILY: Husband: Peter Fitzhugh Brown; two children

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POSITION: SECRETARY OF COMMERCE

NOMINEE: Gary F. Locke

BIRTH DATE: January 21, 1950 in Seattle, WA

EDUCATION: Bachelor’s degree in Political Science 1972, Yale University

J.D. 1975, Boston University School of Law

FAMILY: Wife Mona Lee; three children, Emily, Dylan, and Madeline

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POSITION: DIRECTOR, DOMESTIC POLICY COUNCIL

NOMINEE: Melody Barnes

BIRTH DATE: April 29, 1964 in Richmond, VA

EDUCATION:

Bachelor’s degree with honors in History 1986, University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill

J.D. 1989, University of Michigan Law School

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POSITION: DIRECTOR, OFFICE OF MANAGEMENT and BUDGET

NOMINEE: Peter R. Orszag

BIRTH DATE: December 16, 1968 in Boston, MA

EDUCATION:

A.B. summa cum laude in Economics 1991, Princeton University

M.Sc. in Economics 1992, London School of Economics

Ph.D, in Economics 1997, London School of Economics

FAMILY: Divorced, lives with his two children, Leila and Joshua

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Comments: 1 |

POSITION: SECRETARY OF TRANSPORTATION

NOMINEE: Ray LaHood

BIRTH DATE: December 6, 1945 in Peoria, IL

EDUCATION: B.S. in Education 1971, Bradley University, Peoria, IL

FAMILY: Wife Kathy; four children: Darin, Amy, Sam, and Sarah

FRC SCORECARD:

110^th Congress: 64%

Lifetime Average: 78%

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POSITION: HEALTH AND HUMAN SERVICES SECRETARY

NOMINEE: Kathleen Sebelius

Born: Cincinnati, Ohio, May 15, 1948

Family: Husband, K. Gary Sebelius, and two sons.

Occupation: 44th Governor of Kansas

Education: B.A. Trinity Washington University, Master of Public Administration degree from the University of Kansas.

Work history: Jan 2003-present, Governor of Kansas (term-limited, term ends Jan 2011)

1994-2002, Kansas Insurance Commissioner

1987-1994, Member of the Kansas House of Representatives

1977-1987, Director of the Kansas Trial Lawyers Association

1975-1977, Aide with the Kansas Department of Corrections

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POSITION: WHITE HOUSE COMMUNICATIONS DIRECTOR

NOMINEE: Ellen Moran

Born: May 1, 1966, in Troy, N.Y., and grew up in Amherst, Mass.

Occupation: Prior to joining White House staff, Moran was executive director of EMILY’s List, where she oversaw the national staff and charted the overall strategic direction of the organization to provide financial assistance to female candidates in the Democratic Party who take liberal pro-choice political stances.

Education: B.A. in political science and English literature from Wheaton College.

Clinton White House: Helped plan both Clinton inaugurals, a staunch advocate for Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton through the entire primary season, shifting her support to Mr. Obama only after Mrs. Clinton conceded the Democratic presidential nomination in June, 2009.

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POSITION: SURGEON GENERAL

NOMINEE: Sanjay Gupta

BIRTH DATE: October 23, 1969 in Novi, MI

EDUCATION:

M.D. 1992, University of Michigan Medical School

B.A. in Medical Sciences, University of Michigan

(Interflex 6-year program, combining pre-medical and medical school, accepted directly from high school)

FAMILY: Married to Rebecca Olson Gupta; two daughters: Sage & Skye

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POSITION: ADMINISTRATOR, NATIONAL OCEANIC and ATMOSPHERIC ADMINISTRATION

NOMINEE: Jane Lubchenco

BIRTH DATE: December 4, 1947 in Denver, CO

EDUCATION:

Ph.D. in Marine Ecology 1975, Harvard

M.S. in Zoology 1971. University of Washington

B.A. in Biology 1969, Colorado College

FAMILY: Husband: Bruce Menge; two sons

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POSITION: ASSISTANT TO THE PRESIDENT FOR ENERGY & CLIMATE CHANGE

(Energy and Environment Czar, new position created by President Obama to coordinate energy and climate policy regulations)

NOMINEE: Carol M. Browner

BIRTH DATE: December 16, 1955 in Miami, FL

EDUCATION:

B.A. in English 1977, University of Florida, Gainesville

J.D. 1979; University of Florida College of Law

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