In 2009, after serving on the Obama-Biden transition team, Hyde was named a senior advisor for management and resources at the State Department. Then, in 2011, Hyde moved to the Office of Management and Budget, becoming associate director for general government programs. Because Hyde has had to wait seven months for confirmation, on April 15, the MCC named Sheila Herrling to serve as acting CEO.   read more

In 2007, Brothers returned to the private sector, joining defense contractor BAE Systems, working on advanced programs and technology. Brothers joined the Obama administration in 2011 as deputy assistant secretary of Defense for Research. In that role, he was responsible for policy and oversight of Department of Defense Science and Technology programs from basic research through advanced technology development.   read more

In 2009, Orr helped found the Precourt Institute for Energy at Stanford. According to the institute’s website, its mission is to provide funding and associated support for cutting-edge energy research. In recent years, the focus of Orr’s research has been into carbon capture and storage, in which emissions from power plants and other pollution sources are injected into the earth.   read more

Rivkin is not the only member of his family to receive an appointment from Obama. His brother, Robert, was selected to be general counsel for the Department of Transportation, and Robert’s wife, Cindy S. Moelis, a close friend of Michelle Obama, was chosen to direct the Commission on White House Fellows. Rivkin’s mother, who died in 2002, and stepfather founded the American Refugee Committee, which helps relocate international refugees.   read more

In 2011, Selfridge was named special assistant to the President and deputy director of advance and later that year was named deputy assistant to the president and director of advance and operations at the White House. While at the White House, Selfridge has become one of President Obama’s regular golf partners. His wife was formerly a deputy director of public affairs in the Commerce Department, but now works for a public relations/lobbying firm.   read more

President Barack Obama has nominated Sylvia Mathews Burwell, who is currently director of the Office of Management and Budget (OMB), to be Secretary of Health and Human Services (HHS), replacing Kathleen Sebelius. Burwell was at OMB only about a year, being confirmed by the Senate on April 24, 2013. Her time there was busy, however, and included a government shutdown in October 2013. She also dealt with health policy issues during her tenure, including Medicare and Medicaid.   read more

NASA selected Sullivan to become an astronaut in January 1978. Her first space flight came in October 1984 as a mission specialist aboard the Challenger. On that flight, she became the first U.S. woman to walk in space. In April 1990, Sullivan again went into space, this time aboard Discovery. On that mission, she helped launch the Hubble Space Telescope. Sullivan flew the shuttle once more, in 1992 on Atlantis, as payload commander. During her three flights she logged 532 hours in space.   read more

President Barack Obama nominated mergers and acquisition specialist Stefan M. Selig to be his under secretary of Commerce for International Trade and head the International Trade Administration. President Obama was forced to renominate Selig on January 6, 2014, because his nomination had not been acted upon by the U.S. Senate by the end of the year. In that post, Selig will be promoting U.S. trade interests, including ensuring access to foreign markets and enforcing fair-trade legislation.   read more

Wu then served as vice president of the National Partnership for Women and Families, an organization that promotes health care, reproductive rights, workplace fairness and workplace policies such as paid sick days and paid family leave, until 2011, when she moved to the White House. In 2012, Wu was named special assistant to the president for Labor and Workforce Policy.   read more

In 2002, Goodman returned to Wiley Rein, moving to the firm LeClairRyan as a partner in 2005, focusing on election law. He has also lobbied Congress on behalf of such firms as America Online and Time Warner. In 2012, he helped the Ron Paul campaign handle delegate challenges in Louisiana, Massachusetts and Oregon. He also served as general counsel of the Republican Party of Virginia from 2009 to 2013.   read more

In September 2011, President Barack Obama appointed Matt S. Erskine as deputy assistant secretary for the Department of Commerce and chief operating officer of the U.S. Economic Development Administration (EDA). Since March 2012, Erskine has been acting assistant secretary of Commerce for economic development. The EDA’s mission is to promote capital investment in economically challenged areas of the country and to invest in infrastructure.   read more

By the end of 2010, Massad was acting assistant secretary of the Treasury for Financial Stability, which gave him supervision over TARP. He was confirmed as assistant secretary on June 30, 2011. In that post, he started to wind down the program, selling assets the federal government had taken in exchange for funding banks and other financial institutions during the 2008 crisis. Despite its unpopularity with many Americans, the program made money for taxpayers under Massad’s stewardship.   read more

On January 6, 2014, longtime Congressman Mel Watt was sworn in as director of the Federal Housing Finance Agency (FHFA), the supervisory agency created in its current form in 2008 in response to the bursting of the housing bubble and subsequent financial crisis and Great Recession. He was nominated by President Barack Obama on May 1, 2013.   read more

In May 2005, Davis was named chief of the troubled East Palo Alto Police Department. Davis is known as an expert on racial profiling by police, and has testified before the Senate Judiciary Committee, in 2001 and 2012, on the subject. While in East Palo Alto, he helped implement a parole-reentry program. The program had a significant effect on return-to-custody rates, seeing them fall from 60% to 20%.   read more

After Obama’s inauguration, Johnson was named general counsel for the Department of Defense. One of his major achievements in that position was the co-authorship of a report on why the military’s Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell policy should be overturned. Congress took its recommendations to heart and now gays may serve openly in the armed forces. Johnson was also a defender of the military’s increased use of drones, writing memos providing legal cover for their use.   read more

In 2004, Yellen was made president of the Federal Reserve Bank in San Francisco. She was one of the first to herald the coming financial crisis in 2007, urging tightening of rules for making home loans. She later acknowledged, however, that the San Francisco Fed didn’t do all it could have to ameliorate the crash, particularly in respect to Countrywide Financial’s toxic loan portfolio. Yellen left San Francisco in 2010, when Obama nominated her to be vice chair of the Fed.   read more