President Obama Announces More Key Administration Posts, 4/8/2011

WASHINGTON – Today, President Barack Obama announced his intent to nominate Timothy Massad for Assistant Secretary for Financial Stability, Department of the Treasury.
 
The President also announced his intent to appoint the following individuals to key Administration posts:  

• Herbert Block, Member, Commission for the Preservation of America’s Heritage Abroad
• Patrik Johansson, Member, Advisory Group on Prevention, Health Promotion, and Integrative and Public Health
• Theresa Arevgaq John, Member, National Advisory Council on Indian Education
• Ellen Semonoff, Member, Advisory Group on Prevention, Health Promotion, and Integrative and Public Health
• Gary P.  Zola, Member, Commission for the Preservation of America’s Heritage Abroad

President Obama said, “Our nation will be greatly served by the talent and expertise these individuals bring to their new roles. I am grateful they have agreed to serve in this Administration, and I look forward to working with them in the months and years ahead.”

President Obama announced his intent to nominate the following individual to a key Administration post:

Timothy Massad, Nominee for Assistant Secretary for Financial Stability, Department of the Treasury
Timothy Massad is currently serving as Acting Assistant Secretary for Financial Stability at the U.S. Department of the Treasury. Mr. Massad was appointed Chief Counsel of the Office of Financial Stability (OFS)  by Secretary Timothy Geithner on May 18, 2009. Prior to joining Treasury, Mr. Massad  was a partner at Cravath, Swaine & Moore from 1992 to 2009 and joined the firm as an associate in 1984. He maintained a practice specializing in general corporate representation and corporate finance as well as representation of nonprofit organizations.  He also served as special legal adviser to the Congressional Oversight Panel for Economic Stabilization. Mr. Massad received an A.B. from Harvard College and a J.D. from Harvard Law School.
 
 
President Obama announced his intent to appoint the following individuals to key Administration posts:

Herbert Block, Appointee for Member, Commission for the Preservation of America’s Heritage Abroad
Herbert Block has been an Assistant Executive Vice-President of the American Jewish Joint Distribution Committee (JDC), a nearly 100-year old international humanitarian aid organization serving needy Jews and others in more than seventy countries, since 1999. As a noted expert in Holocaust restitution issues, Mr. Block's work at JDC includes efforts to restitute Holocaust-era assets, especially focusing on Jewish property in Central and Eastern Europe and the former Soviet Union, as well as on the provision of welfare services for Holocaust survivors.   Prior to working at JDC, Mr. Block's long-standing career in government and public policy included his service as the Assistant Director for Intergovernmental and Public Affairs for the New York City Independent Budget Office; Deputy Director for Intergovernmental Relations at the federal Corporation for National Service; Assistant to the Mayor of the City of New York; and as a Special Assistant to the Manhattan Borough President.  He is a member of the Board of Directors of the World Jewish Restitution Organization. Mr. Block holds a B.A. from Columbia University and a J.D. from Brooklyn Law School.
 
Patrik Johansson, Appointee for Member, Advisory Group on Prevention, Health Promotion, and Integrative and Public Health
Patrik Johansson, M.D., M.P.H., is currently the Director of the Rural Health Education Network and an Associate Professor at the University of Nebraska Medical Center College of Public Health.  Previously, Dr. Johansson served as Deputy Chief Medical Officer at the Greater Southeast Community Hospital.  He also served as Assistant Research Professor at The George Washington University Department of Prevention and Community Health.  Earlier in his career, Dr. Johansson was an Instructor of Social Medicine at Harvard Medical School.  He is a member of the American Public Health Association, the National Rural Health Association and the Nebraska Rural Health Association.  Dr. Johansson is a past recipient of the Harvard Medical and Dental School Dean’s Community Service Award.  He holds a B.A. from Brown University, an M.P.H. from the Harvard School of Public Health, and an M.D. from the University of Nebraska Medical Center College of Medicine.
 
Theresa Arevgaq John, Appointee for Member, National Advisory Council on Indian Education
Dr. Theresa Arevgaq John is an Associate Professor in the Department of Alaska Native and Rural Development at the University of Alaska Fairbanks.  Dr. John has also been Assistant Professor and Director of the Rural Alaska Native Adult Program at Alaska Pacific University.  She has authored numerous academic articles and a book on Native Alaskans and has presented her work at dozens of local, national, and international professional conferences.  Dr. John currently serves on the Alaskan State Council Arts Board and is the former Chair of the Traditional Native Arts Panel.  She is also the recipient of the Governor’s Distinguished Humanities Educator Award.  Dr. John received her B.S., M.Ed., and Ph.D. from the University of Alaska Fairbanks.
 
Ellen Semonoff, Appointee for Member, Advisory Group on Prevention, Health Promotion, and Integrative and Public Health
Ellen Semonoff is currently the Assistant City Manager for Human Services in Cambridge, Massachusetts.  Ms. Semonoff also serves as the Vice Chair of the Board of the Cambridge Health Alliance, a public safety net hospital and teaching affiliate of Harvard Medical School.  Previously, she served the City of Cambridge in various key management roles, including Deputy Director of the Department of Human Services and Assistant to the City Manager.  Ms. Semonoff also served the State of Massachusetts as Coordinator of Employment Services in the Massachusetts Department of Employment and Training.  Earlier in her career, she practiced law at the firm Hill & Barlow.  Ms. Semonoff clerked for Chief Judge Frank Kaufman in the U.S. District Court in Maryland, Judge Spottswood Robinson III in the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit, and Justice Thurgood Marshall of the United States Supreme Court.  She holds a B.A. from Brandeis University and a J.D. from Harvard Law School.

Gary P. Zola, Appointee for Member, Commission for the Preservation of America’s Heritage Abroad
Gary Phillip Zola is the Executive Director of The Jacob Rader Marcus Center of the American Jewish Archives, the world’s largest freestanding research center dedicated solely to the study of the American Jewish experience.  Dr. Zola also serves as Professor of the American Jewish Experience at Hebrew Union College-Jewish Institute of Religion in Cincinnati, Ohio.  Dr. Zola was the organizer and chair of the congressionally recognized Commission for Commemorating 350 Years of American Jewish History from 2002 to 2005.  In 2006, he joined the Academic Advisory Council of the Abraham Lincoln Bicentennial Commission.