President Obama Announces More Key Administration Posts

WASHINGTON – Today, President Barack Obama announced his intent to nominate the following individuals to key Administration posts:

• Kelvin Droegemeier, Member, National Science Board, National Science Foundation
• Maurice B. Foley, Judge, United States Tax Court
• Dan Ashe, Director of the United States Fish and Wildlife Service, Department of the Interior

President Obama said, “I am confident these dedicated and accomplished individuals will serve the American people well in their new roles.  I am grateful they have agreed to lend their considerable talents to this Administration, and I look forward to working with them in the months and years to come.”

President Obama announced his intent to nominate the following individuals to key administration posts:

Kelvin Droegemeier, Nominee for Member, National Science Board, National Science Foundation
Kelvin K. Droegemeier is Vice President for Research, Regents' Professor of Meteorology, Weathernews Chair Emeritus, and Roger and Sherry Teigen Presidential Professor at the University of Oklahoma. In 1989, Dr. Droegemeier co-founded the National Science Foundation’s (NSF) Science and Technology Center for the Analysis and Prediction of Storms.  He served as the Center’s Director from 1994 until 2006 and is now director emeritus.  In 2003, he co-founded the NSF Engineering Research Center for Collaborative Adaptive Sensing of the Atmosphere and served for five years as deputy director. Dr. Droegemeier’s research involves the dynamics and predictability of severe thunderstorms, and he helped pioneer the science of storm-scale numerical weather forecasting. He is past Chairman of the Board of the University Corporation for Atmospheric Research and presently serves on the boards of Oak Ridge Associated Universities, Microsoft External Research, and the Council on Governmental Relations.  He has authored 75 peer reviewed journal articles and book chapters and more than 200 conference publications. Dr. Droegemeier was appointed to the National Science Board in 2004 and has served as chair of the Committee on Programs and Plans, the Task Force on Cost Sharing, and co-chair of the Task Force on Hurricane Science and Engineering. He earned his Ph.D. and M.S. degrees in Atmospheric Science from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, and his B.S. in Meteorology from the University of Oklahoma.

Maurice B. Foley, Nominee for Judge, United States Tax Court
Maurice B. Foley is currently a Judge on the United States Tax Court, a position to which he was appointed on April 9, 1995 by President William J. Clinton. Prior to his appointment, Judge Foley served as Deputy Tax Legislative Counsel in the United States Department of Treasury’s Office of Tax Policy; tax counsel for the United States Senate Committee on Finance; and attorney-advisor for the Legislation and Regulations Division of the Internal Revenue Service. He received a Bachelor of Arts from Swarthmore College, a Juris Doctor from Boalt Hall School of Law at the University of California at Berkeley, and a Master of Laws in Taxation from Georgetown University Law Center.

Dan Ashe, Nominee for Director of the United States Fish and Wildlife Service, Department of the Interior
Dan Ashe has served as the Deputy Director of the United States Fish and Wildlife Service (FWS) since September 2009.  From 2003 to 2009, Mr. Ashe served as Science Advisor to the Director at FWS, advising the Service Director and providing leadership on science policy and scientific applications to resource management. From 1998 to 2003, Mr. Ashe was Chief of the National Wildlife Refuge System, directing operation and management of the 100 million-acre Refuge System, including the FWS’s land acquisition program. From 1998 to 2000, Mr. Ashe also directed FWS’s migratory bird management and North American wetlands conservation programs.  From 1995 to 1998, Mr. Ashe served as the Assistant Director for External Affairs at FWS, directing the agency’s programs in legislative, public, and Native American affairs, research coordination, and state grants-in-aid. From 1982 until 1995, Mr. Ashe was a Member of the Professional Staff of the former Committee on Merchant Marine and Fisheries in the U.S. House of Representatives, where he worked on a wide range of environmental policy issues.  Mr. Ashe was awarded a National Sea Grant Congressional Fellowship in 1982.  He has a Masters in Marine Affairs (M.M.A.) from the University of Washington and a B.S. in Biological Sciences from the Florida State University.