Featured Member of the Executive Office for Prayer

Thursday, February 2nd, 2012

Howard K. Gruenspecht, Acting Administrator, U.S. Energy Information Administration

Howard Gruenspecht received his B.A. from McGill University and his Ph.D. in Economics from Yale University. Over the past 30 years, he has worked extensively on electricity policy issues, including restructuring and reliability, regulations affecting motor fuels and vehicles, energy-related environmental issues, and economy-wide energy modeling. He was a Resident Scholar at Resources for the Future for seven years. He also served as Director of Economic, Electricity and Natural Gas Analysis in the Department of Energy’s Office of Policy, having previously served as Deputy Assistant Secretary for Economic and Environmental Policy.

Gruenspecht was Senior Staff Economist at the Council of Economic Advisers during the Clinton Administration, with primary responsibilities in the areas of environment, energy, regulation and international trade.

His other professional experience includes service as a faculty member at the Graduate School of Industrial Administration, Carnegie Mellon University, Economic Adviser to the Chairman of the U.S. International Trade Commission, and Assistant Director of Economics and Business on the White House Domestic Policy Staff during the Carter presidency.

The U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA) is the statistical and analytical agency within the U.S. Department of Energy.

IN THE NEWS: The U.S. Energy Information Administration is likely to raise by a substantial amount its existing estimate that U.S. oil production will grow by 550,000 barrels per day by 2020, to just over six million barrels daily. The forecast will include new production data from developing oil fields, including the Bakken shale area in North Dakota, which could hold as much as 4.3 billion barrels of recoverable oil. There has been a decrease in the estimate for the Marcellus shale source for natural gas despite production booming in the Marcellus Shale which underlies areas in Pennsylvania, New York, West Virginia and other surrounding states.

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Featured Member of the Executive Office for Prayer

Thursday, January 26th, 2012

Ryan Crocker, U.S. Ambassador to Afghanistan

Ryan Clark Crocker was born in June 1949 in Spokane, Washington. He had family members in the U.S. Air Force and grew up in Morocco, Canada and Turkey. He attended University College Dublin and graduated from Whitman College in Walla Walla, Washington.

After Persian language training, he was assigned to the American Consulate in Khoramshahr, Iran. He ultimately had foreign service experience in Qatar, Tunis, Baghdad, Beirut, Cairo and Kuwait. He has been a career diplomat as Ambassador to Lebanon appointed by George H. W. Bush, as Ambassador to Kuwait appointed by Bill Clinton, as Ambassador to Syria appointed by Bill Clinton, as Ambassador to Pakistan appointed by George W. Bush, as Ambassador to Iraq appointed initially by George W. Bush and later by Barack Obama, and beginning in July of 2011 as U.S. Ambassador to Afghanistan appointed by President Obama.

Crocker is married to Christine Barnes.

IN THE NEWS: Ambassador Ryan Crocker said in a statement that a "free and independent media plays a vital role in any democracy" and that Afghanistan’s media and the Afghan government spokespersons were "important elements in our close bilateral relationship.” But he then went on to say that, "rumors that the United States has a plan to divide Afghanistan or change its form of government are, frankly speaking, lies that dishonor the sacrifice of more than 1,800 American service members who have died in the cause of a unified Afghanistan, governed by its Constitution."

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Featured Member of the Executive Office for Prayer

Thursday, January 19th, 2012

Hillary Rodham Clinton, United States Secretary of State

Hillary Dane Rodham Clinton was born in October 1947 in Chicago, Illinois. She graduated from Maine South High School, where she was a National Merit finalist. She enrolled in Wellesley College, majoring in political science, and becoming active in the American Civil Rights Movement. After receiving her B.A. she entered Yale Law School, from which she received her Juris Doctor degree. During her time at Yale she began dating Bill Clinton, also a law student.

During her postgraduate study, she served as staff attorney for the Children’s Defense Fund in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Enjoying the political aspirations of her then husband, Bill Clinton, she became the First Lady of Arkansas in January, serving non-consecutively a total of 14 years. In the 1992 election, Bill Clinton was elected as President of the United States, and he served for eight years, with Hillary at his side as First Lady of the United States. During the last year of his presidency, she ran for the position of United States Senator from New York, a position she held even during the time when she made her own run for the U.S. Presidency.

She did not secure the nomination of her party for the office of President, even though she conducted an extensive and tireless campaign. Ultimately, the man selected, Barack Obama, named her as his Secretary of State, and she assumed that office in January 2009.

Secretary Clinton and former President Bill Clinton have one daughter, Chelsea. She is a Methodist.

IN THE NEWS: “This is a lengthy process and it will, of course, depend on continuing progress and reform,” Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said of the restoration of diplomatic relations between the U.S. and Burma. “But an American ambassador will help strengthen our efforts to support the historic and promising steps that are now unfolding.” The news followed the release of 651 prisoners of conscience Friday, and other reforms in the wake of the Clinton visit to the country last month, the first by a Secretary of State since 1955.

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Featured Member of the Executive Office for Prayer

Thursday, January 12th, 2012

Richard Cordray, Director, U.S. Consumer Financial Protection Bureau

Richard Cordray was born in June 1959 in Columbus, Ohio. He attended Grove City High School, working for minimum wage at McDonald’s. He received a B.A. in Legal and Political Theory from Michigan State University’s James Madison College. When a junior, he worked as an intern for United States Senator John Glenn. As a Marshall Scholar, he earned an MA with honors in a Economics from the University of Oxford. He later earned his Juris Doctor from the University of Chicago Law School. In all of his academic pursuits he excelled and obtained high honors.

Cordray began his career clerking for Supreme Court Associate Justices Byron White and Anthony Kennedy. Following that experience, he was hired by an international law firm out of Cleveland. He served one term as a member of the Ohio House of Representatives. When the government of Oho established an office of solicitor general, Governor George Voinovich nominated Cordray to the position, which he held for two years. He held two other elected positions in the state of Ohio, two years as Treasurer and two as Attorney General.

Cordray is married to Peggy and they have two children.

IN THE NEWS: In his first speech as head of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, Richard Cordray said his agency will immediately begin overseeing lenders outside the banking industry, and will take a tough stance against any financial players that break the law. The bureau, created by the 2010 Dodd-Frank financial oversight law, is charged with policing consumer market for products such as credit cards and home loans.

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Featured Member of the Executive Office for Prayer

Thursday, January 5th, 2012

Barack H. Obama, President of the United States

Barack Hussein Obama II was born in August 1961 in Honolulu, Hawaii. After Obama’s mother obtained a divorce from his Kenyan father, she married an Indonesian student, and the family moved to Jakarta, where young Barack attended the Besuki Public School and St. Francis of Assisi School. A few years later, he returned to Honolulu to live with his maternal grandparents, and attended Punahou School, a private college preparatory, from the fifth grade until his high school graduation. Following high school, Obama moved to Los Angeles to attend Occidental College. He later transferred to Columbia University in New York City where he majored in political science with a specialty in international relations. He received his B.A. from Columbia.

After graduation, he was hired in Chicago as director of a church-based community organization on Chicago’s far South Side. In mid-1988 he traveled to Europe for three weeks and then for two weeks in Kenya, where he met many of his paternal relatives for the first time.

In 1988, Obama entered Harvard Law School, graduating with a juris doctor. He spent his summers working in Chicago as an associate to several law firms. He accepted a two-year position as Visiting Law and Government Fellow at the University of Chicago Law School, then later as a full professor there for twelve years, teaching constitutional law.

He was elected to the Illinois Senate in 1996 and served two terms. He then ran for the position of United States Senator, and was elected in 2004. He was still serving as Senator when he was tapped for the role of presidential candidate. He won the presidency by taking 365 electoral votes, and capturing 52.9% of the nation’s popular vote. He is the nation’s current sitting President.

President Obama is married to Michelle Robinson, and they have two daughters – Malia and Sasha. He lists his faith as Christianity.

IN THE NEWS: The Keystone XL pipeline would create thousands of jobs, according to some labor unions. Environmentalists fear it could lead to an oil spill disaster. A new law President Obama signed just before Christmas that temporarily extended the payroll tax cut included a provision compelling him to make a speedy decision on whether to build the pipeline. The administration is warning that President Obama would rather say no than rush a decision in this election year.

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Featured Member of the Executive Office for Prayer

Thursday, December 29th, 2011

Eric Holder, United States Attorney General

Eric Himpton Holder, Jr. was born in January 1951 in The Bronx, New York. His family has roots in Barbados. Holder grew up in East Elmhurst, Queens and attended public school until the age of 10 when he was selected to participate in a program for intellectually-gifted students. He graduated from Stuyvesant High School in Manhattan, and received a B.A. in American History from Columbia College. Within a few years he had received his juris doctor from Columbia Law School.

Holder worked for the NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund during this first summer of law school, and for the United States Attorney during the second summer. After graduating, he joined the U.S. Justice Department’s new Public Integrity Section. President Ronald Reagan appointed Holder to serve as a judge of the Superior Court of the District of Columbia.

He stepped down from the bench to accept an appointment as U.S. Attorney for the District of Columbia from President Bill Clinton. Four years later, President Clinton nominated Holder to be the Deputy Attorney General under Janet Reno, and he was confirmed by a unanimous vote in the Senate.

During the administration of George W. Bush, Holder worked in private law practice, representing, among others, the National Football League in its litigation against Michael Vick. Holder worked for the presidential campaign of then U.S. Senator Barack Obama for president as a senior legal advisor.

Holder was formally appointed to the post of Attorney General by President Obama on inauguration day, and he was confirmed by the Senate within two weeks.

Holder is married to Dr. Sharon Malone, an obstetrician, and the couple has three children. He is an Episcopalian.

IN THE NEWS: The Justice Department holds that the Wire Act of 1961 does not make it illegal for states to use the internet to sell lottery tickets to adults. Previously, they had held that wagers through telecommunications that cross state lines or international borders were illegal. The Justice Department has now given the gaming community a big present, according to one gaming law expert. The new decision would eliminate almost every federal anti-gambling law that could apply to gaming that is legal under state laws. If a state were to legalize intra-state gambling, there is simply no federal law that could apply given the new decision.

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Featured Member of the Executive Office for Prayer

Thursday, December 22nd, 2011

Lisa P. Jackson, Administrator, Environmental Protection Agency

Lisa P. Jackson was born in February 1962 in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. She was adopted weeks after her birth, and grew up in Pontchatrain Park in New Orleans, Louisiana. She graduated as valedictorian from Saint Mary’s Dominican High School, and received a scholarship from the National Consortium for Graduate Degrees for Minorities in Engineering and Science due to her strong performance in mathematics.

She attended Tulane University with a scholarship from Shell Oil, and graduated with a B.S. in chemical engineering. She went on to earn a Master of Science degree, also in chemical engineering, from Princeton University.

She worked for a year and a half at Clean Sites, a nonprofit group that worked to accelerate cleanup of toxic areas. Then Jackson joined the U.S. Environmental Protection agency in Washington, D.C., working as a staff level engineer. She advanced to the regional office in New York City, and worked on the federal Superfund site remediation project in New Jersey, directing multimillion-dollar clean-up operations. She served as deputy director and acting director of the region’s enforcement division of the EPA.

She was named as a Commissioner of Environmental Protection by New Jersey Governor Corzine, where she led a staff of 2990 professionals responsible for protecting, sustaining and enhancing water, air and land in New Jersey, while preserving the state’s wealth of natural and historic resources. She would later become Chief of Staff to Governor Corzine.

In December 2008, President-elect Obama officially designed Jackson as the nominee for the Administrator of the Environmental Protection Agency. She was confirmed by a voice vote in the U.S. Senate. She is the first person of African-American descent to serve as EPA Administrator.

Ms. Jackson is married to Kenneth Jackson and is the mother of two children.

IN THE NEWS: In support of the Clean Air Act, the Environmental Protection Agency’s proposed clean-air rules should have a modest impact on plant retirements, according to a regulator. About a dozen states have already approved rules to cut mercury and other toxic substances at power plants. Industry has argued that the health benefits of reducing mercury through a federal standard are overstated. Mercury exposure, which people are exposed to mostly by eating fish, damages developing brains of fetuses and children.

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Featured Member of the Executive Office for Prayer

Thursday, December 15th, 2011

Todd D. Stern, U.S. Special Envoy for Climate Change

Todd D. Stern was born in May 1951. He graduated from Dartmouth College and earned a J.D. at Harvard Law School.

He served in the Clinton administration as Assistant to the President and Staff Secretary in the White House for five years, during which time he also acted as the senior White House negotiator at the Kyoto Protocol and Buenos Aires negotiations.

Before joining the Obama administration, he was a Senior Fellow at the Center for American Progress, where he focused on climate change and environmental issues, and was also a partner in the private practice of law. He has been an Adjunct Lecturer at Harvard’s Kennedy School of Government and a Resident Fellow at the German Marshall Fund of the United States.

He was appointed by Secretary of State Hillary Clinton as the U.S. Special Envoy for Climate Change, leading talks at the United Nations climate change conferences and other smaller sessions. Stern is a member of the Council on Foreign Relations.

IN THE NEWS: Facing sharp criticism from fellow envoys, environmental scientists and one impassioned heckler, the chief American negotiator at the climate conference in Durban shifted his position – or at least his language – on a timetable for a new set of international talks. Todd Stern firmly denied that the U.S. was dragging its feet and, somewhat ambiguously, endorsed a proposal from the European Union to quickly start negotiating a new international climate change treaty. “It is completely off base to suggest that the U.S. is proposing that we delay action until 2020,” Mr. Stern said. He detailed a number of domestic and international actions that the United States has taken and said that he and other administration officials were working on others, like finding ways to raise tens of billions of dollars to help poor nations adapt to a warming planet. “Taking all of those things together, it’s nonsense to suggest that what we are doing is proposing a kind of hiatus in dealing with climate change until after 2020,” Mr. Stern said.

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Featured Member of the Executive Office for Prayer

Thursday, December 8th, 2011

Patrick Donahoe, U.S. Postmaster General

Patrick R. Donahoe is the 73^rd United States Postmaster General. He was appointed to his post by President Obama. A 35-year veteran, he reports to the Postal Board of Governors.

Prior to being Postmaster, Donahoe served as the 19^th deputy postmaster general. He entered the postal service as a clerk in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.

Donahoe was born in Pittsburgh, and is a graduate of the University of Pittsburgh and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

IN THE NEWS: Postmaster General Patrick Donahoe has announced the closure of more than 250 mail processing centers around the country and plans to slow the delivery of first class mail in order to help bring the USPS out of the red. Representative Peter DeFaxio of Oregon blamed the Obama administration for failing to help find a way out of the USPS’s fiscal woes, and said Donahoe needs more help from the White House. “The White House continues to be totally silent, absent from this debate,” said DeFazio. An angry DeFaxio said on the House floor, “This guy, this co-called postmaster general, should be fired because of a lack of any imagination or initiative. He’s proposing the death knell for the great United States Postal Service.”

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Thursday, December 1st, 2011

Dr. Regina M. Benjamin, United States Surgeon General

Regina Marcia Benjamin was born in October 1956 in Mobile, Alabama.

Dr. Benjamin received her B.S. in chemistry from Xavier University in New Orleans, an M.D. degree from the University of Alabama at Birmingham and an MBA from Tulane University. She attended Morehouse School of Medicine and completed her family medicine residency in Macon, Georgia.

From her early days as the founder of a rural health clinic in Alabama – which she kept in operation despite damage and destruction inflicted by hurricanes George and Katrina and a devastating fire – to her leadership role in the worldwide advancement of preventive health care, Dr. Benjamin has forged a career that has been recognized by a broad spectrum of organizations and publications.

She was nominated to the post of Surgeon General by President Obama, and confirmed by the Senate.

As America’s Doctor, she provides the public with the best scientific information available on how to improve health and the health of the nation. She also serves as a Vice Admiral of the United States Public Health Service Commissioned Corps.

Dr. Benjamin is a Roman Catholic.

IN THE NEWS: “An important first step in preventing illness and disability is learning about health conditions in our families that may put us at increased risk for diseases such as diabetes, heart disease, some cancers, Alzheimer’s Disease, mental illness, and many others,” said Dr. Benjamin, U.S. Surgeon General. “Discussing health information with other members of your family can often uncover conditions and explanations for health problems which you never knew about, simply because no one ever asked.” A Family Health Portrait form is available from the office of the Surgeon General.

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