President Obama Announces More Key Administration Posts

05-12-09 | Washington, DC

Today, President Barack Obama announced his intent to nominate the following individuals for key administration posts: María Otero, Under Secretary of Global Affairs, Department of State; Philip L. Verveer, for the rank of Ambassador during his tenure of service as Deputy Assistant Secretary of State for International Communications and Information Policy in the Bureau of Economic and Business Affairs and U.S. Coordinator for International Communications and Information Policy, Department of State; Arturo Valenzuela, Assistant Secretary for Western Hemisphere Affairs, Department of State; Ignacia S. Moreno, Assistant Attorney General, Environment and Natural Resources Division, Department of Justice; Craig E. Hooks, Assistant Administrator for the Office of Administration and Resource Management, Environmental Protection Agency; Nicole Lurie, Assistant Secretary for Preparedness and Response, Department of Health and Human Services; Dennis M. McCarthy, As!
sistant Secretary of Defense for Reserve Affairs, Department of Defense; Zachary J. Lemnios, Director of Defense Research & Engineering, Department of Defense; and Daniel B. Ginsberg, Assistant Secretary of the Air Force for Manpower and Reserve Affairs, Department of the Air Force, Department of Defense.

President Obama said, It gives me great confidence that these talented individuals will be joining my administration as we work to rebuild our economy, preserve our environment and keep our nation safe. Their experience and dedication will be of great value to the American people, and I look forward to working with these individuals in the coming months and years.

President Obama announced his intent to nominate the following individuals today:

María Otero, Nominee for Under Secretary of Global Affairs, Department of State
María Otero, born and raised in La Paz, Bolivia, is president and CEO of ACCION International, a pioneer and leader in microfinance working in 25 countries in Africa, Asia, Latin America and in the United States. Under Otero's tenure as CEO, ACCIONs network has expanded its reach from serving 460,000 people to over 3.7 million, through a combined portfolio that has grown from $274 million to nearly $3.6 billion. She has become a leading voice on sustainable microfinance, publishing extensively on the subject and speaking throughout the world on microfinance, women's issues and poverty alleviation. Prior to her work with ACCION, Otero served for five years at the Centre for Development and Population Activities (CEDPA). Otero was also the Economist for Latin America for the Women in Development office of USAID. Otero chairs the board of ACCION Investments, a $50 million microfinance investment company and serves on the boards of BancoSol; the Calvert Foundation; BRA!
C of Bangladesh, one of the world's largest NGOs; and the Public Welfare Foundation. In June 2006, Otero was appointed by UN Secretary General Kofi Annan to the UN Advisors Group on Inclusive Financial Sectors, and in 2007 was named to the Advisory Councils of the Inter-American Foundation and the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC). She is also a member of the Council on Foreign Relations. Otero holds an M.A. in literature from the University of Maryland and an M.A. in international relations from Johns Hopkins' Nitze School for Advanced International Studies (SAIS), in Washington, D.C. Since 1997, she has also served as an adjunct professor at SAIS.

Philip L. Verveer, Nominee for the rank of Ambassador during his tenure of service as Deputy Assistant Secretary of State for International Communications and Information Policy in the Bureau of Economic and Business Affairs and U.S. Coordinator for International Communications and Information Policy, Department of State

Philip L. Verveer is Of Counsel to the law firm of Jenner & Block LLP. He has practiced communications and antitrust law in the government and in private law practice for more than thirty-five years. From 1969 to 1981, Verveer practiced as a trial attorney in the Antitrust Division of the Department of Justice, as a supervisory attorney in the Bureau of Competition of the Federal Trade Commission, and as the chief of the Cable Television Bureau, the Broadcast Bureau, and the Common Carrier Bureau of the Federal Communications Commission. Between 1973 and 1977, he served as the Antitrust Division's first lead counsel in the investigation and prosecution of United States v. American Tel. & Tel. Co., the case that eventuated in the divestiture of the Bell System. As a Bureau Chief at the FCC, Verveer participated in a series of decisions that enabled increased competition in video and telephone services and limited regulation of information services. In 1979, Verveer bec!
ame a charter member of the Senior Executive Service and in 1980 received the Distinguished Presidential Rank award. Since 1981, Verveer has engaged in private law practice in Washington, DC. In 1995 and 1996 he chaired the Federal Advisory Committee that identified the spectrum requirements necessary to afford public safety organizations efficient and interoperable wireless communications. He has served on the Visiting Committee of the University of Chicago Law School and the Executive Committee of the Alumni Board of Governors of Georgetown University.

Arturo Valenzuela, Nominee for Assistant Secretary for Western Hemisphere Affairs, Department of State

Dr. Arturo Valenzuela is Professor of Government and Director of the Center for Latin American Studies in the Edmund A. Walsh School of Foreign Service at Georgetown University. He is a specialist on the origins and consolidation of democracy; the institutional dimensions of democratic governance; Latin American politics; and U.S.-Latin American relations. Prior to joining the Georgetown faculty he was Professor of Political Science and Director of the Council on Latin American Studies at Duke University. He has been a Visiting Scholar at Oxford University, the University of Sussex, the University of Florence (Italy) and the Catholic University of Chile. During the Clinton administration, Valenzuela served at the White House as Special Assistant to the President and Senior Director for Inter-American Affairs at the National Security Council and as Deputy Assistant Secretary for Inter-American Affairs in the United States Department of State, where his primary responsibili!
ty was United States foreign policy towards Mexico. A member of the Council on Foreign Relations, he has been listed in Who's Who in America and Who's Who in American Higher Education and has served on the editorial boards of leading academic journals. For his diplomatic contributions he has been honored with the National Order of the Southern Cross by the government of Brazil and the Order of Boyacá by the government of Colombia. Valenzuela has served on the board of directors of Drew University, the National Democratic Institute for International Affairs (NDI), the National Council of La Raza (NCLR) and the advisory boards of America's Watch and the Institut des Amériques in Paris. He holds a Doctorate and a Master's degree in Political Science from Columbia University, and a B.A. summa cum laude in Political Science and Religion from Drew University.

Ignacia S. Moreno, Nominee for Assistant Attorney General, Environment and Natural Resources Division, Department of Justice

Ignacia S. Moreno is a leading practitioner in the field of environmental and natural resources law, with over 18 years of experience in the federal government and in private and corporate practice. She is currently Counsel, Corporate Environmental Programs at the General Electric Company, and serves pro bono as General Counsel to the Hispanic National Bar Association. President Clinton appointed Moreno to the Department of Justice, where she served first as Special Assistant (1994-95) and then as Principal Counsel (1996-2001) to the Assistant Attorney General for the Environment and Natural Resources Division. In these positions she provided advice and counsel to the Assistant Attorney General on a wide variety of matters, participated in management of the Division, led significant environmental enforcement initiatives, expanded and managed the Division's international program, and represented the United States in international negotiations and litigation. While at!
the Department of Justice, Moreno received Special Commendations for Outstanding Service from the Environment and Natural Resources Division, two Bronze Medals from the Environmental Protection Agency for Outstanding Service, and a federal award for excellence in partnership-building. Moreno then joined Spriggs & Hollingsworth in Washington, D.C. where she specialized in environmental and mass tort litigation with an emphasis on science-based advocacy. Moreno began her career at Hogan & Hartson LLP in Washington, D.