President Obama Announces More Key Administration Posts

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

• Grande Lum – Director, Community Relations Service, Department of Justice
• Kamilah Oni Martin-Proctor– Member, National Council on Disability
• Sharon “Shari” Villarosa– Ambassador to the Republic of Mauritius and the Republic of Seychelles, Department of State

President Obama said, “It gives me great confidence that such dedicated and capable individuals have agreed to join this Administration to serve the American people.  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:

Grande Lum, Nominee for Director, Community Relations Service, Department of Justice

Grande Lum is currently Director of the Historically Underutilized Business Zones (HUBZone) Program at the U.S. Small Business Administration, a position he has held since 2010.  Prior to joining the Small Business Administration, Mr. Lum was a clinical professor at the University of California Hastings College of the Law and Director of its Center for Negotiation and Dispute Resolution from 2008 to 2010.  Additionally, Mr. Lum was the Managing Director of Accordence Inc., a dispute resolution training firm he founded in 2005.  Prior to founding Accordence, Mr. Lum served as a principal of ThoughtBridge, a mediation firm, and a partner with the consulting firm Conflict Management Inc. He was also an adjunct professor at U.C. Berkeley School of Law and a co-manager of the Alternative Dispute Resolution externship program at Stanford Law School.  Mr. Lum currently serves on the Board of Overseers of the Baldrige Performance Excellence Program, an initiative of the U.S. Department of Commerce.  He previously served on the board of directors of the Peninsula Conflict Resolution Center and the Center for Asian American Media.  In addition, Mr. Lum was a member of the California State Bar Association Committee on Alternative Dispute Resolution.  Mr. Lum received his B.A. from the University of California at Berkeley and his J.D. from Harvard Law School.

Kamilah Oni Martin-Proctor, Nominee for Member, National Council on Disability

Kamilah Oni Martin-Proctor is the founder and Executive Director of the Martin Multiple Sclerosis Alliance Foundation (MMSAF).  Ms. Martin-Proctor was diagnosed with Multiple Sclerosis when she was sixteen.  She founded the MMSAF in 2004  in an effort to promote symptom awareness and education about Multiple Sclerosis in historically under represented and underserved populations. Prior to this, she was a Program Administrator for the Charles B. Rangel International Affairs Program at Howard University since 2003.  Ms. Martin-Proctor worked for the District of Columbia’s Government Neighborhood Services Initiative from 2000 until 2002.  She has worked as a Staff Assistant and Legislative Correspondent for Congresswoman Shelia Jackson Lee and also as an Executive Assistant in Senator Robert Menendez’s office.   Ms. Martin-Proctor received a B.A. in Political Science and an M.A. in Organizational and Cultural Communication from Howard University.

Sharon “Shari” Villarosa, Nominee for Ambassador to the Republic of Mauritius and the Republic of Seychelles, Department of State

Sharon “Shari” Villarosa, a career member of the Senior Foreign Service, currently serves as Deputy Coordinator for Regional Affairs in the Office of the Coordinator for Counterterrorism at the Department of State.   From 2005 to 2008, she served as the Chief of Mission at the U.S. Embassy in Rangoon.  Previously, Ms. Villarosa served as Director of Philippines, Malaysia, Brunei, and Singapore Affairs in the Department of State’s East Asia and Pacific Bureau; Economic Counselor at the U.S. Embassy in Jakarta; and Chargé d’Affaires of the U.S. Embassy in Dili.   Other overseas assignments have included: Songkhla, Thailand; Brasilia, Brazil; Quito, Ecuador; and Bogota, Colombia.  Ms. Villarosa holds a B.A. from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and a J.D. from William and Mary School of Law.