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Briefing Room

The White House
Office of the Press Secretary
For Immediate Release
September 12, 2014

President Obama Announces More Key Administration Posts

WASHINGTON, DC – Today, President Barack Obama announced his intent to nominate the following individuals to key Administration posts:

  • Charlotte Burrows – Commissioner, Equal Employment Opportunity Commission
  • Isobel Coleman – Representative of the United States to the United Nations for U.N. Management and Reform, with the Rank of Ambassador, United States Mission to the United Nations
  • Senator Benjamin Cardin – Representative of the United States to the Sixty-Ninth Session of the General Assembly of the United Nations (U.S. Senator from the State of Maryland)
  • Senator Ron Johnson – Representative of the United States to the Sixty-Ninth Session of the General Assembly of the United Nations (U.S. Senator from the State of Wisconsin)
  • Carol Leslie Hamilton – Alternate Representative of the United States to the Sixty-Ninth Session of the General Assembly of the United Nations
  • Leslie Berger Kiernan – Alternate Representative of the United States to the Sixty-Ninth Session of the General Assembly of the United Nations
  • Robert M. Scher  – Assistant Secretary of Defense for Strategy, Plans, and Capabilities, Department of Defense

President Obama said, “I am proud to nominate such impressive men and women to these important roles, and I am grateful they have agreed to lend their considerable talents to this Administration.  I look forward to working with them in the months and years ahead.”

Senators Cardin and Johnson will be nominated as Representatives of the United States to the Sixty-Ninth Session of the General Assembly of the United Nations in addition to their duties in the United States Senate.

President Obama announced his intent to nominate the following individuals to key Administration posts:

Charlotte Burrows, Nominee for Commissioner, Equal Employment Opportunity Commission

Charlotte Burrows currently serves as Associate Deputy Attorney General at the Department of Justice (DOJ), a position she has held since 2009.  She served as General Counsel for Civil and Constitutional Rights to Senator Edward M. Kennedy on the Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions in 2009 and on the Senate Judiciary Committee from 2007 to 2008, and as Legal Counsel on the Senate Judiciary Committee from 2003 to 2007.  From 1998 to 2003, Ms. Burrows worked in the Civil Rights Division’s Employment Litigation Section at DOJ as a Trial Attorney from 1998 to 2002, as Special Litigation Counsel from 2002 to 2003, and as Deputy Chief in 2003.  She was a judicial clerk for the Honorable Timothy K. Lewis of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit from 1997 to 1998 and an associate at Debevoise & Plimpton in 1997.  Ms. Burrows received an A.B. from Princeton University and a J.D. from Yale Law School.

Dr. Isobel Coleman, Nominee for Representative of the United States to the United Nations for U.N. Management and Reform, with the Rank of Ambassador, United States Mission to the United Nations
Dr. Isobel Coleman is currently a Senior Fellow at the Council on Foreign Relations, a position she has held since 2002.  Concurrently, she served as a track leader for the Clinton Global Initiative in 2010.  From 2000 to 2002, she was founder and CEO of NursingHands, Inc.  From 1998 to 2000, she was a consultant at McKinsey & Company, having been an Associate from 1992 to 1998.  From 1990 to 1991, she was a Pre-Doctoral Fellow at the Brookings Institution and an adjunct professor at American University in 1991.  Dr. Coleman received a B.A. from Princeton University and an M.Phil. and D.Phil. from Oxford University.

Senator Benjamin Cardin, Nominee for Representative of the United States to the Sixty-Ninth Session of the General Assembly of the United Nations (U.S. Senator from the State of Maryland)

Senator Benjamin Cardin was first elected to the Senate in 2006.  Senator Cardin serves as a member of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, where he is the Chair of the East Asian & Pacific Affairs Subcommittee, and previously served as Chair of the Subcommittee on International Development and Foreign Assistance.  He is also Chairman of the Commission on Security and Cooperation in Europe and a member of the Committee on Finance, the Committee on Environment and Public Works, and the Committee on Small Business and Entrepreneurship.  Senator Cardin represented the 3rd District of Maryland in the House of Representatives from 1987 until he was sworn in as a Senator in January 2007.  From 1967 to 1986 he was a legislator in the Maryland House of Delegates, where he served as Speaker from 1979 to 1986.  Senator Cardin received a B.A. from the University of Pittsburgh and a J.D. from the University of Maryland School of Law.

Senator Ron Johnson, Nominee for Representative of the United States to the Sixty-Ninth Session of the General Assembly of the United Nations (U.S. Senator from the State of Wisconsin)

Senator Ron Johnson was first elected to the Senate in 2010.  Senator Johnson serves as a member of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, where he is the Ranking Member on the European Affairs Subcommittee.  He also serves on the Committee on the Budget, the Committee on Commerce, Science, and Transportation, the Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs, and the Committee on Small Business and Entrepreneurship.  Prior to his election to the Senate, Senator Johnson served as CEO of PACUR, a plastic sheet producer he helped start in 1979.  He was an accountant at Jostens from 1977 to 1979.  Senator Johnson received a B.S.B. from the University of Minnesota.

Carol Leslie Hamilton, Nominee for Alternate Representative of the United States to the Sixty-Ninth Session of the General Assembly of the United Nations

Carol Leslie Hamilton is a lawyer with a private practice in Beverly Hills, California and a Member of the U.S. National Commission for UNESCO, a position she has held since 2012.  Previously, she served as the Dean of Institutional Development at Santa Monica College from 2010 to 2012 and as the Director of Development at the School of Film and Television at Loyola Marymount University from 2005 to 2010.  She was an independent producer with Hamilton Sakya in Beverly Hills, California from 1996 to 2005, and Vice President and Director of Legal and Business Affairs at RKO Pictures in Los Angeles, California from 1994 to 1995.  Ms. Hamilton was Partner at Bourhis & Hamilton from 1986 to 1990 and an associate attorney with the Law Offices of Ray Bourhis from 1984 to 1986.  From 1979 to 1983, she was a Deputy Public Defender in the Los Angeles Public Defender’s Office, and from 1976 to 1979 she was a Deputy City Attorney for the Los Angeles City Attorney’s Office.  Earlier in her career, Ms. Hamilton co-founded the Legal Clinic for Battered Women in 1978, one of the first legal clinics for victims of domestic abuse in the United States.  She was a founding director and officer of the Tibet Justice Center from 1989 to 1997, the Tibetan United States Resettlement Project from 1989 to 1992, and Los Angeles Friends of Tibet from 1990 to 1995.  Ms. Hamilton serves as a member of Renewables 100 Policy Institute’s Board of Advisors, participates in the Department of Homeland Security Los Angeles Area Community Engagement Roundtable, and is a member of the Pacific Council on International Policy.  Ms. Hamilton received a B.S. from the University of Wisconsin and a J.D. from the University of California, Hastings College of the Law.

Leslie Berger Kiernan, Nominee for Alternate Representative of the United States to the Sixty-Ninth Session of the General Assembly of the United Nations

Leslie Berger Kiernan most recently served as a consultant to the White House Council on Women and Girls in 2014. Previously, Ms. Kiernan served as Deputy Assistant to the President and Deputy Counsel to the President in the Office of the White House Counsel at the White House from 2011 to 2014.  From 1995 to 2011, Ms. Kiernan was a partner at Zuckerman Spaeder, and was an associate with the firm from 1988 to 1994.  From 1986 to 1988, she was an associate at Kirkland & Ellis.  Prior to joining Kirkland & Ellis, she was a Staff Assistant on the U.S. House of Representatives Committee on Banking, Finance and Urban Affairs.  Ms. Kiernan received an A.B. from Brown University and a J.D. from Georgetown University Law Center.

Robert M. Scher, Nominee for Assistant Secretary of Defense for Strategy, Plans, and Capabilities, Department of Defense

Robert M. Scher is the Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defense for Plans in the Office of the Under Secretary of Defense for Policy, a position he has held since 2012.  From 2009 to 2012, Mr. Scher served as the Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defense for South and Southeast Asia.  He was an Associate for Booz Allen Hamilton from 2006 to 2009.  From 2005 to 2006, he served as the Chief of Staff to the Deputy Under Secretary of Defense, Asia and Pacific, and from 2003 to 2005, he was a member of the Policy Planning Staff at the Department of State.  From 1999 to 2003, Mr. Scher served as Director for Maritime Southeast Asia at the Department of Defense and from 1993 to 1999, he was a Senior Assistant for Strategy Development in the Office of the Secretary of Defense.  He began his career in public service as a Presidential Management Intern in 1992, serving as a Special Assistant to an Assistant Secretary of Defense.  Mr. Scher received a B.A from Swarthmore College and an M.I.A. from Columbia University.