Thursday, April 22, 2010

President Obama Announces More Key Administration Posts, 4/22/10 | The White House

President Obama Announces More Key Administration Posts, 4/22/10 | The White House

President Obama Announces More Key Administration Posts, 4/22/10

WASHINGTON – Today, President Barack Obama announced his intent to nominate the following individuals to key administration posts:
  • Christopher A. Masingill, Federal Co-Chair, Delta Regional Authority
  • Mary Minow, Member, National Museum Library Services Board
  • Catherine E. Woteki, Under Secretary for Agriculture for Research, Education and Economics, Department of Agriculture
President Obama said, “I am grateful that such talented individuals have chosen to serve in my administration at this important time for our nation. I look forward to working with them in the coming months and years.”
President Obama also announced his intent to appoint Renée Mauborgne to serve as a Member of the Presidential Advisory Board on Historically Black Colleges and Universities. Her bio is below.


Catherine E. Wotecki, Nominee for Under Secretary for Agriculture for Research, Education and Economics, Department of Agriculture
Dr. Catherine E. Woteki currently serves as Global Director of Scientific Affairs for Mars, Incorporated, where she manages the company’s scientific policy and research on matters of health, nutrition, and food safety. From 2002-2005, she was Dean of Agriculture and Professor of Human Nutrition at Iowa State University. Dr. Woteki served as the first Under Secretary for Food Safety at the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) from 1997-2001, where she oversaw U.S. Government food safety policy development and USDA’s continuity of operations planning. Dr. Woteki also served as the Deputy Under Secretary for Research, Education and Economics at USDA in 1996. Prior to going to USDA, Dr. Woteki served in the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy as Deputy Associate Director for Science from 1994-1996. Dr. Woteki has also held positions in the National Center for Health Statistics of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (1983-1990), the Human Nutrition Information Service at USDA (1981-1983), and as Director of the Food and Nutrition Board of the Institute of Medicine at the National Academy of Sciences (1990-1993). In 1999, Dr. Woteki was elected to the Institute of Medicine of the National Academy of Sciences, where she has chaired the Food and Nutrition Board (2003-2005). She received her M.S. and Ph.D. in Human Nutrition from Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University (1974). Dr. Woteki received her B.S. in Chemistry from Mary Washington College (1969).
President Obama also announced his intent to appoint the following individual to a key administration post:
Renée Mauborgne, Appointee for Member, Presidential Advisory Board on Historically Black Colleges and Universities
Renée Mauborgne is the Co-Director of the INSEAD Blue Ocean Strategy Institute and Affiliate Professor of Strategy at INSEAD, the world's second largest business school located in Fontainebleau, France. Prior to this, she held the title of the INSEAD Distinguished Fellow of Strategy and Management and Senior Research Fellow also at INSEAD. Professor Mauborgne is a Fellow of the World Economic Forum at Davos. She is the recipient of numerous awards including the Nobels Colloquia Prize for Leadership on Business and Economic Thinking 2008 and the Eldridge Haynes Prize, awarded by the Academy of International Business and the Eldridge Haynes Memorial Trust of Business International, for the best original paper in the field of international business. Professor Mauborgne is the co-author of the international bestseller Blue Ocean Strategy (Harvard Business Press), which is being published in 42 languages. She has published numerous articles on strategy and managing the multinational which can be found in: Academy of Management Journal, Management Science, Organization Science, Strategic Management Journal, Administrative Science Quarterly, Journal of International Business Studies, Harvard Business Review, and Sloan Management Review.

Public Voting Begins Monday for Race to the Top High School Commencement Challenge

President Obama to choose national winner from three finalists selected by public
WASHINGTON – The White House and the Department of Education announced today that voting for the winner of the first annual Race to the Top High School Commencement Challenge will begin Monday, April 26.
From 8 a.m. EDT on Monday, April 26th through 11:59 p.m. EDT on Thursday, April 29, 2010, the public will have an opportunity to review and rate a three-minute video and short essay from each of the six high school finalists at http://www.WhiteHouse.gov/Commencement. President Obama will select the national winner from the three high schools with the highest average ratings. The Commencement Challenge winner will be announced on Tuesday, May 4, 2010 and the President will visit the winning high school to deliver the commencement address later this spring.
Voters are encouraged to rank the finalists based on the criteria of the Commencement Challenge including:
Educational success of the school as an example for other high schools around the country; The ability of the school to engage students in learning and to foster personal responsibility and academic excellence; and The success of the school in preparing students to graduate college and career-ready, to help meet the President’s 2020 goal that America have the highest proportion of college graduates of any nation in the world.
The Commencement Challenge, launched in late February, invited the nation’s public high schools to submit applications showing their dedication to providing students with an excellent education that will prepare them to graduate ready for college and career choices. Applications were judged based on the schools’ performance, four essay questions and supplemental data. The six finalists were selected for their dedication to academic excellence and for showing how they are helping prepare students to graduate college and career ready, and prepared to meet the President’s goal of having the highest proportion of college graduates in the world by 2020.
Finalists:
Blue Valley Northwest High School (Overland Park, Kansas) Clark Montessori Junior High and High School (Cincinnati, Ohio) Denver School of Science and Technology (Denver, Colorado) Environmental Charter High School (Lawndale, California) Kalamazoo Central High School (Kalamazoo, Michigan) MAST Academy (Miami, Florida)
Complete details of the voting and selection process appear below: