Check out the website https://lenspoliticalnotes.com Political Note #335 Biden Fight Fund, Political Note #336 GEORGIA AND THE US SENATE, Political Note #334 The Biden Transition Team, Political Note #337 Biden’s Covid-19 Task Force
Democracy in action. Do not forget Georgia. OR as Senator Jon Tester says: Run through the f—-ing tape.
Joe Biden’s Transition Team has announced its Agency Review Teams. These Teams prep the President-Elect, the Vice President-elect, their staff (like Ron Klain who has been named Chief of Staff), Cabinet nominees and the like about how the agencies are operating.
It is not as if the Review Teams need to learn about the agencies. For example, Leandra English leads the Team reviewing the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (you remember – Elizabeth Warren’s great accomplishment). Leandra English was the Deputy Director of the CFPB. When the Director left to run for office in Ohio, she became the Acting Director. They can report how the CFPB has departed from its originally purpose and, maybe, how it can be restored to its purposes.
Leandra English is not the only one. If you get to the end of this document, you’ll see that Ronald Stroman, who leads the Team reviewing the United States Postal Service was the Deputy Postmaster General. He resigned from the job when Louis De Joy was appointed Postmaster General. You’ll remember that De Joy gave us every indication that he was on a mission to get the Post Office to depart from its original purpose (you remember – the postal service was one of Benjamin Franklin’s great accomplishments).
Some of the Team Leaders are distinguished leaders in their field – national figures. Linda Darling-Hammond, one of America’s great educators, is leading the Team examining the Department of Education. Her views and her Team’s views about what has happened to the Department of Education will encourage a departure from what has been happening under Betsy DeVos.
Some of the Team Leaders are what we might call the “Best and the Brightest” – people with America’s fanciest credentials. Chris Lu, leading the Department of Labor Team, has a BA from Princeton and a JD from Harvard Law School. He is also a former Deputy Secretary of the Department. Some of the Team Leaders have had great careers despite lesser credentials. Phillip Washington, leading the Team reviewing the Department of Transportation, says his principal education came from the Streets of the Southside of Chicago.
There are 40 Teams. Because the Covid-19 Team was the most important, Joe Biden announced it first. I have already sent you information about the entire Covid-19 Team.
Take a look at the people who will lead the Teams preparing the Biden administration to govern the country. Consider the possibilities for good government, even if Democrats don’t win both Senate seats in Georgia. I have bolded information about these people where they have had connections with Joe Biden or with the Obama-Biden administration.
Don’t forget those Senate seats. Joe Biden’s job is to change the direction that Donald Trump took. He’ll need a majority in the US Senate to make that change the way he wants to – no matter how well prepared he and those working for him are. So… remember Raphael Warnock (the Reverend Doctor) and Jon Ossoff (the documentary film maker). Send money. Write postcards. Make phone calls.
Courtney Chapin is the Team Leader for reviewing Arts and Humanities agencies. These include the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, the National Endowment for the Arts, the National Endowment for the Humanities, the National Science foundations, and the Smithsonian Institution. She is the Executive Director of the Better Angels Society and was formerly the Chief of Staff for the National Endowment for the Humanities. She worked with Corporate Partners for the Corporation for National and Community Service and has been a lobbyist and fundraiser for various organizations. She has a BA from Harvard University.
Leandra English is the Team Leader for reviewing the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau. She is the Director of Policy for the New York Department of Financial Services. Previously, she was the Director of Financial Services for the Consumer Federation of American and the Deputy, then the Acting Director of the agency being examined – the CFPB. She has also worked in the OMB and the Brookings Institution. She has a BA from NYU and an MS from the London School of Economics.
Martha Gimbel is the Team Leader for reviewing the Council of Economic Advisors. She is the Senior Manager of Economic Research for Schmidt Futures. Before that, she was Director of Economic Research for Indeed.com, worked with Congress’s Joint Economic Committee, was a Senior Policy Advisor to the Department of Labor, and staff economist to the Council on Economic Advisors. She has a BA from Brown and an MA from the University of California, San Diego.
Geovette Washington is the Team Leader for reviewing the Department of Commerce and the Export-Import Bank. She is the Senior Vice Chancellor and Chief Legal Officer at the University of Pittsburgh. Previously, she was General Counsel for OMB, Deputy General Counsel for the Department of Commerce, and a Partner at Baach Robinson & Lewis. She has been a Special Assistant to the Assistant Attorney General in the Justice Department. She has a BA from Wesleyan College and a JD from Duke Law School.
Kathleen Hicks is the Team Leader for reviewing the Department of Defense. She is the Senior Vice President of the Center for Strategic for International Studies, Director of the International Security Program, and holds the Henry Kissinger Chair. She has a concurrent position at the Johns Hopkins School of Advanced International Studies, had a Senate-confirmed position at the Pentagon, and has served on many advisory boards. She has an AB from Mount Holyoke, an MA from the University of Maryland, and a PhD from MIT.
Linda Darling-Hammond is the Team Leader for reviewing the Department of Education and the Corporation for National and Community Service. She is a professor emeritus at Stanford. She directed the RAND Corporations Education and Human Resources Program, taught at Teachers College and then Stanford. She founded the Learning Policy Institute and is the President of the California State Board of Education. An author of many books on education, she has been a national figure in the field, addressing quality and equity, since she earned her doctorate. Originally from Cleveland, she has a BA from Yale and a doctorate in urban education from Temple.
Arun Majundar is the Team Leader for reviewing the Department of Energy, the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission, and the Nuclear Regulatory Commission. He is a scientist and engineer and a professor at Stanford. He was nominated to be Secretary of Energy, but the nomination was withdrawn. He had been director of environmental energy at the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory and Professor at University of California, Berkeley and was the first director of the Department of Energy’s Advanced Research Projects Agency. He has been an advisor to Google. He has a BS from the Indian Institute of Technology, and an MS and PhD from the University of California, Berkeley.
Chiquita Brooks-LaSure and Robert Gordon are the Team Leaders for reviewing the Department of Health and Human Services and the Consumer Product Safety Commission. She is the Managing Director of Manatt, Phelps, and Phillips. Previously she was a Senior Policy Advisor to Breakaway Policy Strategies, a non-partisan think tank and Deputy Director for the Center for Consumer Information and Insurance Oversight and Director of Coverage Policy for HHS. She has an AB from Princeton and an MPP from Georgetown. He is the Director of the Michigan Department of Health & Human Services. He was the Senior Vice President of the College Board and served as Acting Assistant Secretary for the US Department of Education and Associate Director of OMB. He has a BA from Harvard and a JD from Yale.
Ur Jaddou is the Team Leader for reviewing the Department of Homeland Security. She is the Director of DHS Watch and on the faculty at American University’s Law School. She was Chief Counsel for the Department of Homeland Security, a Deputy Assistant Secretary in the State Department, and majority counsel for the House immigration subcommittee and senior counsel for a Congresswoman Zoe Lofgren. She has a BA and MA from Stanford and a JD from UCLA.
Erika Poethig is the Team Leader for reviewing the Department of Housing and Urban Development and the Federal Housing Finance Agency. She is Vice President and Chief Innovation Officer at The Urban Institute. Previously she was a Deputy, then an Acting Assistant Secretary in the Department of Housing and Urban Development. Before that, she was Associate Director for Housing for the MacArthur foundation and an Assistant Commissioner in Chicago’s Department of Housing. She has a BA from the College of Wooster and an MPP from the University of Chicago.
Christopher Schroeder is the Team Leader for reviewing the Department of Justice as well as the Federal Election Commission, the US Election Assistance Commission, the Commission on Civil Rights, the National Council on Disability, the United States Access Board, AbilityOne, the State Justice Institute, and the Legal Services Corporation. He is an emeritus law professor at Duke. He was formerly a US Assistant Attorney General, with responsibilities that included the evaluation of judicial nominees. He was also formerly chief counsel to the Senate Judiciary Committee. He has a BA from Princeton, an MDiv from Yale, and a JD from the University of California, Berkeley.
Chris Lu is the Team Leader for reviewing the Department of Labor as well as the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, the Federal Mine Safety and Health Review Commission, the Pension Benefit Guaranty Corporation, the Federal Labor Relations Authority, the National Mediation Board, the Federal mediation and Conciliation services, the Railroad Retirement Board, and the National Labor Relations Board. He is the Senior Strategy Advisor at Fiscal/Note and a Senior Fellow at the University of Virginia. He was a Deputy Secretary at the Department of Labor, a Senior Fellow at the Center for the Study of the Presidency and Congress, and a Fellow at Georgetown and the University of Chicago. He was a White House Cabinet Secretary, the Executive Director of the Obama-Biden Transition Team, Chief of Staff for Senator Obama, and Deputy Chief Counsel for the House Committee on Oversight. He has a BA from Princeton and a JD from Harvard Law School.
Linda Thomas-Greenfield is the Team Leader for the review of the Department of State. She is a Senior Vice President at the Albright Stonebridge Group. Her career was in the State Department where she was, among things, the Assistant Secretary of State for African Affairs and the Director General of the Foreign Service and Director of Human Resources. She is a Fellow at Georgetown’s School of Foreign Service. She has a BA from Louisiana State and an MA from Wisconsin.
Kevin Washburn is the Team Leader for the review of the Department of the Interior and the National Indian Gaming Commission, the Advisory Council on Historic Preservation, the Commission on Fine Arts, thje Denali Commission, the Appalachian Regional Commission, the Delta Regional Authority, and the Northern Border Regional Commission. He is the Dean of the University of Iowa’s Law School. In addition to heading his own consulting firm, he taught at and served as Dean of the University of New Mexico’s Law School, served as Assistant Secretary for Indian Affairs in the Department of Interior, taught at several law schools, and was the General Counsel for the National Indian Gaming Commission. He has been as Assistant US Attorney and a Trial Attorney for the Justice Department. He has a BA from the University of Oklahoma and a JD from Yale.
Don Graves is the Team Leader for the review of the Department of the Treasury. He is an Executive Vice President for KeyBank. Previously, in the White House, he was Deputy Assistant to the President and Counselor to the Vice President and Executive Director of the President’s Council on Jobs and Competitiveness. He served as the US Representative to a G8 Commission and as Deputy Assistant Secretary of the Treasury. He has been Managing Partner of Graves & Horton, Director of Public Policy for the Business Round Table, a policy advisor to the Treasury Department, and VP and Washington Office Director of the Organization for a New Equality. He has a BA from Williams and a JD from Georgetown.
Phillip Washington is the Team Leader for the review of the Department of Transportation. He is the CEO of the Los Angeles County Metropolitan Transportation Authority. Previously he was the CEO of Denver’s transportation authority. He retired as the Command Sargent Major of the US Army. He has a BA from Columbia and an MA from Webster University. He graduated from the Kennedy School of Government at Harvard, but describes his education as from the Streets of the Southside of Chicago.
Meg Kabat is the Team Leader for the review of the Department of Veterans Affairs. She is a Senior Director at Atlas Research. She spent ten years in the Department of Veteran Affairs, much of that as Deputy and then National Director of the Caregiver Support Program. Prior to that she was a social worker in the US Navy. She has a BA from Holy Cross and a MSW from Catholic University.
Patrice Simms is the Team Leader for the review of the Environmental Protection Agency. He is Vice President of Litigation for EarthJustice. Before that, he was an Associate Professor at Howard, and a Deputy Assistant Attorney General. He has a BA from Northeastern and a JD from Howard.
Cynthia Bernstein is the Team Leader for the review of the Executive Office of the President, Management, and Administration. She is the Manager of Monitor Deloitte. Previously, at the White House, she was Director of Administration for the Office of the Vice President and Associate Director for Finance and Administration. She has a BA from Yeshiva and a Master’s Degree from Columbia.
Gary Gensler is the Team Leader for the review of the Federal Reserve and the other members of the Banking and Regulators group including the Commodity Future Traders Commission, the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation, the National Credit Union Administration, and the Security and Exchange Commission. He is a Senior Lecturer at MIT and advisor to the MIT Media Lab. In the Obama administration,he was Chair of the Commodities Future Traders Commission. During the Clinton Administration he was Under Secretary and an Assistant Secretary in the Treasury Department. Prior to his public career, he was at Goldman Sachs. He has a BA and an MBA from the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania.
Heather Hippsley is the Team Leader for the review of the Federal Trade Commission. She retired as General Counsel of the Federal Trade Commission. She had worked at the Commission in various roles since 1984 when she received her JD from Lewis and Clark.
Katy Kale is the Team Leader for the review of the General Services Administration. She is the President and CEO of Elevate, Smart Grants for Powerful Social Change. Previously, she was Chief of Staff for the General Services Administration. Before that, she was in the White House as Deputy Assistant and then Asistant to the President for Management and Administration. She had served as Director of Operations for the Obama-Biden Transition and was Administrative Director for US Senator Sherrod Brown. She has a BA from George Mason University.
Stephanie O’Sullivan and Vince Stewart are co-Team Leaders for the review of the Intelligence services. Currently self-employed, O’Sullivan was the Principal Deputy Director of National Intelligence, having previously assisted the Director of National Intelligence and served as Deputy Director of the CIA. Before taking roles in intelligence, she worked at TRW, now part of Northrop Grumman. She has a BA from Missouri University. Stewart is Chief of Innovation and Business Intelligence for Ankura. Before that, he was President of Stewart Global Solutions, Deputy Commander of the US Cyber Command, Director of the Defense Intelligence Agency, and the Commanding General of the Marine Corps Cyberspace Forces. He has a BA from Western Illinois College, and MA from the US Naval War College and an MA from the Industrial College of the Armed Forces.
Linda Etim and Elizabeth Littlefield are co-Team Leaders for the review of the International Development group that includes the Millenium Challenge Corporation, the Peace Corps, the US Agency for International Development, and the US international Development Finance Corporation. Etim is a senior advisor at the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation. She has been USAID’s Assistant Administrator for Africa and a Senior Security Analyst for the Department of Defense. She has a BA from Wisconsin. Littlefield is Head of Sustainability and Social Impact for the Albright Stonebridge Group. Before that she was President and CEO of the DFC Overseas Investment Group and a Director at the World Bank. Before that she was CEO for CGAP advancing access to financial services for poor people, and Managing Director of JP Morgan. She has a BA from Brown
Ellen Stofan is the Team Leader for the review of the National Aeronautics and Space Administration. She is Director of the Smithsonian’s National Air and Space Museum. Before that, including speaking about space exploration and climate science, she taught at University College London, Co-chaired the Council on Future of Space Technologies for the World Economic Forum, and was the Chief Scientist for NASA. She was the principal Investigator for the Titan Mare Explorer Mission. Before that, she was Vice President of Proxemy Research and was a research scientist at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena California. She has a BS from the College of William and Mary and a PhD from Brown.
Jeff Prescott is the Team Leader for the review of the National Security Council as all as the Homeland Security Council, the National Space Council, and the President’s Intelligence Advisory Board. He is the Executive Director of National Security Action and a Senior Fellow at the Penn Biden Center. He served as a Special Assistant to the President and Senior Director for Iran, Iraq, Syria, and the Gulf States for the National Security Council. He worked in the Office of the Vice President as a security advisor. Before that, he was Deputy Director and Senior Research Scholar at the China Law Center at Yale Law School. He has a BA from Boston University and a JD from Yale.
Martha Coven is the Team Leader for the review of the Office of Management and Budget. She is a Visiting Professor at Princeton and head of Coven Consulting. Previously she was Associate Director for Education, Income Maintenance, and Labor at the OMB. Before that, she was a Special Assistant to the President, serving on the Domestic Policy Council and a Senior Legislative Associate and the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities. She has a BA and JD from Yale.
Rahul Gupta is the Team Leader for the review of the Office of National Drug Control Policy. He is the Chief Medical and Health Officer for the March of Dimes as well as a Clinical Professor of Medicine at Georgetown. Before that, he was West Virginia’s Commissioner of Public Health, the Executive Director of Kanawha-Charleston Health Department, and an Assistant Clinical Professor at Vanderbilt. He has also taught at Meharry Medical College and the UAB School of Medicine. He practiced medicine in Alabama. His Residency was at Northwestern. He has an MPH from UAB, an MBA from the London School of Business & Finance, and an MD from Delhi University.
Kiran Ahuja is the Team Leader for the review of the Office of Personnel Management as well as the Office of Government Ethics, the Administrative Conference of the United States, the Merit System Protection. Board, and the Federal Thrift Retirement Investment Board. She is the CEO of Philanthropy Northwest. Previously, she was Chief of Staff for the US Office of Personnel Management, Executive Director of the White House Initiative on Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders, Executive Director of the National Asian Pacific American Women’s Forum. She has a BA from Spelman College and a JD from the University of Georgia Law School.
Cristin Dorgelo is the Team Leader for the review of the Office of Science and Technology Policy. She is the former President of the Association of Science and Technology Centers and has been a Senior Counselor for Mission Partners. She was Chief of Staff of the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy and White House Assistant Director for Grand Challenges. Before working for the White House, she was Vice President for XPrize, Director of Operations for X1 Technologies, a project manager and a journalist. She has a BA from UCLA.
Jason Miller is the Team Leader for the review of the Office of the US Trade Representative as well as the US International Trade Commission and the US Trade and Development Agency. Now self-employed, he has been the CEO of the Greater Washington Partnership. Previously, he was the Deputy Assistant to the President and Deputy Director of the National Economic Council. Before coming to the White House, he was a consultant with the Boston Consulting Group, situated in San Francisco, and with Marakon Associates in Chicago. He has a BA from the University of Pennsylvania, an MBA from Northwestern, and an MPA from Harvard.
Jonathan Swain is the Team Leader for the review of the Small Business Administration. He is the Senior Director for Media Relations at Harvard. Before that, he led his own PR firm, was in charge of communications for Fedbid, Inc. He was a Founding Partner for 14th Street Strategies, and Chief of Staff for the Small Business Administration. He has a BA from Culver-Stockton College and an MA from Ball State.
Carolyn Colvin is the Team Leader for the review of the Social Security Administration. Currently, she is self-employed. Previously, she was the Assistant Director and then the Acting Director of the Social Security Administration. She has had management roles in various State and municipal agencies. She has a BA and an MBA from Morgan State University.
Richard Stengel is the Team Leader for the review of the United States Agency for Global Media. He is a political analyst for MSNBC. Previously, he was a strategic advisor for Snap, Inc. He was Under Secretary of State for Public Diplomacy and Public Affairs. Before going to the White House, he was Managing Editor for Time Magazine and President and CEO of the National Constitution Center. He has a BA from Princeton and an MA from Oxford.
Robert Bonnie is the Team Leader for the review of the US Department of Agriculture as well as the Farm Credit Administration and the Federal Agricultural Mortgage Corporation. He is an Executive in Residence at the Nicholas Institute for Environmental Policy Solutions at Duke University; his second consecutive role at Duke. Previously, he was Undersecretary for Natural Resources and Environment. Before joining the administration, he had been Vice President for Land Conservation for the Environmental Defense Fund. He has a BA from Harvard and an MA from Duke.
Matt Bailey is the Team Leader for the review of the US Digital Service. He is the Digital Freedom Program Director at PEN America. He has been a Senior Advisor for the National Democratic Institute and the Acting Policy Unit Chief for the OMB. He has a BA from Gonzaga and an MA from Georgetown.
Isobel Coleman is the Team Leader for the review of the US Mission to the United Nations. She is the Chief Operating Officer for GiveDirectly and was the Ambassador to the UN for Management, Reform, and Special Political Affairs. Previously, she was a Senior Fellow at the Council on Foreign Relations, a Partner at MicKinsey & Company, was the Co-Founder and CEO of NursingHands. Inc. and was a Track Leader at the Clinton Global Initiative. She has a BA from Princeton, an M Phil and a PhD from Oxford.
Ronald Stroman is the Team Leader for the review of the US Postal Service as well as the Postal Regulatory Commission. He recently resigned from the role as Deputy Postmaster General. He has been working in various roles in the federal government for over 40 years – among those roles are staff director for the U.S. House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform, managing director for the U.S. Government Accountability Office, a director for the US Department of Transportation, and managing director for the Office of Opportunity and Inclusiveness. He has a JD from Rutgers University Law School/Newark.
