President Biden Announces Key Appointments to Boards and Commissions

WASHINGTON – Today, President Biden announced his intent to appoint the following individuals to serve in key roles:

• Peter S. Cooke, Member, Adams Memorial Commission
• Richard A. Houghton, Member, Adams Memorial Commission
• Stephanie L. Enyart, Member, Architectural and Transportation Barriers Compliance Access Board
• Carmen Daniel Jones, Member, Architectural and Transportation Barriers Compliance Access Board
• Tina Guenette Pedersen, Member, Architectural and Transportation Barriers Compliance Access Board
• Risa Lauren Goluboff, Member, Permanent Committee for the Oliver Wendell Holmes Devise
• Martha S. Jones, Member, Permanent Committee for the Oliver Wendell Holmes Devise
• Trevor Morrison, Member, Permanent Committee for the Oliver Wendell Holmes Devise
• Elizabeth Rodke Washburn, Member, President’s Commission on White House Fellowships
• Hamilton E. “Tony” James, Member, President’s Intelligence Advisory Board
• Julia Santucci, Member, President’s Intelligence Advisory Board

Adams Memorial Commission

The Adams Memorial Commission was enacted with the purpose of establishing a permanent memorial to honor John Adams and his legacy located in Washington, DC. The bi-partisan Commission shall consider and formulate plans for a John Adams memorial, including the nature, location, design, and construction of the memorial. In addition to John Adams, the proposed memorial would honor his wife and writer First Lady Abigail Adams, their son, the sixth President John Quincy Adams, and other members of the Adams family.

Peter S. Cooke, Member, Adams Memorial Commission

Peter S. Cooke has over 40 years of experience with public-private partnerships, specifically in the real estate development industry. He has led real estate ventures in affordable housing, military housing, office space, and commercial space. In addition to his corporate experience, Cooke served for 39 years in the U.S. Army Reserve, a tenure that was highlighted by his time as Commanding General of the U.S. Army’s 96^th Regional Readiness Command.

After his retirement from the military, Cooke co-founded and served as Director of the National Center for Veteran’s Studies and helped to create initiatives like the Partnership with America & Employer Partnership that provide employment resources for veterans and current reservists. Cooke serves as the Chairman of the Board of The American College of National Security leaders and was previously a Candidate for Governor and Congress for the State of Utah.

Richard A. Houghton, Member, Adams Memorial Commission

Richard A. Houghton is a Principal Landscape Architect at Halvorson | Tighe & Bond Studio in Boston, Massachusetts. The firm’s expertise in Landscape Architecture and Urban Design creates timeless, engaging landscapes that are rooted in fundamental design principles and inspired by the dynamics of nature. Houghton has 20 years of experience leading complex, transformative landscape architecture projects focused on reimagining and invigorating the urban public realm, while preserving and enhancing cultural landscapes. His passion for creating outstanding civic spaces has led to collaborations that have memorialized defining individuals and events in American history.

Houghton led the design and project delivery for the Hancock Adams Common in Quincy, Massachusetts, which has become the keystone to the revitalization of Quincy’s downtown. The project reorganized the street layout to create a civic open space uniting the historic Old Town Hall and Church of the Presidents, where the crypts of the two Adams presidents are, and created a pedestrian promenade punctuated by bronze sculptures of John Adams, Abigail Adams, John Hancock, and two monumental fountains. Recognized for its significance for preservation, engineering, and landscape architecture, the project has received multiple awards. Houghton is an active member of the American Society of Landscape Architects and has been a panelist for the Boston Society of Civil Engineers and the ArchitectureBoston Expo.

Architectural and Transportation Barriers Compliance Access Board

The Architectural and Transportation Barriers Compliance Access Board is an independent federal agency that promotes equality for people with disabilities through leadership in accessible design and the development of accessibility guidelines and standards. The Board develops and maintains design criteria for the built environment, transit vehicles, telecommunications equipment, medical diagnostic equipment, and information technology. It also provides technical assistance and training on these requirements and accessible design and continues to enforce accessibility standards that cover federally funded facilities.

Stephanie L. Enyart, Member, Architectural and Transportation Barriers Compliance Access Board

Stephanie L. Enyart is a disability rights leader with 20 years of experience advocating for people with disabilities. She currently serves as American Foundation for the Blind’s (AFB) Chief Public Policy & Research Officer. She launched the AFB Public Policy and Research Institute, which conducts mixed-methods research that informs AFB’s policy advocacy. She provides strategic leadership for the policy and research functions across the key focus areas of education, employment, technology, and transportation. Enyart currently leads a cross-disability coalition advocating for regulatory clarity and legislative solutions to the inaccessibility of websites and applications.

Prior to AFB, she was the Disability & Inclusion Advisor at the Corporation for National and Community Service (AmeriCorps), where she provided thousands of nonprofit grantee organizations with inclusion guidance and resources. She advocated for the disability community as a Skadden Foundation Fellow for Disability Rights Advocates and the Judge David L. Bazelon Center for Mental Health Law. Enyart spent over a decade working in state and federal government and has extensive expertise in nonprofit and community organizing. Enyart holds a B.A. from Stanford University and a J.D. from the UCLA School of Law, where she served as an Editor-in-Chief of Recent Developments for the UCLA Women’s Law Journal. During law school she also founded the National Association of Law Students with Disabilities and served as its first President. Enyart is blind and is a proud mother to two daughters.

Carmen Daniel Jones, Member, Architectural and Transportation Barriers Compliance Access Board

Carmen Daniels Jones is a trusted leader for organizations across a variety of professional sectors. Synthesizing multidisciplinary thinking, marketing, and community engagement thought leadership with an understanding of change management, Jones has been instrumental in developing strategies that have transformed organizations from Fortune 100 companies to the federal government.

Jones’ expertise across the public sector, small business, and large corporations has been the catalyst for growth in industries as varied as healthcare, financial services, telecommunications, and government. Whether she was in her role as an executive for one of the nation’s leading healthcare providers or advocating for equity for disadvantaged businesses as a presidential appointee, Jones is known for her ability to see potential and opportunities, and to galvanize teams around a shared vision. An advocate at her core, championing people and causes is not what Jones does – it’s who she is. Jones’ insight has been featured on CNN, The New York Times, Black Enterprise, Glamour, New Mobility, and Essence Magazine.

Tina Guenette Pedersen, Member, Architectural and Transportation Barriers Compliance Access Board

Tina Guenette Pedersen is CEO, President, and Founder of RAMP (Real Access Motivates Progress), a non-profit that educates and advocates for accessibility and inclusion. She resides in Rhode Island. Eight years ago, Pederson walked into a minor surgery which led to an injury of her spinal cord, which paralyzed her from the waist down. Having survived both cancer and strokes, she devotes her life to helping others by raising awareness of accessibility for all. From talking with school-age children to engaging with the disability community, she works with and for the community on bullying prevention and speaks on the benefits of maintaining a positive attitude throughout life. Pedersen works with businesses, multiple professions, and first responders on areas of communication and best practices to include the disability community in their work. She is Vice Chair of the Rhode Island Governor’s Commission on Disability and Chair of the Awareness Committee. She loves the opportunity to share her story, meet new people, and advocate for all. Pedersen believes that community service isn’t something she does, but that it is part of her DNA.

Permanent Committee for the Oliver Wendell Holmes Devise

The Permanent Committee for the Oliver Wendell Holmes Devise was established by Congress in 1955 after the late Associate Justice of the Supreme Court Oliver Wendell Holmes Jr. bequeathed a portion of his estate to the United States in 1935. Congress used the gift to establish the Committee, which is charged with documenting and disseminating the history of the United States Supreme Court. The Committee’s principal purpose is to continue to publish the multi-volume work documenting the history of the Court, and the Committee is composed of the Librarian of Congress and four additional members appointed by the President.

Risa Lauren Goluboff, Member, Permanent Committee for the Oliver Wendell Holmes Devise

Risa Lauren Goluboff is the 12th and first female Dean of the University of Virginia School of Law. She is a nationally renowned legal historian whose scholarship and teaching focuses on American constitutional and civil rights law, especially their historical development in the 20th century. Goluboff is the author of The Lost Promise of Civil Rights, which won the Order of the Coif Biennial Book Award and the James Willard Hurst Prize. Her second book, Vagrant Nation: Police Power, Constitutional Change, and the Making of the 1960s, was supported by fellowships from the John Simon Guggenheim Foundation and the American Council of Learned Societies. It received the American Historical Association’s Littleton-Griswold Prize, the Lillian Smith Book Award, the John Phillip Reid Book Award, and the David J. Langum, Sr. Prize in American Legal History, among other honors.

She is a member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences and the American Law Institute. Goluboff holds additional University of Virginia appointments as Professor of History in the Corcoran Department of History, Faculty Affiliate at the Carter G. Woodson Institute for African-American and African Studies, and Faculty Senior Fellow at the Miller Center. Prior to joining the Law School in 2002, Goluboff clerked for Judge Guido Calabresi of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit and Justice Stephen G. Breyer of the U.S. Supreme Court. She holds an A.B. from Harvard, M.A. and Ph.D. from Princeton, and J.D. from Yale. Additionally, Goluboff served as a Fulbright Scholar to South Africa.

Martha S. Jones, Member, Permanent Committee for the Oliver Wendell Holmes Devise

Martha S. Jones is a cultural-legal historian whose work examines how Black Americans have shaped the meaning of the U.S. Constitution. As the Society of Black Alumni Presidential Professor at The Johns Hopkins University, Jones serves on faculties of the department of history, the SNF Agora Institute, and the Center for Africana Studies. She also directs the Hard Histories at Hopkins Project. Jones is a prize-winning historian of books that include Birthright Citizens: A History of Race and Rights in Antebellum America and Vanguard: How Black Women Broke Barriers, Won the Vote, and Insisted on Equality for All, and has been supported by the American Council of Learned Societies, the National Humanities Center, the Library of Congress Kluge Center, and the American Historical Association. She has served as Co-President of the Berkshire Conference of Women Historians and Vice President of the Law and Humanities Interdisciplinary Workshop. Jones hold a J.D. from the CUNY (City University of New York) School of Law and a Ph.D. from Columbia University. Prior to her academic career, Jones was a public interest attorney in New York City, recognized with a Charles Revson Fellowship on the Future of the City of New York from Columbia University. She lives in Baltimore, Maryland.

Trevor Morrison, Member, Permanent Committee for the Oliver Wendell Holmes Devise

Trevor Morrison is the Eric M. and Laurie B. Roth Professor of Law and Dean Emeritus at New York University School of Law, where he teaches and writes about constitutional law and the federal courts. He is also Of Counsel to the law firm of Kaplan Hecker & Fink LLP. Earlier in his career, Morrison served as Associate Counsel to President Barack Obama, and as a law clerk to Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg of the United States Supreme Court and to Judge Betty B. Fletcher of the United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit. He has served in the United States Department of Justice as an attorney-advisor in the Office of Legal Counsel and as a Bristow Fellow in the Office of the Solicitor General.

In 2016, Morrison was appointed by President Obama to the Public Interest Declassification Board, and in 2021, he was appointed by President Biden to the Presidential Commission on the Supreme Court. Morrison received a B.A. in history from the University of British Columbia and a J.D. from Columbia Law School. He is a Fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences and a member of the American Law Institute and the Council on Foreign Relations.

President’s Commission on White House Fellowships

The President’s Commission on White House Fellowships is composed of outstanding citizens who reflect the diversity and strength of America while representing a broad range of backgrounds, experiences, and professions. Commissioners are responsible for recommending a group of candidates to the President for selection as White House Fellows, a prestigious program for leadership and public service that provides young Americans experience working at the highest levels of the federal government.

Elizabeth Rodke Washburn, Member, President’s Commission on White House Fellowships

Elizabeth Rodke Washburn serves as the Director of Ethics and Compliance for the San Diego Zoo Wildlife Alliance in California. Prior to joining the Alliance, Washburn served as Special Assistant to the President for Native Affairs in the Biden-Harris Administration. She has served in senior leadership roles at New Mexico State University and the University of New Mexico, focusing on building compliance structures and strengthening ethics requirements and Title IX processes. Previously, she worked in the Obama-Biden Administration at the U.S. Department of the Interior. Washburn worked for Senator Jeff Bingaman (D-NM), serving as both the State Director and Legislative Counsel. Washburn received her undergraduate degree from the University of Oklahoma, a graduate degree from Texas Woman’s University, and a law degree from the University of New Mexico School of Law. She is an enrolled tribal member of the Chickasaw Nation.

President’s Intelligence Advisory Board

The President’s Intelligence Advisory Board is an independent element within the Executive Office of the President. The President’s Intelligence Advisory Board exists exclusively to assist the President by providing the President with an independent source of advice on the effectiveness with which the Intelligence Community is meeting the Nation’s intelligence needs and the vigor and insight with which the community plans for the future. The President is able to appoint up to 16 members of the Board.

Hamilton E. “Tony” James, Member, President’s Intelligence Advisory Board

Tony James is an internationally recognized investor and leader in global finance, having served for many years as President and COO of The Blackstone Group, the world’s largest alternative asset manager with approximately $1 trillion in assets under management. In that role, he oversaw businesses and operations in all major countries throughout the Americas, Europe, and Asia. He currently is Chairman of Jefferson River Capital, a private investment group. He also serves as Chairman of the Board of Costco Wholesale Corp., the world’s second largest retailer, Co-Chair of The Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York, Vice Chairman of The Wildlife Conservation Society, and Chairman of the Finance Committee of Mount Sinai Hospital System. Additionally, James is Chairman and co-founder of The Partnership for Education Advancement, which provides critical infrastructure support to Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCU), serving over 40% of all HBCU students. James also has served and continues to serve on numerous other charitable, corporate, and public sector boards. He co-authored Rescuing Retirement, a book proposing a solution to America’s looming retirement crisis, and has published articles in The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, and other major publications. He graduated from Harvard College as a John Harvard Scholar and from Harvard Business School as a Baker Scholar.

Julia Santucci, Member, President’s Intelligence Advisory Board

Julia Santucci is Senior Lecturer in Intelligence Studies and Director of the Johnson Institute for Responsible Leadership and the Frances Hesselbein Leadership Forum at the University of Pittsburgh Graduate School of Public and International Affairs (GSPIA). She is also an affiliate scholar of the University’s Institute of Cyber Law, Policy, and Security. Santucci teaches graduate-level courses centered around the U.S. intelligence community, diplomacy, and the Middle East. As Director of the Johnson Institute and Hesselbein Forum, she leads GSPIA’s research and teaching efforts to develop leadership skills in the next generation of public officials. Santucci served in the Obama-Biden Administration as a Senior Advisor in the Secretary of State’s Office of Global Women’s Issues from 2015 to 2017, where she worked to advance gender equality as a core U.S. foreign policy priority. From 2012 to 2014, she was Director for Egypt at the National Security Council. She served for 10 years as a Middle East leadership analyst at the Central Intelligence Agency. Santucci holds a M.A. in Near Eastern Studies from the University of Arizona, and a B.A. in History from the University of Dayton.

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