President Biden Announces 11 Key Nominations

WASHINGTON – Today, President Joe Biden announced his intent to nominate the following 11 individuals to serve in key roles:

• Rahul Gupta, Nominee for Director of National Drug Control Policy
• Gabe Camarillo, Nominee for Under Secretary of the Army, Department of Defense
• Alan Estevez, Nominee for Under Secretary for Industry and Security, Department of Commerce
• Jeff Lane Flake, Nominee for Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary to the Republic of Turkey
• Kent Doyle Logsdon, Nominee for Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary to the Republic of Moldova
• Atul Gawande, Nominee for Assistant Administrator of the Bureau for Global Health, United States Agency for International Development
• Lisa Wang, Nominee for Assistant Secretary for Enforcement and Compliance, Department of Commerce
• Chester John Culver, Nominee for Member of the Board of Directors of the Federal Agricultural Mortgage Corporation
• Rich Trumka, Jr., Nominee for Commissioner of the Consumer Product Safety Commission
• James A. Diossa, Nominee for Member of the Board of Trustees of the James Madison Memorial Fellowship Foundation
• Terrence K. Wright, Nominee for Member of the Board of Trustees of the James Madison Memorial Fellowship Foundation

Rahul Gupta, Nominee for Director of National Drug Control Policy

Rahul Gupta, MD, MPH, MBA, FACP, is the Chief Medical and Health Officer and Senior Vice President at March of Dimes. In his role, Dr. Gupta provides strategic oversight for March of Dimes’ domestic and global medical and public health efforts. He currently also serves as clinical Professor in the Department of Medicine at Georgetown University School of Medicine as well as adjunct professor in the Department of Health Policy, Management and Leadership in the School of Public Health at West Virginia University and visiting faculty at Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health. 

A practicing primary care physician of 25 years, Dr. Gupta previously served under two Governors  as the Health Commissioner of West Virginia. As the state’s Chief Health Officer, he led the opioid crisis response efforts and launched a number of pioneering public health initiatives, including the Neonatal Abstinence Syndrome Birthscore program to identify high-risk infants. Dr. Gupta also led the development of the state’s Zika action plan and its preparedness efforts during the Ebola Virus Disease Outbreak.

A national and global thought leader and a driver of innovative public policies on health issues, Dr. Gupta serves as an advisor to several organizations and task forces on local, national and international public health policy. The son of an Indian diplomat, Rahul was born in India and grew up in the suburbs of Washington, D.C. At age 21, he completed medical school at the University of Delhi. He earned a master’s degree in public health from the University of Alabama-Birmingham and a global master’s of business administration degree from the London School of Business and Finance. He is married to Dr. Seema Gupta, a physician in the Veterans Administration for over a decade. They are the proud parents of identical twin sons, Arka and Drew.

Gabe Camarillo, Nominee for Under Secretary of the Army, Department of Defense

Gabe Camarillo is a lawyer who served in various positions in the Department of Defense during the Obama-Biden administration.  In 2015, Mr. Camarillo was appointed as Assistant Secretary of the Air Force (Manpower & Reserve Affairs) overseeing all manpower and reserve component matters affecting over 670,000 military and civilian personnel.  From 2012 to 2015, he served as Principal Deputy Assistant Secretary of the Army (Acquisition, Logistics & Technology), where he helped lead the Army’s research and development and modernization portfolio.   From 2010 to 2012, Mr. Camarillo previously served as the Special Assistant to the Assistant Secretary of the Army (Acquisition, Logistics & Technology).

Mr. Camarillo is currently a Senior Vice President at SAIC and previously held other leadership positions in the company.  He has also worked as a lawyer in private practice, specializing in commercial litigation, campaign finance and government ethics.  He received his law degree from Stanford Law School and his undergraduate degree from Georgetown University, where he previously served as an adjunct professor at Georgetown University’s School of Public Policy. 

Alan Estevez, Nominee for Under Secretary for Industry and Security, Department of Commerce

Alan Estevez, a recognized leader in the defense and aerospace community, joined Deloitte Consulting as a national security strategy and logistics executive in June 2017 after completing a 36 year career with the Department of Defense. Mr. Estevez served as the Principal Deputy Under Secretary of Defense (Acquisition, Technology & Logistics) from 2013 to 2017. Mr. Estevez developed, implemented and managed acquisition, contracting, installation, and logistics programs and policies that increased combat effectiveness as well as the department’s efficiency and buying power.

Prior to his last appointment, Mr. Estevez held several key positions within the Office of the Secretary of Defense, including as the Assistant Secretary of Defense for Logistics and Materiel Readiness. In this position, he was responsible for providing world class military logistics support to the men and women of the United States Armed Forces. He was the first career Federal official to hold this position. Mr. Estevez also served as the Principal Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defense for Logistics and Material Readiness. Mr. Estevez has been honored numerous times, including three Department of Defense Distinguished Public Service Medals and the Distinguished Civilian Service Medal.

Estevez holds a Bachelor of Arts in political science from Rutgers University and a Master of Science in national resource strategy from the Industrial College of the Armed Forces at the National Defense University.

Jeff Lane Flake, Nominee for Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary to the Republic of Turkey

Jeff L. Flake is currently a Distinguished Fellow at Arizona State University and a Distinguished Fellow at the Sorensen Center for Moral and Ethical Leadership at Brigham Young University.  He also serves on the Senior Advisory Committee at Harvard’s Institute of Politics.  Flake was a Member of Congress for 18 years, representing Arizona in the U.S. Senate (2013-2019) and the U.S. House of Representatives (2001-2013), where he served on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee and the House Foreign Affairs Committee.  A frequent public speaker, he is also a former contributor for CNN and CBS News.  Flake is a Director of Taylor Morrison, a home builder in Scottsdale, Arizona, and a former Executive Director of the Goldwater Institute in Phoenix, Arizona.  Early in his career, he was Executive Director of the Foundation for Democracy in Namibia.  He speaks Afrikaans.  He earned a B.A. in International Relations, and an M.A. in Political Science, at Brigham Young University.  He is a recipient of the Gold Medal of Honorary Patronage from the University Philosophical Society, Trinity College, Dublin, Ireland.

Kent Doyle Logsdon, Nominee for Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary to the Republic of Moldova

Kent Doyle Logsdon, a career member of the Senior Foreign Service with the rank of Minister-Counselor, is Chief of Staff to the Under Secretary for Economic Growth, Energy and the Environment.  Previously, he served as Principal Deputy Assistant Secretary of State in the Bureau of Energy Resources, and was the Deputy Chief of Mission at the U.S. Embassy in Berlin, Germany, serving as Chargé d’Affaires, a.i. from January 2017 to May 2018.  Prior to that, Logsdon was the Executive Assistant to the Deputy Secretary of State for Management and Resources, and Deputy Executive Secretary of the State Department.  Previous positions include Director of the Operations Center, Director of the Office of Russian Affairs, and Deputy Chief of Mission in Tbilisi, Georgia.  Logsdon also served in Kyiv, Ukraine; Bangkok, Thailand; Almaty, Kazakhstan; Islamabad, Pakistan; and Stuttgart, Germany.   He holds a Master’s Degree from the University of Virginia and a Bachelor’s Degree from the University of Notre Dame.  The recipient of a Presidential Meritorious Service Award, Logsdon speaks Russian, Ukrainian, Thai and German. 

Atul Gawande, Nominee for Assistant Administrator of the Bureau for Global Health, United States Agency for International Development

Atul Gawande, MD, MPH, is the Cyndy and John Fish Distinguished Professor of Surgery at Brigham and Women’s Hospital, Samuel O. Thier Professor of Surgery at Harvard Medical School, and Professor of Health Policy and Management at Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health. Dr. Gawande is also founder and chair of Ariadne Labs, a joint center for health systems innovation at Brigham and Women’s Hospital and the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health, and of Lifebox, a nonprofit organization making surgery safer globally. During the coronavirus pandemic, he co-founded CIC Health, which operates COVID-19 testing and vaccination nationally, and served as a member of the Biden transition COVID-19 Advisory Board. From 2018 to 2020, he was CEO of Haven, the Amazon, Berkshire Hathaway, and JPMorgan Chase health care venture. He previously served as a senior advisor in the Department of Health and Human Services in the Clinton Administration.

In addition, Atul has been a staff writer for The New Yorker magazine since 1998 and written four New York Times best-selling books: Complications, Better, The Checklist Manifesto, and Being Mortal. He is the winner of two National Magazine Awards, AcademyHealth’s Impact Award for highest research impact on health care, a MacArthur Fellowship, and the Lewis Thomas Award for writing about science.

Lisa Wang, Nominee for Assistant Secretary for Enforcement and Compliance, Department of Commerce

Ms. Wang has been a partner with Picard, Kentz and Rowe LLP since 2016.  She specializes in international trade law matters, including antidumping and countervailing duty litigation and trade policy issues.  Previously, Ms. Wang was a Senior Attorney in the Office of the Chief Counsel for Trade Enforcement and Compliance at the U.S. Department of Commerce, and an Assistant General Counsel in the Office of the U.S. Trade Representative.  Before that, she spent three years as the Senior Import Administration Officer for the U.S. Embassy in Beijing, China, and was an associate with Dewey Ballantine LLP.  She earned her JD from the Georgetown University Law Center, and her BS from Cornell University.  Ms. Wang is married to Timothy Kovacs, where they reside in Washington, D.C. with their two young daughters.

Chester John Culver, Nominee for Member of the Board of Directors of the Federal Agricultural Mortgage Corporation

Chet Culver served as the 40^th Governor of Iowa from 2007 to 2011. Under his leadership, Iowa successfully managed a $6 billion annual budget, earned a “Triple A” bond rating, and built up one of the largest budget surpluses in the nation. As governor, Culver led Iowa to become the renewable energy capital of the United States.

A public servant for over 25 years, Culver previously served on the Federal Agricultural Mortgage Board during the Obama Administration. He also served as the Secretary of State of Iowa from 1999 to 2007 and was a former teacher and coach in his community. Culver founded the Chet Culver Group, an energy sector consulting firm, in 2011.

Rich Trumka, Jr., Nominee for Commissioner of the Consumer Product Safety Commission

Rich Trumka Jr. is General Counsel & Staff Director of the Economic and Consumer Policy Subcommittee of the U.S. House of Representatives’ Committee on Oversight and Reform.  In this position, he works on oversight and investigations related to consumer protection, consumer product safety, and public health.  Trumka previously served as Assistant Attorney General in the Consumer Protection Division of the Maryland Office of the Attorney General.  Prior to that, he was a litigation attorney in private practice. 

Trumka received his bachelor’s degree in Industrial and Labor Relations from Cornell University, and his J.D. from Georgetown University Law Center.  After law school, Trumka served as a judicial law clerk to Judge Berle M. Schiller of the Eastern District of Pennsylvania.  Trumka and his wife, Jessica, live in Maryland with their son and daughter.   

James A. Diossa, Nominee for Member of the Board of Trustees of the James Madison Memorial Fellowship Foundation

James A. Diossa served two terms as Mayor of the City of Central Falls, Rhode Island. Upon taking office in 2012, James became the youngest mayor in the state’s history and the city’s first Latino mayor. Assuming leadership of a postindustrial urban city in the midst of municipal bankruptcy proceedings, he sought to tackle these challenges head-on. Through hard work and the development of strategic partnerships, James turned Central Falls around, stabilizing the city’s finances and raising its long-term bond rating to investment grade. He also secured millions of dollars in federal, foundation, and private sector funding to improve the city’s quality of life and infrastructure. Most recently, James led efforts to partner with the neighboring city of Pawtucket to create a unified response to the COVID-19 pandemic, which included organizing a volunteer corps and engaging the former head of the Rhode Island Department of Health to serve as the city’s Chief Health Strategist.

James previously served on the Central Falls City Council, where he organized citywide efforts to save the city’s only library from closing and stopped the US Postal Service from closing the city’s only post office. He holds a Bachelor’s Degree in Criminal Justice from Becker College. Born and raised in Central Falls, Rhode Island, James is the proud son of Colombian immigrants and a lifelong soccer enthusiast.

James is currently a Senior Advisor at Brown University’s The Policy Lab. His lifelong partner Sandra and James have a beautiful daughter, Arianna Hallel.

Terrence K. Wright, Nominee for Member of the Board of Trustees of the James Madison Memorial Fellowship Foundation

Terrence K. Wright, of Wilmington, Delaware, is a 1982 graduate of The American University in Washington, DC. From 1982 to 2009, Mr. Wright served in various positions on the staff of United States Senator Joseph R. Biden, Jr., both in Washington, DC, and in Wilmington, Delaware.

Upon his retirement from the Senate in 2009, Mr. Wright was appointed by Delaware Governor Jack Markell to the Delaware Heritage Commission, a state agency which promotes the study of the History of Delaware.  He has since been reappointed by the current Governor, John C. Carney, Jr., and was Chairman of the Commission’s Observance of the Sesquicentennial of The Civil War.  In that capacity, he was the Executive Producer of the Commission educational film, entitled, “Delaware and Gettysburg: The Story of Delaware, Delawareans, and The Battle that Determined America’s Future.”

Mr. Wright in currently serving on New Castle, County, Delaware’s Council Redistricting Commission, which is charged with redrawing the County’s Councilmanic boundaries in light of the 2020 Census.  He served in the same capacity after the 2010 Census. Additionally, Mr. Wright is currently the Chairman of the Eastern Brandywine Hundred Coordinating Council, a community organization dedicated to local history and community planning in the communities along the Delaware River in northern Delaware.

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