Appointments and Resignations

Administrator of the Food and Nutrition Service: Who Is Audrey Rowe?

Audrey Rowe became the administrator of the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Food and Nutrition Service on April 1, 2011, after serving as deputy administrator for the department’s Special Nutrition Program since the start of President Barack Obama’s administration. Since taking over the Food and Nutrition Service, Rowe has helped institute menu changes in school lunches that emphasize healthier foods, including more fruits and vegetables and less whole milk. read more

Administrator of the National Agricultural Statistics Service: Who Is Joseph Reilly?

In 1997, the responsibilities for the Census of Agriculture were transferred to the Department of Agriculture (USDA) and Reilly moved with them as deputy administrator for field operations with responsibility for 46 NASS field offices. Reilly was named associate administrator in 2005. In 2008, while Reilly was serving as acting administrator, NASS cut its regular reporting on pesticide use. Reilly said the move came for budgetary reasons. read more

Administrator of the Farm Service Agency: Who Is Val Dolcini?

Dolcini returned to his old job as state executive director of CFSA in 2009, when he was appointed by President Barack Obama. He remained there until 2014, taking time in 2011 to serve as acting administrator of the national FSA. When Dolcini was appointed to the FSA post in 2014, he drove to Washington from California, stopping at state FSA offices along the way and chronicling the trip on his Facebook page. read more

Administrator of the Agricultural Research Service: Who Is Chavonda Jacobs-Young?

Jacobs-Young returned to the USDA in 2010 as director of the Office of Chief Scientist. During this period, she also served for a time as acting director of the department’s National Institute of Food and Agriculture. Jacobs-Young joined the Agricultural Research Service in 2012 to serve as associate administrator for national programs, where she managed the research objectives of the agency. read more

Acting Director of the U.S. Secret Service: Who Is Joseph Clancy?

Clancy moved up to special agent in charge of presidential protection in February 2009 when Barack Obama assumed office. Under his watch, in November 2009, a couple famously crashed a White House dinner honoring Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh. Clancy offered his resignation to then-Secret Service Director Mark Sullivan because of the security breach, but Sullivan declined to accept it. read more

U.S. Ambassador to India: Who Is Richard Verma?

Verma was appointed assistant secretary of state for legislative affairs under Hillary Clinton in 2009. His appointment appeared to violate Obama’s self-imposed ban on putting former lobbyists in the government as Verma had lobbied the State Department on behalf of the U.S.-India Business Council. Nonetheless, he was confirmed in the post and subsequently led negotiations with Congress on Iran sanctions and the New START treaty. read more

Administrator of the Agricultural Marketing Service: Who Is Anne Alonzo?

In 2000 Alonzo was named senior vice president of the National Foreign Trade Council, a post she held for seven years. Alonzo jumped at the chance to return to her hometown in 2007 when she was offered the post of vice president for global public policy and corporate affairs for Kraft Foods. She handled issues of tariffs; tax and trade; and sustainability. While at Kraft, Alonzo in 2010 was named chair of the World Cocoa Foundation. read more

U.S. Ambassador to Guyana: Who Is Perry Holloway?

Holloway has spent the vast majority of his career in Central and South America. In August 2009 he was named deputy chief of mission at the U.S. Embassy in Asuncion, Paraguay and returned to Bogota in a similar post a year later, remaining in that position for four years. His one assignment outside Latin America came in 2013 when he was a political-military counselor at the U.S. Embassy in Kabul, Afghanistan. read more

U.S. Ambassador to Madagascar and Comoros: Who Is Robert Yamate?

Yamate was sent to Geneva as a minister counselor for management at the U.S. mission to the United Nations. He was brought back to Washington in 2008 as a multifunctional officer in the Bureau of Intelligence and Research. In 2010, Yamate returned to Africa as the deputy chief of mission in Dakar, Senegal, acting as charge d’affaires for a time in 2012. He has served since 2013 as an assessor on the Department of State Board of Examiners. read more

Acting Director of the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration: Who Is David Friedman?

National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) Deputy Administrator David J. Friedman became the agency’s acting director on December 12, 2013. Friedman is a curious choice to work for the NHTSA. His background is alternative fuels and clean vehicles, with only a little experience working with automotive safety issues. read more

U.S. Ambassador to Uzbekistan: Who Is Pamela Spratlen?

After serving as deputy chief of mission at the U.S. Embassy in Astana, Kazakhstan, Spratlen was sworn in as U.S. ambassador to the Kyrgyz Republic on April 15, 2011. In June 2014, she helped coordinate the handover of Manas Air Base, which had been an important transit base for troops and supplies going into Afghanistan, to the Kyrgyz government. read more

U.S. Ambassador to Bahrain: Who Is William Roebuck?

Roebuck was sent to Libya in January 2013 in the wake of the attacks on the U.S. Consulate in Benghazi to serve as chargé d’affaires at the embassy in Tripoli, staying there for six months. During his confirmation hearing for the Bahrain job, Roebuck told committee members that he wouldn’t abide by Bahrain’s law that a government representative be present for meetings between embassy personnel and members of that country’s opposition party. read more

U.S. Ambassador to the United Arab Emirates: Who Is Barbara Leaf?

In 2008, she was sent to Rome as political minister-counselor and in 2010 she began a tour in Iraq as a team leader of a provincial reconstruction team in Basrah. Leaf returned to Washington in 2011 to become deputy assistant secretary of state for Iraq affairs and in 2013 she was made deputy assistant secretary for Arabian Peninsula affairs. read more

U.S. Ambassador to Malawi: Who Is Virginia Palmer?

Palmer was made deputy chief of mission at the U.S. Embassy in Hanoi, Vietnam, in 2008. While there, she helped coordinate the continuing resolution to the Vietnam War, including repatriation of soldiers’ remains and cleanup of chemicals, including Agent Orange. In 2011, Palmer went to Pretoria, South Africa, as deputy chief of mission at the U.S. embassy. read more

U.S. Ambassador to Finland: Who Is Charles C. Adams Jr.?

In 2008 and 2012, Adams, at his home overlooking Lake Geneva, hosted lavish fundraisers featuring George Clooney to benefit Obama’s presidential campaigns. Adams’ co-host, Matthew Barzun, is now the U.S. ambassador to the United Kingdom. Although Adams is a political, rather than career, appointee, he’s familiar with the Foreign Service. He was born August 25, 1947, in Belfast, Northern Ireland, where his father, Charles C. Adamas, was serving as a U.S. diplomat. read more

U.S. Ambassador to Armenia: Who Is Richard Mills?

Mills went to Malta in 2010 as deputy chief of mission, and for a time as chargé d’affaires, at the embassy in Valetta. While there, he helped coordinate the evacuation of Americans and other foreign nationals from Libya during the unrest in that country in 2011. He also helped dedicate the new U.S. Embassy in Malta. In 2012, Mills went to Beirut as deputy chief of mission, where he served until his nomination. read more