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The Child Nutrition Act (CNA) is a United States federal law signed on October 11, 1966 by President Lyndon B. Johnson. The Act was created as a result of the "years of cumulative successful experience under the National School Lunch Program to help meet the nutritional needs of children." The National School Lunch Program feeds 30.5 million children per day (as of 2007). NSLP was operated in over 101,000 public and nonprofit private schools in 2007 (AmberWaves). The Special Milk Program, functioning since 1954, was extended to June 30, 1970 and incorporated into the act. The act also provided Federal funding assistance towards non-food purchases for school equipment.

The act established the School Breakfast Program, a federally assisted meal program that provides low-cost or free breakfasts to children in public and non-profit schools as well as child care institutions. During the signing of the act, the president remarked that "good food is essential to good learning."

Nutrition Standards[link]

The National School Breakfast Program feeds 10 million children each day, and the National School Lunch Program feeds more than 30 million students. However, the national standards and meal requirements for these meals were created more than a decade ago. The planning model used to develop current nutritional standards and related meal requirements is based on legislation (USDA,1995)that provided specifications for use of 1995 Dietary Guidelines for American and the 1989 Recommended Dietary Allowances (Stallings, 89). This model considers needs of the entire population of school children rather than specific individuals (Stallings, 91).

The Fresh Fruit and Vegetable Snack Program (Food and Nutrition Service) was also designed to increase fruit and vegetables available to schools. In 2008 farm bill called for gradual expansion of program to all states by 2012 (AmberWaves).

In the fall of 2009 the Institute of Medicine recommended updates and revisions to the school lunch and breakfast programs, at the request of U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA). The committee reviewed the current regulations for the National School Lunch Program and School Breakfast Program Nutrition Standards and Meal Requirements. The planning model used to develop current nutritional standards and related meal requirements is based on legislation (USDA,1995) that provided specifications for use of 1995 Dietary Guidelines for American and the 1989 Recommended Dietary Allowances (NRC, 1989). To meet its task, the IOM committee also reviewed and assessed the food and nutritional needs of school-aged children in the United States using the 2005 Dietary Guidelines for Americans set by the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) and USDA, as well as the IOM’s Dietary Reference Intakes (DRI). The committee recommends numerous revisions and that emphasis be placed on revised Meal Requirements rather than on nutrients per se. The committee’s recommended new approach clearly focuses on providing meals that are consistent with the Dietary Guidelines for Americans. The final report, School Meals: Building Blocks for Healthy Children was released in November 2009. The committee recommended that the USDA adopt standards for menu planning, including:

• Increasing the amount and variety of fruits, vegetables, and whole grains
• Setting a minimum and maximum level of calories
• Focusing more on reducing saturated fat and sodium

On January 13, 2011, USDA has published new proposed regulations in the Federal Register based on the IOM recommendations.

Some students have recognized the importance of a well balanced diet and started programs on a local level. Programs like the School Food Plus Initiative & E.A.T.W.I.S.E (Cooper, 54). Parents are also getting in on the action and have formed school district wellness committees around the country. They are looking forward to developing wellness policies that will charge local school districts with setting targets for nutrition education (Cooper, 84).

Importance of Programs[link]

Without a proper diet children can lack proper brain development and may suffer from malnutrition. It is important for food programs such as these in schools because some students may receive all their meals from school. Without a well balanced diet it could cause a child's brain to not develop normally (Berger, 142). Children may be malnourished and could possibly suffer from Protein-calorie malnutrition (Berger 142). In the long run if children do suffer from lack of nutrients it will not only impede brain growth but effect their ability to learn as well (Berger, 142).

See also[link]

• Child and Adult Care Food Program
• Share Our Strength

External links[link]

• About the Child Nutrition Act of 1966
• "Picking battles: Healthy breakfasts challenge schools"
• The Institute of Medicine Review of National School Lunch and School Breakfast Program Meal Patterns and Nutrient Standards
• [1]
• [2]
• [3]
• Share Our Strength Latest News - Nat'l Teacher Survey Shows Many Children Too Hungry to Learn

Other resources[link]

Berger, Kathleen. The Developing Person Throughout the Lifespan. 6th ed. Worth, 2005.

Cooper, Ann, and Lisa M. Holmes. Lunch lessons: Changing the Way We Feed Our Children. New York: HarperCollins, 2006.

Newman, Constance, Katherine Ralston, and Annette Clauson. "Balancing Nutrition, Participation, and Cost in the National School Lunch Program." 15 May 2009.

Stallings, Virginia A., and Christine L. Taylor, eds. Meal Requirements for National School Lunch and Breakfast Programs. Phase I. Porposed Approach for Recommending Revisions. Washington, DC: National Academies P. National Academies Press. 15 May 2009.

Kelly Preston
Preston talking with Navy family members at the USO holiday party at Rockwell Hall Gym on Naval Amphibious Base Little Creek, Virginia, December 3, 2005.
Born	Kelly Kamalelehua Smith (1962-10-13) October 13, 1962 (age 49) Honolulu, Hawaii, U.S.
Occupation	model, actress
Years active	1980–present
Spouse	Kevin Gage (1986–1988, divorced) John Travolta (m. 1991–present)
Website
http://www.kellypreston.com/

Kelly Preston (born October 13, 1962) is an American actress and former model.

Early years[link]

Preston was born Kelly Kamalelehua Smith^[1] in Honolulu, Hawaii. Her mother, Linda,^[2] was an administrator of a mental health center, and her father, who worked for an agricultural firm, drowned when Preston was three years old.^[3] Her mother married Peter Palzis, a personnel director, who subsequently adopted her; she used his name when she first began her acting career until 1984.^[1][4] She has a younger maternal half-brother, Chris Palzis.^[1] As a child, she spent time living in Iraq and Australia. While living in Australia, she attended Pembroke School in Adelaide, South Australia. She later attended Punahou School and studied drama and theater at the University of Southern California.^[5]

Career[link]

This section requires expansion.

While living in Australia, Preston was discovered at 16 by a fashion photographer who helped her get work in commercials and other small parts,^[1] and organised Preston's first film audition in 1980 for the role of Emmeline in The Blue Lagoon (1980), which she lost to Brooke Shields.^[6] At that time she changed her last name to Preston.^[7] Her first prominent film roles came in 1985 romantic comedy teen flicks as Marilyn McCauley in Mischief and then Deborah Ann Fimple in Secret Admirer. Other notable roles included SpaceCamp (1986), Twins (1988) with Arnold Schwarzenegger and Danny DeVito, Avery Bishop in Jerry Maguire (1996) with Tom Cruise and Kate Newell in Holy Man (1998) with Eddie Murphy.

She played the girlfriend of her husband, John Travolta's, character "Terl" in the 2000 film Battlefield Earth,^[8] and received "Worst Supporting Actress" at the 21st Golden Raspberry Awards for her role in the film.^[9] In 2005 she appeared as the flying, superheroine mother of the protagonist in the film Sky High.

Preston was featured in the chart-topping Maroon 5 music video, "She Will Be Loved" in 2004. The video features a love triangle and romantic scenes between Preston and Maroon 5 frontman Adam Levine. In 2008, she was cast in a television pilot for a potential show called Suburban Shootout.^[10] She had a short term recurring role on Medium.^[10]

In 2008, Preston starred in the Lifetime movie The Tenth Circle, directed by Peter Markle. The film was shot in Nova Scotia and featured Ron Eldard, Brittany Robertson, Michael Riley, Jamie Johnston and Geordie Brown.^[11]

She is a spokeswoman for Neutrogena since 2005 and appears in print and television advertisements.^[12]

Preston is set to play Victoria Gotti in the upcoming John Gotti biopic Gotti: In The Shadow of my Father.^{[citation needed]}

Personal life[link]

Preston married actor Kevin Gage in 1985 until their divorce in 1987.^{[13][citation needed]} She also had a relationship with George Clooney,^[1] who gave her Max, a pet pig that he kept after the couple split up.^[14] She was briefly engaged to Charlie Sheen in 1990,^[1][15] but ended the relationship shortly after he accidentally shot her in the arm.^[15][16]

John Travolta[link]

Preston first met John Travolta in 1987 while filming The Experts.^[17] They married in 1991. Both traveled to Paris on an Air-France Concorde for a wedding ceremony at the Hotel de Crillon (close to the Place de la Concorde), celebrated on September 5, 1991. However, a second ceremony had to be conducted because the first, performed by a French Scientology minister (both Preston and Travolta are Scientologists), was regarded as invalid. The second ceremony took place a week later, on September 12, in Daytona Beach, Florida.^[18] They have since had three children: Jett (April 13, 1992 - January, 2, 2009), Ella Bleu (born April 3, 2000) and Benjamin Hunter Kaleo (born November 23, 2010).

On January 2, 2009, their son Jett died while the family was on a holiday vacation in The Bahamas.^[19][20] The cause of his death was attributed to a seizure.^[21] Jett reportedly suffered from Kawasaki disease as an infant and had a history of seizures.^[22][23] On September 24, 2009, ^[24] Travolta and Preston confirmed longstanding speculations when they testified that their son had autism and suffered regular seizures. This revelation came during their testimony at the trial resulting from an extortion attempt related to their son's death.^[25]

On January 23, 2009, three people were arrested in the Bahamas in connection with a multi-million dollar extortion plot against Travolta and Preston around the circumstances of their son's death.^[26] One of the men, Obie Wilchcombe, a member of the Bahamian Parliament and former Bahamian Minister of Tourism, was described as a "close friend" of Travolta and Preston.^[26] Two others allegedly involved were an EMT named Tarino Lightbourne and a Bahamian senator named Pleasant Bridgewater. Bridgewater was charged with abetment to extort and conspiracy to extort and resigned from the Senate as a result of the allegations.^[26][27]

In May 2010 Travolta and Preston announced that she was pregnant with the couple's third child.^[28] At age 48 Preston delivered a healthy son, Benjamin Hunter Kaleo, on November 23, 2010.^[29][30]

Filmography[link]

References[link]

External links[link]

Wikimedia Commons has media related to: Kelly Preston

Scientology portal

• Official website
• Kelly Preston at the Internet Movie Database
• Kelly Preston at AllRovi
• Healthy Child Healthy World
• Kelly Preston in Denmark interview (Danish and English)

Tom Vilsack
30th United States Secretary of Agriculture
Incumbent
Assumed office January 21, 2009
President	Barack Obama
Deputy	Kathleen Merrigan
Preceded by	Ed Schafer
40th Governor of Iowa
In office January 15, 1999 – January 12, 2007
Lieutenant	Sally Pederson
Preceded by	Terry Branstad
Succeeded by	Chet Culver
Personal details
Born	(1950-12-13) December 13, 1950 (age 61) Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, U.S.
Political party	Democratic Party
Spouse(s)	Christie Bell
Residence	Mount Pleasant, Iowa
Alma mater	Hamilton College Albany Law School
Profession	Attorney at law
Religion	Roman Catholicism
Signature

Thomas James "Tom" Vilsack (/ˈvɪlsæk/; born December 13, 1950) is an American politician, a member of the Democratic Party, and presently the U.S. Secretary of Agriculture. He served as the 40th Governor of the state of Iowa. He was first elected in 1998 and re-elected to a second four-year term in 2002. On November 30, 2006, he formally launched his candidacy for the Democratic Party's nomination for President of the United States in the 2008 election, but ended his bid on February 23, 2007.^[1]

Barack Obama announced Vilsack's selection to be the United States Secretary of Agriculture under his administration on December 17, 2008. Vilsack's nomination was confirmed by the United States Senate by unanimous consent on January 20, 2009.

Early life, education and career[link]

Born in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, Tom Vilsack was abandoned at birth and placed in a Roman Catholic orphanage. He was adopted in 1951 by Bud and Dolly Vilsack, who raised him in the Roman Catholic faith. His adoptive father was a real-estate agent and insurance salesman, and his adoptive mother was a homemaker.

He attended high school at Shady Side Academy, a preparatory school in Pittsburgh. He received a Bachelor's degree in 1972 from Hamilton College in New York. While at Hamilton he joined the Delta Upsilon Fraternity. He received a Juris Doctor (J.D.) in 1975 from Albany Law School. He and his wife settled in Mount Pleasant, Iowa in 1975, a small town in the southeastern portion of the state where she had grown up.

Early political career[link]

Vilsack was elected mayor of Mount Pleasant in 1987 following the murder of mayor Ed King by a disgruntled citizen.^{[citation needed]} He was elected to the Iowa Senate in 1992 by a relatively slim margin.^{[citation needed]} Following election, he worked on legislation requiring companies who received state tax incentives to provide better pay and benefits. He helped pass a law for workers to receive health coverage when changing jobs, and helped re-design Iowa's Workforce Development Department. He also wrote a bill to have the State of Iowa assume a 50% share of local county mental health costs.

Governor of Iowa[link]

In 1998, Terry Branstad chose not to seek re-election following sixteen consecutive years as governor. The Iowa Republican Party nominated Jim Ross Lightfoot, a recent former U.S. House Representative. Lightfoot became the odds-on favorite to succeed Branstad. Vilsack defeated former Iowa Supreme Court Justice Mark McCormick in the Democratic primary.^{[citation needed]} Vilsack chose as his running mate Sally Pederson. Vilsack narrowly won the general election, largely due to aggressive campaigning on behalf by Senator Tom Harkin. He was the first Democrat to serve as governor of Iowa in 30 years, and only the fifth Democrat to hold the office in the 20th century.

In 2001 Vilsack served as a Chair of the Midwestern Governors Association. In 2002 he won his second term in office by defeating Republican challenger attorney Doug Gross by eight points. Also in 2002, Vilsack appointed Dr. Stephen Gleason as his Chief of Staff. Gleason resigned in 2005 to pursue a career in Medical Consulting at Health Policy Strategies in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. He was replaced by Cynthia Eisenhauer, former director of the Iowa Department of Management and Iowa Workforce Development.

Vilsack speaks at the dedication ceremony of the Iowa Events Center's Wells Fargo Arena, July 12, 2005.

The first year of his second term saw creation of the Grow Iowa Values Fund, a $503 million appropriation designed to boost the Iowa economy by offering grants to corporations and initiatives pledged to create higher-income jobs. Vilsack used a line-item veto, later ruled unconstitutional by the Iowa Supreme Court, to pass the fund, vetoing portions of the bill that would have cut income taxes and eased business regulations. After a special session of the Iowa General Assembly on September 7, 2004, $100 million in state money was set aside to honor previously made commitments. The Grow Iowa Values Fund was reinstated at the end of the 2005 session: under the current law, $50 million per year will be set aside over the next ten years.

Candidates seeking to replace Vilsack, most notably Ed Fallon, criticized this program.^[2] Their complaints include the fact that companies lured into Iowa by the fund, unlike Iowa-based corporations, can be lured away by greater cash incentives elsewhere. Another criticism is that it does nothing to promote new business.^[3] In July 2005, Vilsack signed an executive order allowing all felons who had served their sentences to vote again. Iowa law previously held that convicted felons are permanently disenfranchized unless voting rights were restored personally by the governor; Vilsack did away with this process.^[4]

For most of Tom Vilsack's tenure as Governor, Republicans held effective majorities in the Iowa General Assembly. Following the November 2, 2004, elections, the 50-member Senate was evenly split between Democrats and Republicans. Republicans held a 51–49 majority in the House of Representatives.

During the 2005 legislative session, Vilsack signed into law greater restrictions that require products containing the active ingredient pseudoephedrine to be sold behind pharmacy counters, as opposed to open-access at open-shelf level. Those wishing to buy such products must show identification and sign a log book. The new law, designed to reduce methamphetamine use in Iowa, took effect on May 21, 2005.

Following Kelo v. City of New London, Vilsack vetoed but was overridden on Iowa House file 2351, a bill to restrict Iowa's use of eminent domain.

"I am particularly troubled with the provisions that restrict the use of eminent domain for redevelopment purposes to areas defined as slum or blighted."--Tom Vilsack, veto letter for Iowa House file 2351.

Vilsack is a former member of the National Governors Association Executive Committee. He was chair of the Democratic Governors Association in 2004. He was also chair of the Governors Biotechnology Partnership, the Governors Ethanol Coalition, and the Midwest Governors Conference, and has also been chair and vice chair of the National Governors Association's committee on Natural Resources, where he worked to develop the NGA's farm and energy policies.

Prior to Democratic Presidential candidate Senator John Kerry's selection of Senator John Edwards, Vilsack was thought to be high on the list of potential running mates for Kerry in the 2004 presidential election.

In 2005, Vilsack established Heartland PAC, a political action committee aimed at electing Democratic Governors. In the first report, he raised over half a million dollars.

Vilsack left office in 2007; he did not seek a third term. Succeeded by Chet Culver, he became the first Democratic governor since Clyde L. Herring seventy years earlier to be succeeded by another Democrat.

2008 U.S. presidential campaign[link]

On November 30, 2006, Tom Vilsack became the second Democrat (after Mike Gravel) to officially announce intentions to run for the presidency in the 2008 election. In his announcement speech, he said "America's a great country, and now I have the opportunity to begin the process, the legal process of filing papers to run for President of the United States." Vilsack dropped out of the race on February 23, 2007 citing monetary constraints.^[5]

Vilsack's campaign made significant use of social media by maintaining an active MySpace profile, a collection of viral video clips on YouTube, a Facebook profile, videoblog on blip.tv,^[6] and a conference call with the podcast site TalkShoe.^[7] On January 27, 2007, Vilsack called into the Regular Guys Show hosted by Kurt Hurner to conduct a fifteen minute interview on his running for the Democratic nomination for 2008. Since then, Vilsack appeared again, now The Kurt Hurner Show at Talk Shoe on August 12, 2008, this time as a supporter of Barack Obama for president taking questions from callers to the program for thirty minutes.

During the campaign, Vilsack joined fellow candidates Hillary Clinton and Joe Biden in supporting the establishment of a U.S. Public Service Academy as a civilian counterpart to the military academies.^[8]

Shortly after ending his 2008 bid for the White House, Vilsack endorsed Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton and was named the national co-chair for Clinton's presidential campaign.^[9]

Views on Iraq[link]

Vilsack's stance on the war is critical of President Bush but hesitant to call for an immediate and complete pullout from Iraq: "I don't think we're losing in Iraq, It appears to be a draw. People are upset by the fact that their kids are over there and there doesn’t seem to be any end to this whole process. It’s not pacifism that makes people think this way. They’re questioning the credibility and competence of the Commander-in-Chief."^[10]

Vilsack announcing his withdrawal from the race

On December 5, Vilsack announced that he favored withdrawing most of the U.S. forces from Iraq and leaving a small force in the Northern region for a limited period. While acknowledging that a withdrawal would lead to more violence, he felt that it would be the only way for the Iraqi government to take control of their country.^[11]

Views on energy security[link]

The Vilsack Energy Security Agenda set out a strategy to dramatically reduce U.S. reliance on foreign energy and to cut the United States' carbon emissions. It also called for replacing the Department of Energy with a new Department of Energy Security, to oversee and redefine the federal government’s role in energy policy. The reorganized department would have acted as an institutional advocate for innovation in energy policy, and was intended to ensure accountability as the nation works towards achieving its energy security goals. Through this new department, America’s overriding objective in energy policy would have been to make America the unquestioned leader in clean energy, enhancing national security and economic strength.^[12]

In a 2007 lecture to the Commonwealth Club of California, Vilsack stated,

Secretary of Agriculture[link]

Vilsack is presented a blanket from the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation at an event in Las Vegas, Nevada

On December 17, 2008, then-President-elect Barack Obama announced his choice of Vilsack as the nominee to be the 30th Secretary of Agriculture.^[14] Vilsack has governed a largely agricultural state as did the previous two Secretaries of Agriculture, Mike Johanns (who is currently the junior United States Senator from Nebraska) (2005–2007) and Ed Schafer (2007–2009).

The Senate confirmed Vilsack's nomination for the position by unanimous consent on January 20, 2009.^[15]

Reaction to Vilsack's nomination from agricultural groups was largely positive and included endorsements from the Corn Refiners Association, the National Grain and Feed Association, the National Farmers Union, the American Farm Bureau Federation, and the Environmental Defense Fund.^[16] Opposition to the nomination came from the Organic Consumers Association, which outlined in a November 2008 report several reasons why it believed Vilsack would be a poor choice for the position, particularly as energy and environmental reforms were a key point of the Obama campaign.^[17] Among those reasons the report cites: Vilsack has repeatedly demonstrated a preference for large industrial farms and genetically modified crops;^[18] as Iowa state governor, he originated the seed pre-emption bill in 2005, effectively blocking local communities from regulating where genetically engineered crops would be grown; additionally, Vilsack was the founder and former chair of the Governor's Biotechnology Partnership, and was named Governor of the Year by the Biotechnology Industry Organization, an industry lobbying group.^[19]

Vilsack appointed Shirley Sherrod as the Georgia Director of Rural Development, saying that she would be an "important advocate on behalf of rural communities."^[20] Months after the appointment, Vilsack forced her to resign based on accusations of considering race in the handling of her job responsibilities at a private advocacy firm in 1986. Subsequent reports claim that he overreacted to a video segment taken out of context, and the secretary expressed his "deep regret" to Ms. Sherrod in acting hastily.^[21]

Vilsack approved a 15-cent per tree tax on Christmas tree sellers, as a result of over 3-years of lobbying from the Christmas tree industry. The Christmas tree tax is expected to raise approximately $4 million from holiday revelers. The purpose of the tax is fund an advertising program by the U.S. Department of Agriculture promoting the sale of real Christmas trees.

On January 24, 2012 Secretary Vilsack was named the designated survivor by President Obama during the President's State of the Union address.^[22]

On the 28th of March 2012, Vilsack came out publicaly defending the use of "lean finely textured beef" added in ground beef.

Electoral history[link]

• 1998 election for Governor of Iowa:

Democratic Primary^{[citation needed]}

• Tom Vilsack (D), 52%
• Mark McCormick (D), 48%

1998 General Election:^[23]

• Tom Vilsack (D), 52.3% – 500,231 votes
• Jim Lightfoot (R), 46.5% – 444,787 votes

Personal life[link]

Vilsack met his future wife, Ann Christine "Christie" Bell, in a cafeteria while at college in New York in October 1968. Vilsack approached Bell and asked, "Are you a Humphrey or a Nixon supporter?" She replied "Humphrey" and they soon began dating. The couple were married on August 18, 1973, in Bell's hometown of Mount Pleasant, Iowa. Vilsack and his wife moved to Mount Pleasant in 1975, where he joined his father-in-law in law practice.^[24]

Tom and Christie Vilsack have two sons, Jess and Doug. Jess graduated from Hamilton College in 2000 where he, like his father, was a member of the Delta Upsilon Fraternity. Jess received a J.D. from the University of Iowa in May 2003. Doug later graduated from Colorado College and is currently attending the University of Colorado School of Law. He is also a research associate at the School of Law's Energy and Environmental Security Initiative (EESI).

On May 1, 2006 it was announced that Vilsack joined the Board of Directors of Pittsburgh-based Carnegie Learning, a leading publisher of research-based math curricula for middle school, high school, and postsecondary students.^[25]

References[link]

External links[link]

Wikimedia Commons has media related to: Tom Vilsack

• Biography at the United States Department of Agriculture
• Biography at the National Governors Association
• Biography at WhoRunsGov.com at The Washington Post
• Issue positions and quotes at On the Issues
• Campaign contributions at FollowTheMoney.org
• Appearances on C-SPAN programs
• Appearances at the Internet Movie Database
• Collected news and commentary at The New York Times
• Appearances on Charlie Rose
• Works by or about Tom Vilsack in libraries (WorldCat catalog)
• Interview The Mac Weekly, November 7, 2008^{[dead link]}
• Harkin: Vilsack tapped for agriculture secretary The Des Moines Register, December 16, 2008

v t e Current members of the Cabinet of the United States Obama Biden Bryson Chu Clinton Donovan Duncan Geithner Holder Jacksonc Kirkc Kruegerc LaHood Lewc Millsc Napolitano Panetta Ricec Salazar Sebelius Solis Shinseki Vilsack Zientsca c - cabinet-level; a - acting

v t e United States Secretaries of Agriculture Coleman Rusk Morton Wilson Houston Meredith HC Wallace Gore Jardine Hyde HA Wallace Wickard Anderson Brannan Benson Freeman Hardin Butz Knebel Bergland Block Lyng Yeutter Madigan Espy Glickman Veneman Johanns Schafer Vilsack

v t e Cabinet of President Barack Obama (since 2009)   Cabinet Secretary of State Hillary Clinton (2009–present) Secretary of the Treasury Timothy Geithner (2009–present) Secretary of Defense Robert Gates (2009–2011) Leon Panetta (2011–present) Attorney General Eric Holder (2009–present) Secretary of the Interior Ken Salazar (2009–present) Secretary of Agriculture Tom Vilsack (2009–present) Secretary of Commerce Gary Locke (2009–2011) John Bryson (2011–present) Secretary of Labor Hilda Solis (2009–present) Secretary of Health and Human Services Kathleen Sebelius (2009–present) Secretary of Education Arne Duncan (2009–present) Secretary of Housing and Urban Development Shaun Donovan (2009–present) Secretary of Transportation Ray LaHood (2009–present) Secretary of Energy Steven Chu (2009–present) Secretary of Veterans Affairs Eric Shinseki (2009–present) Secretary of Homeland Security Janet Napolitano (2009–present)   Cabinet-level Vice President Joe Biden (2009–present) White House Chief of Staff Rahm Emanuel (2009–2010) William Daley (2011–2012) Jacob Lew (2012–present) Administrator of the Environmental Protection Agency Lisa Jackson (2009–present) Director of the Office of Management and Budget Peter Orszag (2009–2010) Jacob Lew (2010–2012) Trade Representative Ron Kirk (2009–present) Ambassador to the United Nations Susan Rice (2009–present) Chair of the Council of Economic Advisers Christina Romer (2009–2010) Austan Goolsbee (2010–2011) Alan Krueger (2011–present) Director of the Central Intelligence Agency Leon Panetta (2009–2011) David Petraeus (2011–present) Administrator of the Small Business Administration Karen Mills (2012–present)* * took office in 2009, raised to cabinet-rank in 2012 See also: Confirmations of Barack Obama's Cabinet

v t e Obama Administration personnel v t e Cabinet and cabinet-level Office Name Term Office Name Term Secretary of State Hillary Clinton 2009– Secretary of Treasury Timothy Geithner 2009– Secretary of Defense Leon Panetta 2011– Attorney General Eric Holder 2009– Secretary of the Interior Ken Salazar 2009– Secretary of Agriculture Tom Vilsack 2009– Secretary of Commerce John Bryson 2011– Secretary of Labor Hilda Solis 2009– Secretary of Health and   Human Services Kathleen Sebelius 2009– Secretary of Education Secretary of Transportation Arne Duncan Ray LaHood 2009– 2009– Secretary of Housing and Urban   Development Shaun Donovan 2009– Secretary of Veterans Affairs Eric Shinseki 2009– Secretary of Energy Steven Chu 2009– Secretary of Homeland Security Janet Napolitano 2009– Vice President Joe Biden 2009– White House Chief of Staff Jacob Lew 2012– Director of the Office of Management and   Budget Vacant 2012– Administrator of the Environmental   Protection Agency Lisa Jackson 2009– Ambassador to the United Nations Trade Representative Susan Rice Ron Kirk 2009– 2009– Chair of the Council of Economic   Advisers Alan B. Krueger 2011– Below solid line: Granted Cabinet rank although not automatically part of the Cabinet. See also: Confirmations of Barack Obama's Cabinet v t e Executive Office of the President Office Name Term Office Name Term White House Chief of Staff White House Deputy Chief of Staff for Policy   Rahm Emanuel Pete Rouse William M. Daley Jacob Lew Mona Sutphen Nancy-Ann DeParle 2009–2010 2010-2011 2011-2012 2012- 2009-2011 2011- National Security Advisor Deputy National Security Advisor   Jim Jones Tom Donilon Thomas E. Donilon Denis McDonough 2009–2010 2010- 2009–2010 2010- White House Deputy Chief of Staff for Operations   Senior Advisor to the President   Deputy Senior Advisor to the President Counselor to the President Jim Messina Alyssa Mastromonaco David Axelrod David Plouffe Stephanie Cutter Pete Rouse 2009–2011 2011- 2009–2011 2011- 2011- 2009- Deputy National Security Advisor for Iraq and Afghanistan Deputy National Security Advisor for Strategic Communications Douglas Lute† Ben Rhodes   2009– 2009– Senior Advisor to the President and Assistant to the President for Intergovernmental Affairs and Public Engagement Valerie Jarrett   2009–   Deputy National Security Advisor for Homeland Security John O. Brennan 2009– Director of Public Engagement   Christina Tchen Jon Carson 2009–2011 2011-- Deputy National Security Advisor and NSC Chief of Staff   Denis McDonough Brooke Anderson 2009-2010 2011- Director of Intergovernmental Affairs Cecilia Muñoz 2009– White House Communications Director Daniel Pfeiffer 2009- Director, National Economic Council   Lawrence Summers Gene Sperling 2009–2010 2011- Deputy White House Communications Director White House Press Secretary   Jennifer Psaki Robert Gibbs Jay Carney 2009– 2009–2011 2011- Deputy Director, National Economic Council Diana Farrell 2009– Deputy Press Secretary Bill Burton 2009–2011 Deputy Director, National Economic Council Deputy Director, National Economic Council Jason Furman Brian Deese 2009– 2011- Director of Special Projects Stephanie Cutter 2010-2011 Chair of the President's Economic Recovery Advisory Board Paul Volcker 2009– Director of Speechwriting Jon Favreau 2009– Chair of the Council of Economic Advisors   Christina Romer Austan Goolsbee 2009–2010 2010- White House Counsel   Assistant to the President for Legislative Affairs   Robert Bauer Kathryn Ruemmler Phil Schiliro Rob Nabors 2009–2011 2011- 2009–2011 2011- Member of the Council of Economic Advisors Katharine Abraham 2011- Deputy Assistant to the President for Legislative Affairs Lisa Konwinski 2009– Member of the Council of Economic Advisors Cecilia Rouse 2009– Executive Clerk George T. Saunders† 2009– Director, Office of Management and Budget   Peter Orszag Jacob Lew 2009–2010 2010–2012 Director, Office of Political Affairs Chief Technology Officer Patrick Gaspard Aneesh Chopra Todd Park 2009–2011 2009–2012 2012- Chief Performance Officer and Deputy Director for Management, Office of Management and Budget Jeffrey Zients   2009– Chief Information Officer Director, Office of Presidential Personnel Steven VanRoekel Nancy Hogan 2011– 2010– Deputy Director, Office of Management and Budget   Jeffrey Liebman Heather Higginbottom* 2010–2010 2011- Director of Scheduling and Advance   Director, White House Military Office Alyssa Mastromonaco Danielle Crutchfield George D. Mulligan, Jr. 2009–2011 2011- 2009– United States Trade Representative Ron Kirk 2009– Cabinet Secretary Chris Lu 2009– Director, Domestic Policy Council Melody Barnes 2009– Deputy Cabinet Secretary Liz Sears Smith 2009– Deputy Director, Domestic Policy Council Heather Higginbottom Mark Zuckerman 2009–2011 2011- Staff Secretary Lisa Brown 2009– Director, Office of Faith-Based and Neighborhood Partnerships Joshua DuBois 2009– Director, Office of Management and Administration Bradley Kiley 2009– Director, Office of Health Reform Nancy DeParle 2009–2011 Director, Oval Office Operations Micaela Fernandez 2009– Deputy Director, Office of Health Reform Jeanne Lambrew 2009– Personal Aide to the President Reggie Love 2009– Director, Office of Energy and Climate Change Policy Carol Browner 2009–2011 Personal Secretary to the President Katie Johnson Anita Decker 2009–2011 2011- Deputy Assistant to the President for Energy and Climate Change Heather Zichal 2009– Special Projects Coordinator and Confidential Assistant to the President Eugene Kang   2009– Director, Council on Environmental Quality Director, Office of National AIDS Policy Nancy Sutley Jeffrey Crowley 2009– 2009– Chief of Staff to the First Lady   Jackie Norris Susan Sher Christina Tchen 2009 2009–2010 2011- Director, Office of National Drug Control Policy Gil Kerlikowske 2009– White House Social Secretary Desirée Rogers Julianna Smoot Jeremy Bernard 2009–2010 2010–2011 2011– Director, Office of Urban Affairs Policy Adolfo Carrión, Jr. 2009– Director, Office of Science and Technology Policy John Holdren 2009– *Senate-confirmation pending.   †Remained from previous administration(s). v t e Office of the Vice President Position Appointee Position Appointee Chief of Staff to the Vice President Bruce Reed Chief of Staff to the Second Lady Catherine Russell Counsel to the Vice President Cynthia Hogan Director of Administration for the Office of the Vice President Moises Vela Counselor to the Vice President Mike Donilon Domestic Policy Adviser to the Vice President Terrell McSweeny Assistant to the Vice President for Intergovernmental Affairs and Public Liaison Evan Ryan Chief Economist and Economic Policy Adviser to the Vice President Jared Bernstein Assistant to the Vice President and Director of Communications Jay Carney Press Secretary to the Vice President Elizabeth Alexander Deputy Chief of Staff to the Vice President Alan Hoffman Deputy Press Secretary to the Vice President Annie Tomasini Deputy National Security Adviser to the Vice President Brian McKeon Director of Legislative Affairs Sudafi Henry Residence Manager and Social Secretary for the Vice President and Second Lady Carlos Elizondo Director of Communications for the Second Lady Courtney O’Donnell National Security Adviser to the Vice President Tony Blinken

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Debbie Wasserman Schultz
52nd Chair of the Democratic National Committee
Incumbent
Assumed office May 4, 2011
Preceded by	Tim Kaine
Member of the U.S. House of Representatives from Florida's 20th district
Incumbent
Assumed office January 3, 2005
Preceded by	Peter Deutsch
Member of the Florida Senate from the 34th District
In office January 20, 2003 – November 2, 2004
Preceded by	Alberto Gutman
Succeeded by	Nan Rich
Member of the Florida Senate from the 32nd District
In office January 3, 2001 – January 3, 2003
Preceded by	Howard C. Forman
Succeeded by	Walter Campbell, Jr.
Member of the Florida House of Representatives from the 97th District
In office January 3, 1993 – January 3, 2001
Preceded by	Fred Lippman
Succeeded by	Nan Rich
Personal details
Born	Deborah Wasserman (1966-09-27) September 27, 1966 (age 45) Forest Hills, Queens, New York
Political party	Democratic
Spouse(s)	Steve Schultz
Relations	Larry Wasserman, CPA (father) Ann Wasserman
Children	Shelby Jake and Rebecca (Twins, c:a 2000)
Residence	Weston, Florida
Alma mater	University of Florida (B.A., M.A.)
Occupation	Politician
Religion	Judaism
Signature
[1][2]

Debbie Wasserman Schultz (born September 27, 1966) is the U.S. Representative for Florida's 20th congressional district, serving since 2005. She is a member of the Democratic Party and the Chair of the Democratic National Committee. She previously served in the Florida House of Representatives and the Florida Senate. She is the first Jewish Congresswoman ever elected from Florida.^[3]

The district covers parts of Broward and Miami-Dade Counties, including the cities of Fort Lauderdale and Miami Beach.

Early life, education and career[link]

Born Deborah Wasserman in Forest Hills, Queens in New York City, she grew up on Long Island. She is the daughter of Ann Wasserman, who is employed at Macy's, and Larry Wasserman, a CPA.^[4] She received a Bachelor of Arts in 1988 and a Master of Arts with certificate in political campaigning in 1990, both in Political Science, from the University of Florida in Gainesville.^[5][6]

At the University of Florida, Wasserman Schultz was active in student government, serving as President of the Student Senate as well as founder and president of the Rawlings Area Council Government.^[5] She was also a member of the Omicron Delta Kappa honor society, the James C. Grimm chapter of the National Residence Hall Honorary, and the union Graduate Assistants United, served as President of the Graduate Student Council, and Vice President of the UF College Democrats.^[5][7] She had credited her experience in student politics with developing her "love for politics and the political process".^[8]