Contact:
Leslie Weddell
(719) 389-6038
Leslie.Weddell@ColoradoCollege.edu
COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo. – May 26, 2009 – Three Colorado College graduates have now been tapped by President Barack Obama to serve in his administration.
Lori Garver, who graduated from Colorado College in 1983 with a degree in political science and economics, was nominated on May 23 as the deputy administrator of NASA. Former Colorado senator Ken Salazar (Colorado College ’77) serves as Obama’s secretary of the interior and Jane Lubchenco (Colorado College ’69) as head of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.
Garver, the NASA deputy administrator nominee, advised Obama’s presidential campaign and transition team on space issues. She is the president of Capital Space, LLC, and has served as senior advisor for space at the Avascent Group, a strategy and management consulting firm in Washington, D.C. She will serve under Charles Bolden, a former space shuttle commander, who was named to head NASA as the agency prepares to revive lunar missions and eventually send an astronaut to Mars. “These talented individuals will help put NASA on course to boldly push the boundaries of science, aeronautics and exploration in the 21st century and ensure the long-term vibrancy of America’s space program,” Obama said in a statement issued by the White House.
From 1998 to 2001, Garver served as NASA’s associate administrator of the office of policy and plans and oversaw the analysis, development and integration of NASA policies and long-range plans. She also worked with the NASA strategic management system and the NASA advisory council, and served as a primary spokesperson for NASA. Prior to this appointment, she served as a senior policy analyst for the office of policy and plans and special assistant to the administrator.
Salazar won a U.S. Senate seat in the 2004 election. Previously, he served as Colorado’s attorney general, having been elected in 1998 and reelected in 2002. Before that, he served as chief legal counsel to Gov. Roy Romer, who appointed Salazar director of the Colorado Department of Natural Resources in 1990.
Lubchenco, the first woman to head the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, takes the helm at a time when the agency is poised to play a more prominent role as the Obama administration tackles the issue of climate change. In 1997, as president of the American Association for the Advancement of Science, Lubchenco called for “a new social contract” for science, aimed at helping policy makers take steps to sustain the biosphere.
Additional Colorado College-Obama administration connections include Tom Vilsack, secretary of agriculture and parent of an ’03 graduate, and David Axelrod, senior advisor to Obama and parent of an ’09 graduate.
About Colorado College
Colorado College is a nationally prominent, four-year liberal arts college that was founded in Colorado Springs in 1874. The college operates on the innovative Block Plan, in which its 1,985 undergraduate students study one course at a time in intensive 3½-week blocks. The college also offers a master of arts in teaching degree. For more information, visit www.ColoradoCollege.edu <http://www.ColoradoCollege.edu>.