President Obama Announces More Key Administration Posts

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

• Laurie Garduque - Member, Coordinating Council on Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention
• Tyler Jacks - Member, National Cancer Advisory Board
• Karen J. McCulloh – Member, Committee for Purchase from People Who Are Blind or Severely Disabled
• Joan Ellyn Silber - Member, Commission for the Preservation of America's Heritage Abroad
• Lisa M. Wilusz - Member, Committee for Purchase from People Who Are Blind or Severely Disabled

President Obama said, “These fine public servants both bring a depth of experience and tremendous dedication to their new roles.  Our nation will be well-served by these men and women, and I look forward to working with them in the months and years to come.”

President Obama announced his intent to appoint the following individuals to  key Administration posts:

Dr. Laurie Garduque, Appointee for Member, Coordinating Council on Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention
Dr. Laurie Garduque is the Director of Justice Reform in the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation's U.S. Programs, a position she has held since 2002.  Dr. Garduque has also served as a Program and Senior Program Officer in the Foundation’s Program on Human and Community Development.  She joined the Foundation in 1991 after serving as Director of the National Forum on the Future of Children and Families, a joint project of the National Research Council and the Institute of Medicine. Prior to that, she was the Director of Governmental and Professional Liaisons for the American Educational Research Association in Washington, D.C. and a Congressional Science Fellow in the U.S. Senate.  From 1980 to 1985, Dr. Garduque held a faculty position as an Assistant Professor in Human Development at Pennsylvania State University. She received her Bachelor's degree in Psychology and her Ph.D. in Educational Psychology from the University of California at Los Angeles.

Dr. Tyler Jacks, Appointee for Member, National Cancer Advisory Board
Dr. Tyler Jacks is the Director of the Koch Institute for Integrative Cancer Research and the David H. Koch Professor of Biology at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT).  He is also an Investigator with the Howard Hughes Medical Institute.  Following postdoctoral training at MIT’s Whitehead Institute for Biomedical Research, Dr. Jacks joined the MIT faculty in the Center for Cancer Research and the Department of Biology in 1992. He has pioneered the use of technology to study cancer-associated genes and to construct animal models of many human cancer types, including cancers of the lung, pancreas, brain, and ovaries.  Dr. Jacks has served on the Board of Scientific Advisors of the National Cancer Institute, the Board of Directors of the American Association of Cancer Research (AACR), and is a past President of the AACR.  He was elected to both the National Academy of Sciences and the Institute of Medicine of the National Academies in 2009.  Dr. Jacks received his B.A. in Biology from Harvard University (1983) and Ph.D. in Biochemistry from the University of California, San Francisco (1988).

Karen J. McCulloh, Appointee for Member, Committee for Purchase from People Who Are Blind or Severely Disabled
Karen J. McCulloh consults as a Diversity and Inclusion Specialist with businesses and nonprofit organizations to educate on the inclusion of people with disabilities into the labor force.  Ms. McCulloh was the founding Executive Director of disabilityworks, a project of the Chicagoland Chamber of Commerce, from 2005 until 2010.  Ms. McCulloh was appointed by the Secretary of Labor to sit on the Job Corps Advisory Committee from 2006 until 2008, and she served as Chairperson of the Subcommittee on Disability.  In 2003, Ms. McCulloh co-founded the National Organization of Nurses with Disabilities, served as President from 2003 to 2005, and is now serving as the Immediate Past President.  Ms. McCulloh also served as the Chairwoman of the Board of Directors for Access Living of Metropolitan Chicago.  She was in charge of the agency review for the Committee for Purchase from People Who Are Blind or Severely Disabled for the Obama-Biden Transition Team in 2008.  Ms. McCulloh received an RN from the Grant Hospital School of Nursing in Columbus, Ohio and a B.S. from Loyola University of Chicago.

Joan Ellyn Silber, Appointee for Member, Commission for the Preservation of America’s Heritage Abroad
Joan Ellyn Silber serves on the Board of Directors of the American Jewish Committee, St. Louis Chapter, Webster University College of Arts and Science Advisory Board, and the Herbert Hoover Boys and Girls Club.  Dr. Silber has also held volunteer leadership positions in numerous other community and philanthropic organizations, including the Newmark Institute for Human Relations of the Jewish Community Relations Council and Care and Counseling.  Additionally, Dr. Silber has served as an office manager and consultant for Sherman Silber’s medical practice since 1976.  She is a past president of Aish HaTorah St. Louis, and served on the Epstein Hebrew Academy Board.  Dr. Silber earned her B.A. and Ph.D. from the University of Michigan.

Lisa M. Wilusz, Appointee for Member, Committee for Purchase from People Who Are Blind or Severely Disabled
Lisa M. Wilusz serves as the Director of the Office of Procurement and Property Management for the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA).  In this capacity, Ms. Wilusz is responsible for providing leadership, oversight and policy in the areas of procurement, property management, environmental stewardship, and employee safety.  Ms. Wilusz has 16 years of experience in the Federal government.  She began her Federal career as a Contract Specialist in 1995 with USDA’s Food and Nutrition Service. From 1998 to 2002, she worked as a procurement analyst with the Department of Transportation’s Research and Special Programs Administration, where she worked on issues involving procurement policy, small business programs, and the implementation of an automated procurement system.  She returned to the USDA in 2002 and has managed two enterprise systems, one in procurement and one for the Office of Civil Rights. Ms. Wilusz received a Bachelor’s degree in Business Administration from James Madison University.