Claudia McMurray, was sworn in as Assistant Secretary for Oceans, Environment and Science on February 21, 2006. She received an A.B. degree in government in 1980 from Smith College in Northampton, Massachusetts, and a J.D. from Georgetown University in Washington D.C., serving in the Office of the Counsel to President Ronald Reagan while she was a law student. She went to work as a lawyer for the Patton Boggs lobbying firm and for the law firm of Kirkland & Ellis. After that, she served two years as Legislative Counsel to Virginia Republican Senator John Warner. From 1991 through 1995 McMurray held the position of Republican Counsel to the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee, and after that (1995-1996), she was general counsel to Republican Tennessee Senator Fred Thompson. From 1998 to 2000 McMurray was Vice President at Van Scoyoc Associates, Inc, a Washington D.C. lobbying firm, where she counseled corporate clients on environmental and energy policy. After that, from August 2001 to 2003, she was Associate Deputy Administrator and Chief of Staff to the Deputy Administrator of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, and from 2003 to 2006 she was Deputy Assistant Secretary of State for Environment.