President Obama Announces More Key Administration Posts

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

• Carol J. Galante – Assistant Secretary and Federal Housing Commissioner, Department of Housing and Urban Development
• David J. Chard – Member, Board of Directors of the National Board for Education Sciences
• Larry V. Hedges – Member, Board of Directors of the National Board for Education Sciences
• Hirokazu Yoshikawa - Member, Board of Directors of the National Board for Education Sciences

President Obama said, “I am grateful these accomplished men and women have agreed to join this Administration, and I’m confident they will serve ably in these important roles.  I look forward to working with them in the coming months and years.”

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

Carol J. Galante, Nominee for Assistant Secretary and Federal Housing Commissioner, Department of Housing and Urban Development
Carol J. Galante is the Acting Assistant Secretary and Federal Housing Commissioner at the Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD). In 2009, President Obama appointed Ms. Galante Deputy Assistant Secretary for the Office of Multifamily Housing at HUD.  Prior to joining the Administration, she was President and CEO of BRIDGE Housing, specializing in building mixed-income housing. Ms. Galante spent nearly 25 years of her career at BRIDGE managing large revitalization and economic development projects in partnership with government, private industry, and other nonprofit organizations.   She has also held key leadership positions as the Executive Director for Eden Housing, Inc., and in the housing and planning department of the City of Santa Barbara.  Ms. Galante holds a B.A. from Ohio Wesleyan University and a Master's of City and Regional Planning from the University of California, Berkeley.

Dr. David J. Chard, Nominee for Member, Board of Directors of the National Board for Education Sciences
Dr. David J. Chard is the Leon Simmons Endowed Dean and a Professor at the Southern Methodist University's Annette Caldwell Simmons School of Education and Human Development, positions he has held since 2007.  Dr. Chard served as the Director of Graduate Studies for the Department of Special Education at the University of Oregon from 2003 to 2005.  He also served as Associate Dean of the College of Education at the University of Oregon from 2005 to 2007, Director of Middle-Secondary Education at the University of Oregon from 2000 to 2003, and Director of Research and Evaluation of the Texas Center for Reading and Language Arts from 1997 to 2000.  From 1986 to 1990, Dr. Chard served as a classroom teacher for the U.S. Peace Corps in Lesotho, Africa.  He has served on a number of boards supporting high quality educational opportunities for children including as a member of the International Academy for Research in Learning Disabilities, member of the American Mathematical Association, and President for the Division for Research at the Council for Exceptional Children.  Dr. Chard holds a B.S. from Central Michigan University and a Ph.D. from the University of Oregon.

Dr. Larry V. Hedges, Nominee for Member, Board of Directors of the National Board for Education Sciences
Dr. Larry V. Hedges has been the Board of Trustees Professor of Statistics and a Faculty Fellow of the Institute for Policy Research at Northwestern University since 2005.  Previously, he was the Stella M. Rowley Distinguished Service Professor at the University of Chicago, where he served from 1980 to 2005, variously in the Departments of Education, Sociology, and Psychology, and in the Harris Graduate School of Public Policy Studies.  Dr. Hedges is the current President of the Society for Research on Educational Effectiveness and is a member of the National Academy of Education. He is also a fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, the American Educational Research Association, the American Psychological Association, and the American Statistical Association.  His research focuses on the development of quantitative methods for educational and social research, educational policy studies, large scale educational assessment, and the role of uncertainty in cognitive models. Dr. Hedges received a B.A. from the University of California, San Diego and an M.A. and Ph.D. in 1980 from Stanford University.

Dr. Hirokazu Yoshikawa, Nominee for Member, Board of Directors of the National Board for Education Sciences
Dr. Hirokazu Yoshikawa is a Professor of Education and the Academic Dean at the Harvard Graduate School of Education, positions he has held since 2006 and 2011 respectively.  He is a developmental and community psychologist whose research focuses on the development of young children in ethnically diverse and immigrant families and the effects of public policies and early childhood intervention on children.  Dr. Yoshikawa received the Boyd McCandless Award for early career contributions to developmental psychology from the American Psychological Association, and has served on the Board on Children, Youth and Families of the National Academy of Sciences as well as the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services Advisory Committee on Head Start Research and Evaluation.  In addition to his research in the U.S., he conducts research in Chile and China, and has consulted with UNICEF, the World Bank, and the Inter-American Development Bank concerning early childhood care and education in global contexts.  Dr. Yoshikawa received an M.A. in Psychology, a Ph.D. in Clinical Psychology from New York University, an M.M. in Piano Performance from The Julliard School, and a B.A.in English Literature from Yale University.