Recent Obama Appointments Related to TBED and Research

Recent Obama Appointments Related to TBED and Research
Not all of the new appointments to the Obama Administration make headlines, but many are as important for influencing the direction and administration of federal TBED policies and programs as well as the focus of federal science and technology investments. Since March 13, President Obama has announced the following nominations for positions that might influence state and regional TBED practice during the Administration:

• Jonathan Steven Adelstein, a Commissioner of the Federal Communications Commission, to be Administrator, Rural Utilities Service, Department of Agriculture.
• Peter H. Appel, a principal with the global management consulting firm of A.T. Kearney, Inc., to be Administrator of the Research and Innovative Technology Administration, Department of Transportation.
• Rebecca M. Blank, Robert S. Kerr Senior Fellow at the Brookings Institution, to be Under Secretary of Commerce for Economic Affairs, responsible for the Census Bureau and Bureau of Economic Analysis.
• Raphael Bostic, Professor in USC's School of Policy, Planning, and Development , to be Assistant Secretary for Policy Development and Research, Department of Housing and Urban Development
• William F. Brinkman, Senior Research Physicist at Princeton University, to be Director of the Office of Science, Department of Energy.
• Anne Castle, a partner at Holland & Hart LLP, to be Assistant Secretary for Water and Science, Department of the Interior.
• Aneesh Paul Chopra, Virginia's Secretary of Technology, will serve as the Chief Technology Officer .
• John Q. Easton, Executive Director of The Consortium on Chicago School Research  at The University of Chicago, to be Director of the Institute of Education Science, Department of Education for a term of six years.
• Steven Elliot Koonin, Chief Scientist for BP, to be Under Secretary for Science, Department of Energy.
• Jane Oates, Executive Director of the New Jersey Commission on Higher Education, to be Assistant Secretary for Employment and Training Administration, Department of Labor.
• Rajiv J. Shah, Director of Agricultural Development in the Global Development Program for the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, to be Under Secretary of Agriculture for Research, Education, and Economics.
• William E. Spriggs, Chair of the Department of Economics at Howard University, to be Assistant Secretary for Policy, Department of Labor.
• Dallas P. Tonsager, member of the boards for the Farm Credit Administration and the Farm Credit System Insurance Corporation, to be Under Secretary of Agriculture for Rural Development.
• Catherine Radford Zoi, founding CEO of the Alliance for Climate Protection, to be an Assistant Secretary of Energy (Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy).