The Council on Environmental Quality (CEQ) is a division of the Executive Office of the President that coordinates federal environmental efforts in the United States and works closely with agencies and other White House offices on the development of environmental and energy policies and initiatives.
Adolfo Carrión Jr. is an American businessman and former elected official from City Island. He has three sisters Elizabeth Carrión-Stevens, Damaris Carrión-Harris and Lizette Carrión. He served one term as a member of the New York City Council, representing the 14th district. He served for seven years as the borough president of the Bronx, for a year and five months as the first director of the White House Office of Urban Affairs in the Obama administration, and then for nearly two years as Regional Administrator for HUD's New York and New Jersey Regional Office. He left HUD in February 2012.
Dennis Cutler Blair is the former United States Director of National Intelligence and a retired United States Navy admiral who was the commander of U.S. forces in the Pacific region. Blair was a career officer in the U.S. Navy and served in the White House during the presidencies of both Jimmy Carter and Ronald Reagan. Blair retired from the Navy in 2002 as an Admiral. In 2009, Blair was selected as President Barack Obama’s first Director of National Intelligence, but after a series of bureaucratic battles, he resigned on May 20, 2010.
Peter Richard Orszag is an American business executive and former government official. He is the Chief Executive Officer of Lazard. Announced as Lazard’s incoming CEO on May 26, 2023, he assumed the role on October 1, 2023, also joining the board.
The President's Council of Advisors on Science and Technology (PCAST) is a council, chartered in each administration with a broad mandate to advise the president of the United States on science and technology. The current PCAST was established by Executive Order 13226 on September 30, 2001, by George W. Bush, was re-chartered by Barack Obama's April 21, 2010, Executive Order 13539, by Donald Trump's October 22, 2019, Executive Order 13895, and by Joe Biden's February 1, 2021, Executive Order 14007.
Resources for the Future (RFF) is an American nonprofit organization, founded in 1952, that conducts independent research into environmental, energy, and natural resource issues, primarily via economics and other social sciences. Headquartered in Washington, D.C., RFF performs research around the world.
Anthony Kapel "Van" Jones is an American political analyst, media personality, lawyer, author, and civil rights advocate. He is a three-time New York Times bestselling author, a CNN host and contributor, and an Emmy Award winner.
David J. Hayes is an American attorney and legal scholar who serves in the Biden Administration as Special Assistant to the President for Climate Policy. Hayes has led White House work on clean energy deployment issues, climate resilience and greenhouse gas emission reduction and carbon sequestration initiatives. Hayes also has assisted in developing and implementing the climate-related provisions included in the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act and the Inflation Reduction Act.
The presidential transition of Barack Obama began when he won the United States presidential election on November 4, 2008, and became the president-elect. Obama was formally elected by the Electoral College on December 15, 2008. The results were certified by a joint session of Congress on January 8, 2009, and the transition ended when Obama was inaugurated on January 20, 2009.
Melody C. Barnes is an American lawyer and political advisor. Formerly an aide and chief counsel to Senator Edward M. Kennedy on the Senate Judiciary Committee, Barnes later worked at the Center for American Progress, a think tank, before joining Senator Barack Obama's 2008 presidential campaign. After Obama took office as president, Barnes was appointed director of the Domestic Policy Council, serving in that post from January 2009 to January 2012. After leaving the White House, Barnes assumed roles at the Aspen Institute and New York University. Since 2016, she has been at the University of Virginia, where she teaches law and is the co-director of the UVA Democracy Initiative.
Nancy Helen Sutley led the White House Council on Environmental Quality (CEQ) for five years during the administration of Barack Obama. She was unanimously confirmed for that post by the United States Senate on January 22, 2009. The CEQ coordinates federal environmental efforts and works with agencies other than White House offices in the development of environmental policies and initiatives; the chair serves as the principal environmental policy advisor to the president.
Brian Christopher Deese is an American economic and political advisor who was the 13th director of the National Economic Council, serving under President Joe Biden.
Rachel Eva Goslins is an American non-profit leader, museum director and documentary film director. As of October 2023, she is the executive director and Chief Creative Officer of the Milken Center for Advancing the American Dream, a cultural center in Washington DC. Prior to this, she was Director of the Smithsonian's Arts and Industries Building. She was previously head of the President's Committee on the Arts and the Humanities under President Obama, launching several initiatives in education and cultural diplomacy, and organizing a campaign for arts education.
Lee Andrew Feinstein is an American policy-scholar, and former diplomat and senior official at the US Departments of State and Defense. Feinstein held senior positions on leading Democratic presidential campaigns in 2008. He served as the United States Ambassador to Poland from 2009 to 2012, appointed by President Obama and unanimously confirmed by the US Senate. Feinstein was the inaugural dean at Indiana University's Lee H. Hamilton and Richard G. Lugar School of Global and International Studies. His nonpartisan scholarship has been recognized by leading Republicans and Democrats.
Howard Warren Buffett is an American philanthropist, political consultant, political scientist, and writer. A grandson of the American businessman and investor Warren Buffett, he is an adjunct professor in public policy and international affairs at Columbia University's School of International and Public Affairs and was previously the executive director of the Howard G. Buffett Foundation, a private philanthropic foundation that funds initiatives aimed at improving the standard of living and quality of life for the world’s most impoverished and marginalized populations. He previously led agriculture-based economic stabilization and redevelopment programs in Iraq and Afghanistan while at the United States Department of Defense, and as a policy advisor in the Executive Office of the President of the United States under President Barack Obama.
Steven Jonathan Spinner is an American business executive who is known for his work as an angel investor and adviser to Silicon Valley startups and his volunteer work as a fundraiser for President Barack Obama’s 2008 and 2012 presidential campaigns. He previously served as a stimulus adviser for the United States Department of Energy and was peripherally associated with the Department of Energy loan to a failed solar company, Solyndra.
Lanhee Joseph Chen is an American policy advisor, lawyer, and academic. Chen serves as the David and Diane Steffy Fellow in American Public Policy Studies at the Hoover Institution, director of domestic policy studies and lecturer in the public policy program at Stanford University and lecturer in law at Stanford Law School.
Warren Fletcher "Pete" Miller Jr. is an American nuclear engineer known for his work in the areas of computational physics, radioactive waste management, transport theory, nuclear reactor design and analysis, and the management of nuclear research and development programs.
Julie Chávez Rodriguez is an American political rights activist and the campaign manager for Vice President Kamala Harris's 2024 presidential campaign, transitioning to that role from President Joe Biden's 2024 re-election campaign.
