Appointee Watch: More Musical Chairs on the Horizon?

Trump announces more picks for Defense, Education and State departments.

As the Trump administration approaches the one-year mark, rumors again have begun swirling about Cabinet-level officials trading positions.

Politico reported Friday that Environmental Protection Agency Administrator Scott Pruitt has told colleagues that he is interested in becoming attorney general, should Attorney General Jeff Sessions resign or be forced out.

On Thursday, questions about Sessions’ future in charge of the Justice Department resurfaced after Reps. Mark Meadows, R-N.C., and Jim Jordan, R-Ohio, both leaders of the House Freedom Caucus, called on him to resign over leaks from the FBI over the special counsel investigation into Russian interference into the 2016 election.

According to the Partnership for Public Service and The Washington Post, which have been tracking more than 600 positions that require Senate confirmation, as of Friday, 241 Trump appointees had been confirmed to their positions. Another 90 people had been announced or formally nominated, while 295 jobs remained vacant.

Over the last month, President Trump has named the following people to serve at federal agencies:

Defense: William Roper, assistant secretary of the Air Force for acquisition. Roper is the founding director of the Strategic Capabilities Office in the Office of the Secretary of Defense. He was acting chief architect at the Missile Defense Agency, and he previously worked at MIT’s Lincoln Laboratory, where he analyzed national security issues.

Gregory Slavonic, assistant secretary of the Navy for manpower and reserve affairs. Slavonic most recently was chief of staff to Sen. James Lankford, R-Okla. He is a retired sailor, who over the course of 34 years, rose from the rank of seaman recruit to rear admiral.

Kevin Fahey, assistant secretary for acquisition. Fahey most recently was vice president of combat vehicles and armaments at Cypress International Inc. He previously worked in the Office of the Assistant Secretary of the Army on acquisition, logistics and technology.

Michael Griffin, undersecretary for research and engineering. Griffin most recently was chairman and CEO of the Schafer Corp. He previously was administrator of NASA.

Education: Frank Brogan, assistant secretary for elementary and secondary education. Brogan most recently was chancellor of the Pennsylvania State System of Higher Education. He is a former public school teacher, and was elected Florida’s commissioner of education in 1994. He served as lieutenant governor of Florida from 1998 until 2003.

James Woodworth, commissioner of education statistics. Woodworth is a quantitative research analyst at the Center for Research on Educational Outcomes at Stanford University’s Hoover Institute. Prior to joining Stanford, Woodworth was a distinguished doctoral fellow at the University of Arkansas’s Department of Education Reform, and he spent 11 years as a public school teacher.

Energy: Lisa Gordon-Hagerty, undersecretary for nuclear security. Gordon-Hagerty is president of Tier Tech International Inc., a national security consulting firm. She previously served on the National Security Council for five years as the director for combating terrorism. She has held several posts at the Energy Department under previous administrations.

Anne White, assistant secretary for environmental management. White is the founder of Bastet Technical Services LLC, a consulting firm focused on a variety of nuclear energy issues.

Environmental Protection Agency: Holly Greaves, chief financial officer. Greaves is a senior adviser for budget and audit for EPA Administrator Scott Pruitt. She previously was a senior manager at public accounting firm KPMG LLP, where she provided auditing services for federal agencies. She has been a lecturer on government accounting at George Washington University.

Millenium Challenge Corporation: Sean Cairncross, CEO. Cairncross is a deputy assistant to the president and senior adviser to Chief of Staff John Kelly. He served as the chief operating officer for the Republican National Committee for the 2016 election cycle, and previously worked as an attorney at a D.C. law firm.

Peace Corps: Josephine Olsen, director. Olsen is a senior lecturer at the University of Maryland, Baltimore, where she teaches on issues of international health and social services. She previously served as deputy and acting director of the Peace Corps during the George W. Bush administration, and she is a former Peace Corps volunteer.

State: Andrea Thompson, undersecretary for arms control and international security. Thompson is special adviser in the State Department’s Office of Policy Planning. She previously was deputy assistant to the president and the vice president’s national security adviser. She is a former military officer, who deployed to Afghanistan, Iraq and Bosnia.

Kevin Moley, assistant secretary for international organizational affairs. Moley was an ambassador to the Office of the United Nations and other International Organizations in Geneva during the George W. Bush administration. He was deputy secretary of the Health and Human Services Department in the early 1990s and has worked in the health care industry when not in government.

Marie Royce, assistant secretary, educational and cultural affairs. Royce is longtime businesswoman and a former professor. She is a member of the State Department’s Advisory Committee on International Communications and Information Policy, and she is the wife of House Foreign Affairs Committee Chairman Ed Royce, R-Calif.

Michelle Giuda, assistant secretary for public affairs. Giuda is the senior vice president of global corporate communications at Weber Shandwick, a global public relations firm.

Andrew Gellert, ambassador to Chile. Gellert is president of Gellert Global Group, a conglomerate that includes the largest privately owned food importer in the U.S.

Leandro Rizzuto, ambassador to Barbados and to St. Kitts and Nevis and to Saint Lucia. Rizzuto is a businessman in the beauty industry, known best for his leadership of Conair.

X
This website uses cookies to enhance user experience and to analyze performance and traffic on our website. We also share information about your use of our site with our social media, advertising and analytics partners. Learn More / Do Not Sell My Personal Information
Accept Cookies
X
Cookie Preferences Cookie List

Do Not Sell My Personal Information

When you visit our website, we store cookies on your browser to collect information. The information collected might relate to you, your preferences or your device, and is mostly used to make the site work as you expect it to and to provide a more personalized web experience. However, you can choose not to allow certain types of cookies, which may impact your experience of the site and the services we are able to offer. Click on the different category headings to find out more and change our default settings according to your preference. You cannot opt-out of our First Party Strictly Necessary Cookies as they are deployed in order to ensure the proper functioning of our website (such as prompting the cookie banner and remembering your settings, to log into your account, to redirect you when you log out, etc.). For more information about the First and Third Party Cookies used please follow this link.

Allow All Cookies

Manage Consent Preferences

Strictly Necessary Cookies - Always Active

We do not allow you to opt-out of our certain cookies, as they are necessary to ensure the proper functioning of our website (such as prompting our cookie banner and remembering your privacy choices) and/or to monitor site performance. These cookies are not used in a way that constitutes a “sale” of your data under the CCPA. You can set your browser to block or alert you about these cookies, but some parts of the site will not work as intended if you do so. You can usually find these settings in the Options or Preferences menu of your browser. Visit www.allaboutcookies.org to learn more.

Sale of Personal Data, Targeting & Social Media Cookies

Under the California Consumer Privacy Act, you have the right to opt-out of the sale of your personal information to third parties. These cookies collect information for analytics and to personalize your experience with targeted ads. You may exercise your right to opt out of the sale of personal information by using this toggle switch. If you opt out we will not be able to offer you personalised ads and will not hand over your personal information to any third parties. Additionally, you may contact our legal department for further clarification about your rights as a California consumer by using this Exercise My Rights link

If you have enabled privacy controls on your browser (such as a plugin), we have to take that as a valid request to opt-out. Therefore we would not be able to track your activity through the web. This may affect our ability to personalize ads according to your preferences.

Targeting cookies may be set through our site by our advertising partners. They may be used by those companies to build a profile of your interests and show you relevant adverts on other sites. They do not store directly personal information, but are based on uniquely identifying your browser and internet device. If you do not allow these cookies, you will experience less targeted advertising.

Social media cookies are set by a range of social media services that we have added to the site to enable you to share our content with your friends and networks. They are capable of tracking your browser across other sites and building up a profile of your interests. This may impact the content and messages you see on other websites you visit. If you do not allow these cookies you may not be able to use or see these sharing tools.

If you want to opt out of all of our lead reports and lists, please submit a privacy request at our Do Not Sell page.

Save Settings
Cookie Preferences Cookie List

Cookie List

A cookie is a small piece of data (text file) that a website – when visited by a user – asks your browser to store on your device in order to remember information about you, such as your language preference or login information. Those cookies are set by us and called first-party cookies. We also use third-party cookies – which are cookies from a domain different than the domain of the website you are visiting – for our advertising and marketing efforts. More specifically, we use cookies and other tracking technologies for the following purposes:

Strictly Necessary Cookies

We do not allow you to opt-out of our certain cookies, as they are necessary to ensure the proper functioning of our website (such as prompting our cookie banner and remembering your privacy choices) and/or to monitor site performance. These cookies are not used in a way that constitutes a “sale” of your data under the CCPA. You can set your browser to block or alert you about these cookies, but some parts of the site will not work as intended if you do so. You can usually find these settings in the Options or Preferences menu of your browser. Visit www.allaboutcookies.org to learn more.

Functional Cookies

We do not allow you to opt-out of our certain cookies, as they are necessary to ensure the proper functioning of our website (such as prompting our cookie banner and remembering your privacy choices) and/or to monitor site performance. These cookies are not used in a way that constitutes a “sale” of your data under the CCPA. You can set your browser to block or alert you about these cookies, but some parts of the site will not work as intended if you do so. You can usually find these settings in the Options or Preferences menu of your browser. Visit www.allaboutcookies.org to learn more.

Performance Cookies

We do not allow you to opt-out of our certain cookies, as they are necessary to ensure the proper functioning of our website (such as prompting our cookie banner and remembering your privacy choices) and/or to monitor site performance. These cookies are not used in a way that constitutes a “sale” of your data under the CCPA. You can set your browser to block or alert you about these cookies, but some parts of the site will not work as intended if you do so. You can usually find these settings in the Options or Preferences menu of your browser. Visit www.allaboutcookies.org to learn more.

Sale of Personal Data

We also use cookies to personalize your experience on our websites, including by determining the most relevant content and advertisements to show you, and to monitor site traffic and performance, so that we may improve our websites and your experience. You may opt out of our use of such cookies (and the associated “sale” of your Personal Information) by using this toggle switch. You will still see some advertising, regardless of your selection. Because we do not track you across different devices, browsers and GEMG properties, your selection will take effect only on this browser, this device and this website.

Social Media Cookies

We also use cookies to personalize your experience on our websites, including by determining the most relevant content and advertisements to show you, and to monitor site traffic and performance, so that we may improve our websites and your experience. You may opt out of our use of such cookies (and the associated “sale” of your Personal Information) by using this toggle switch. You will still see some advertising, regardless of your selection. Because we do not track you across different devices, browsers and GEMG properties, your selection will take effect only on this browser, this device and this website.

Targeting Cookies

We also use cookies to personalize your experience on our websites, including by determining the most relevant content and advertisements to show you, and to monitor site traffic and performance, so that we may improve our websites and your experience. You may opt out of our use of such cookies (and the associated “sale” of your Personal Information) by using this toggle switch. You will still see some advertising, regardless of your selection. Because we do not track you across different devices, browsers and GEMG properties, your selection will take effect only on this browser, this device and this website.