Eleanor D. Acheson | |
---|---|
United States Assistant Attorney General for the Office of Policy Development | |
In office 1993-2001 | |
President | Bill Clinton |
Preceded by | Stephen Markman [1] |
Succeeded by | Viet D. Dinh [2] |
Personal details | |
Born | Eleanor Dean Acheson 1947 (age 76–77) |
Political party | Democratic |
Spouse | Emily C. Hewitt |
Parent(s) | David Acheson Patricia James Castles |
Relatives | Dean Acheson (grandfather) Ed Acheson (great-grandfather) Will Gooderham (3x great grandfather) |
Residence | Washington,D.C. |
Education | Wellesley College (BA) George Washington University (JD) |
Eleanor Dean Acheson (born 1947) is an American lawyer who served as Assistant Attorney General of the United States for the Office of Policy Development as part of the Clinton administration.
Acheson is the daughter of David Campion Acheson (1921–2018) and Patricia James Castles (1925–2000) who married in 1943. [3] Her mother was from New York and was a graduate of Bryn Mawr College. She taught at the Cathedral School from 1959 until the mid-1960s and had earlier taught at the Potomac and Madeira Schools. She wrote books for students of American history including America's Colonial Heritage,Our Federal Government,and The Supreme Court. [3]
Her father,David Campion Acheson,was an American attorney who worked for the United States Atomic Energy Commission and served as an assistant to former Treasury secretary Henry H. Fowler. Her grandfather was the former United States Secretary of State Dean Acheson. Acheson's great-grandfather was Edward Campion Acheson (1858–1934),an English-born Church of England priest who moved to the U.S. to become Episcopal Bishop of Connecticut. Acheson's great-grandmother was Eleanor Gertrude Gooderham,the Canadian-born granddaughter of prominent Canadian distiller William Gooderham (1790–1881),who was a founder of the Gooderham and Worts Distillery. [4] Her grandmother,Alice Acheson,a painter and graduate of Wellesley College,was the daughter of Louis Stanley,a railroad lawyer and Jane C. Stanley,a watercolorist. [5] Alice's grandfather was John Mix Stanley,a renowned painter of American Indian life in the Wild West. [5] [6]
She had two siblings:
Acheson attended the Westover School graduating in 1965,followed by Wellesley College,graduating in 1969. She then attended the George Washington University Law School,graduating in 1973. [9]
As Assistant Attorney General,Acheson worked on the Year 2000 readiness and responsibility act (H.R. 775) also known as the "Y2K Act". [10]
She was public policy and government affairs director at the National Gay and Lesbian Task Force until January 2007,in which capacity she led efforts on Capitol Hill to secure funds for the LGBT community. [11] Although she left that job after her appointment in 2007 as vice president and general counsel of Amtrak, [12] she continues to be a strategy advisor to the National Gay and Lesbian Task Force,representing the group in key meetings on Capitol Hill. [11]
Acheson attended Wellesley College with Hillary Clinton who,in her 1969 student commencement speech,acknowledges the influence of Acheson in helping Clinton become the first student in Wellesley College history to deliver its commencement address. [13] Acheson received her JD from George Washington University Law School and went on to serve as a law clerk to U.S. District Court Judge Edward T. Gignoux in Maine from 1973 to 1974. She then practiced for 19 years with the Boston-based firm Ropes &Gray,becoming a litigation partner in 1983. [14]
During her confirmation process she came under criticism because of her longtime membership in an exclusive club that had no black members. [15] Senator Kennedy (D-MA),a member of the Senate Judiciary Committee,said that Ms. Acheson "clearly meets the Senate Judiciary Committee standard on the club issue". [15]
Acheson is married to Emily C. Hewitt,the former chief judge of the United States Court of Federal Claims. [16]
Dean Gooderham Acheson was an American politician and lawyer. As the 51st U.S. Secretary of State,he set the foreign policy of the Harry S. Truman administration from 1949 to 1953. He was also Truman's main foreign policy advisor from 1945 to 1947 during early years of the Cold War. Acheson helped design the Truman Doctrine and the Marshall Plan,as well as the North Atlantic Treaty Organization. He was in private law practice from July 1947 to December 1948. After 1949 Acheson came under political attack from Republicans led by Senator Joseph McCarthy over Truman's policy toward the People's Republic of China.
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Eleanor Acheson McCulloch Gamble was an influential American psychologist from the late 19th century through the early 20th century. Gamble published most of her work on audition and memory influenced by Georg Elias Müller,Edward B. Titchener,Mary Whiton Calkins,and Ernst Heinrich Weber. Despite her chronic eye conditions she was successful in editing volumes of textbooks,her own papers,and directing many master's degree students. She earned her undergraduate degree from Wellesley College in 1889. She went on to obtain her doctorate from Cornell University in 1898. She held several teaching positions over the course of her career and was a member of several influential organizations including the American Psychological Association (APA). Gamble was a distinguished and well-liked professor at Wellesley College for more than two decades,and by 1930 she was the head of the Department of Philosophy and Psychology following the death of Mary Whiton Calkins. At the time of her death she was professor of psychology and director of the psychological laboratory at Wellesley College.
Edward Campion Acheson was sixth bishop of the Episcopal Diocese of Connecticut,serving as suffragan from 1915 to 1926;and coadjutor from 1926 to 1928. He was diocesan bishop from 1928 to 1934.
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David Campion Acheson was an American attorney. Son of one time United States Secretary of State Dean Acheson,he worked for the United States Atomic Energy Commission and served as an assistant to former Treasury Secretary Henry H. Fowler.
Alice Acheson was an American painter and printmaker.
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