The saying goes behind every great man there’s a great woman–or in President Obama’s case, great women. His administration is said to be a marker of how black women have transitioned from being outsiders to gatekeepers in Washington. A number of these powerful women are the first African-American women in their respective positions, such as head of the Domestic Policy Council, the Environmental Protection Agency and the the Food and Drug Administration. So whether its advising the president on economic policy, health care and national security, or assisting the First Lady and Vice President with their affairs, these 11 women are a part of an elite group who are responsible for the everyday operations of the White House:
Cecilia E. Rouse
Member of the President’s Council of Economic Advisers
As a member of the White House CEA, Rouse works on issues including employment, education, housing, the budget and the economics of workplace flexibility. A former Princeton University professor, she is one of three economics who gives President Obama economic analysis and advice.
Jocelyn Frye
Jocelyn Frye, Left
Deputy Assistant to the President and Director of Policy and Special Projects for the First Lady
A native of Washington, D.C., Frye oversees Michelle Obama’s broad issue portfolio that includes her work with childhood obesity, military families, mentoring and work-family challenges. Frye, a graduate of Harvard Law School, has been a friend to the First Lady since law school. As an attorney, Frye has advocated on behalf of employment and gender issues.
Melody Barnes
Director of the Domestic Policy Council
Barnes, a former chief counsel to Senator Edward M. Kennedy, coordinates the policy-making process in the White House by working with key White House officers and federal agencies to shape proposals on issues including education, employment, health care, immigration and housing. Prior to joining the White House, Barnes worked extensively on civil rights and voting rights, women’s health, religious liberties and commercial law through a variety of other positions, such as executive vice president for policy at the Center for American Process.
Valerie Jarrett
Senior adviser and assistant to the president for intergovernmental affairs and public engagement
President Obama’s closest friend serves as a go-between with the public and promoting his platform to various interest and constituency groups. A veteran political strategist and former real estate developer, Jarrett also manages the Office of Urban Affairs and chairs the Commission on Women and Girls.
Lisa P. Jackson
Administrator of the Environmental Protection Agency
Jackson is the first African-American to serve as EPA Administrator where she has made it a priority to focus on vulnerable groups including children, the elderly and low-income communities. She focuses on core issues such as protecting air and water quality, preventing exposure to toxic contamination and reducing greenhouse gases.
Nicole Isaac
Deputy Director of Legislative Affairs in the Office of the Vice President
Isaac serves as a liaison between members of Congress and the Office of the Vice President, assists with the implementation of the economic recovery plan and provides advice and counsel to Joe Biden on legislative issues that are pending in the Senate and the House of Representatives. Isaac was raised in a violent neighborhood in the Bronx by her mother, a Jamaican immigrant, who stressed to Isaac and her siblings the value of education. Her mother’s words did not fall on deaf ears as she went on to attend Brown University, U. Penn Law School, Columbia University and Oxford. Isaac has served in several capacities within the government for the past seven years.
Susan Rice
U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations
Rice represents the U.S. during United Nations plenary meetings and on the U.N. Security Council where she upholds the nation’s stance on subjects including global security, poverty and human rights. She is currently embroiled in imposing new sanctions on Libya and referring Mummar Qaddafi’s crackdown on demonstrators to the International Criminal Court. Rice also served under former President Bill Clinton as assistant secretary of state for African Affairs.
Regina Benjamin
U.S. Surgeon General
Benjamin serves as “America’s Doctor” by providing the public with information on how to improve their health and overseeing the operational command of 6,500 health officers in the Commissioned Corps of the U.S. Public Health. Originally from Daphne, Ala., Benjamin worked for two decades serving low-income patients in the Alabama bayou as a family physician and operator of a health clinic. Prior to her role as Surgeon General, Benjamin served on the Sullivan Commission, a blue-ribbon panel that looked for ways to diversify the health care workforce.
Margaret Hamburg
Commissioner of the Food and Drug Administration
Hamburg is the second woman and the first African-American to be nominated as the Commissioner of the FDA, under which she regulates food safety, pharmaceutical drugs, vaccines and other public health concerns. She previously served as New York City’s health commissioner and is recognized for her accomplishments in improving services for women and children, her needle-exchange programs to reduce the spread of HIV and the initiation of the first public health bio-terrorism defense program in the nation. But she is most celebrated for curbing the spread of tuberculosis by 46 percent in New York City over a five-year time span in the 1990s.
Jacqueline Berrien
Chair of the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission
Since being appointed to her current position, Berrien has taken an interest in how hiring practices that slant against the unemployed may affect individuals based on race, color, sex and disability. Before coming to the EEOC, Berrien served as Associate Director-Counsel for the NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund where she assisted with implementing national legal advocacy and scholarship programs. She also worked with the Ford Foundation where she administered more than $13 million in grants to promote greater political participation by underrepresented groups. Berrien also practiced civil rights law for more than 15 years.
Marie Johns
Deputy Administrator of the Small Business Administration
Johns comes from a family of small business owners, so she is focused on assisting business in underserved markets. She started out in the telecommunications industry where she worked her way up from a first level manager at Verizon Washington and became the first African American woman to lead the company. Following her 21-year stint in telecom, she founded an organizational effectiveness and public policy consulting practice. Johns has also chaired the DC Chamber of Commerce and created Students Educated for Economic Development Success (SEEDS), a mentoring program that prepared over 200 high school dropouts for entry-level jobs in the telecom industry.
