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In our resolve to bring what is happening inside the America’s seat of Power known as “White House” to our teeming readers across the globe…we bring to you ACTORS in the America’s Power House. It is tagged: Know the White House Authors: Courtesy of White House Blog

Babatunde Ojetola

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Yohannes Abraham
Special Assistant to the President and Chief of Staff for the Office of Public Engagement and the Office of Intergovernmental Affairs:
Yohannes Abraham serves as Special Assistant to the President and Chief of Staff for the Office of Public Engagement and the Office of Intergovernmental Affairs. Prior to joining the White House, Abraham served as the Deputy National Political Director on the Obama-Biden 2012 campaign, where he managed political strategy and operations in swing states. After the election, Abraham was named Director of Public Engagement for the 2013 Presidential Inaugural Committee. Before joining the Obama-Biden 2012 campaign, Abraham was the National Political Director at Organizing for America, and also served in the White House Office of Legislative Affairs during the passage of the Affordable Care Act, the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act, and other key pieces of the President’s agenda. He also served as then-Senator Obama’s Virginia Field Director during the 2008 general election. Abraham is a native of Springfield, VA.
Greg Nelson
Special Assistant to the President and Senior Advisor to the National Economic Council
Greg is currently responsible for a policy portfolio that includes the U.S. participation in the G7 and G20, infrastructure, entrepreneurship and startups. For the past two years, Greg was Chief of Staff at the National Economic Council, where he coordinated NEC’s policy development, managed operations, and worked across the White House to support and implement the President’s economic policy priorities. Previously, Greg was Deputy Director of the White House Office of Public Engagement focused on public-private partnerships and setting up the White House’s private sector outreach, including as Deputy Director of the President’s Council on Jobs and Competitiveness. He focused the first two years of the Administration on energy, innovation, and technology policy. Prior to the White House, Greg lived on the West Coast where he helped build and sell a technology company, developed new businesses in energy and biomaterials, and consulted for businesses, nonprofits, and foundations. He holds a BA in political science and history from Yale University.
Raul M. Alvillar
Associate Director of the Office of Public Engagement in the Office of the Vice President
Raul Alvillar is the interim liaison to the LGBT community and works on a myriad of other portfolios. He most recently served as a Congressional Relations Officer in the Office of Congressional and Intergovernmental Relations in the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD). He was responsible for managing HUD’s relationships with congressional, state, and local officials. Prior to HUD, Raul worked on the Obama for America campaign where he served as the Western Political Director. Raul started his career as the volunteer coordinator for the Gore Lieberman 2000 campaign in New Mexico. He is originally from Belen, New Mexico.
Michael Daniel
Special Assistant to the President and Cybersecurity Coordinator

Michael Daniel is a Special Assistant to the President and the Cybersecurity Coordinator. In this position, Michael leads the interagency development of national cybersecurity strategy and policy, and he oversees agencies’ implementation of those policies. Michael also ensures that the federal government is effectively partnering with the private sector, non-governmental organizations, other branches and levels of government, and other nations.

Prior to coming to the National Security Staff, Michael served for 17 years with the Office of Management and Budget (OMB). From September 2001 to June 2012, he served as the Chief of the Intelligence Branch, National Security Division, in a career Senior Executive Service position. This branch oversees the Intelligence Community (IC) and other classified Department of Defense programs. In this position, Michael played a key role in shaping intelligence budgets, improving the management of the IC, and resolving major IC policy issues. The branch also oversaw a variety of cross-cutting issues, including cybersecurity, counterterrorism spending, and information sharing and safeguarding.

Within OMB, Michael also served as an examiner in the National Security Division’s Front Office supporting the Deputy Associate Director and in the Operations branch reviewing Navy and Marine Corps operational activities and overseas military operations such as Bosnia and Kosovo.

Since 2007, Michael has been heavily involved with Federal cybersecurity activities, starting with the Comprehensive National Cybersecurity Initiative. He has worked on cybersecurity funding issues in almost every budget since then and led an annual cross-cut review of Federal agencies’ cybersecurity spending. He represented OMB on cybersecurity issues in the interagency policy process and worked with various Congressional committees and staff on cybersecurity issues. Finally, he has worked on tracking cybersecurity spending and the development of useful cyber performance metrics.

Originally from Atlanta, Michael received a Bachelor’s in Public Policy from the Woodrow Wilson School at Princeton University. Subsequently, he obtained a Master’s in Public Policy from the Kennedy School of Government at Harvard with a focus on International Affairs and Security. Michael also obtained a Master of Science in National Resource Strategy from the National Defense University’s Industrial College of the Armed Forces in 2001.

Outside of work, Michael and his wife are raising two rambunctious boys. Michael also studies martial arts in the Chishin Ryu style with Dai Nippon Botoku Kai, a Norfolk-based karate association.

Leigh Heyman
Director of New Media Technologies
Leigh is Director of New Media Technologies at the White House, where he oversees the development and operations of WhiteHouse.gov, We The People, and all of the White House’s Drupal-based websites and applications. His team provides a secure, stable, and scalable technical infrastructure across the White House’s web, social media, and mobile platforms, supporting the President’s communications objectives. Leigh’s fifteen years of experience cover all aspects of system management of high-profile online engagement platforms in both the private and public sectors, including work for Blue State Digital and MIT’s Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence Laboratory.
Ambassador Susan Rice
National Security Advisor

Ambassador Susan E. Rice is the President’s National Security Advisor. She oversees the National Security Council Staff, chairs the Cabinet level National Security Principals Committee, provides the President’s daily national security briefing, and is responsible for the coordination and integration of the Administration’s foreign policy, intelligence, and military efforts.

From January 2009 until assuming the role of National Security Advisor in July 2013, Ambassador Rice served as the U.S. Permanent Representative to the United Nations and a member of President Obama’s Cabinet. At the United Nations, she worked to advance U.S. interests, defend universal values, strengthen the world’s common security and prosperity, and promote respect for human rights. Under Ambassador Rice’s leadership, the U.S. Mission to the United Nations helped win the stiffest UN sanctions ever against Iran and North Korea, unprecedented action to prevent the proliferation of nuclear weapons and materials, support for life-saving interventions in Libya and Cote d’Ivoire, cooperation on the referendum for independence in Southern Sudan, vital UN assistance in Afghanistan and Iraq, and initial progress on reform of the flawed UN Human Rights Council. In a world of 21st-century threats that pay no heed to borders, rebuilding a strong basis for international cooperation has helped the United States tackle its foreign policy priorities and make the American people safer.

Prior to serving as U.S. Permanent Representative to the UN, Ambassador Rice served as Senior Advisor for National Security Affairs on the Obama for America Campaign. She later served on the Advisory Board of the Obama-Biden Transition and as co-chair of its policy working group on national security. From 2002-2009, she was a Senior Fellow at the Brookings Institution, where she focused on U.S. foreign policy, transnational security threats, weak states, global poverty and development. From 1997 to 2001, Ambassador Rice was the U.S. Assistant Secretary of State for African Affairs. In this position, she formulated and implemented U.S. policy for 48 countries in Sub-Saharan Africa and oversaw the management of 43 U.S. Embassies and more than 5,000 U.S. and Foreign Service national employees. In 2000, Ambassador Rice was co-recipient of the White House’s 2000 Samuel Nelson Drew Memorial Award for distinguished contributions to the formation of peaceful, cooperative relationships between states. From 1995-1997, Ambassador Rice served as Special Assistant to President William J. Clinton and Senior Director for African Affairs at the National Security Council at the White House. From 1993-1995, she served as the Director for International Organizations and Peacekeeping on the National Security Council staff. Previously, Ambassador Rice was a management consultant with McKinsey and Company and also served on numerous boards, including the National Democratic Institute and the U.S. Fund for UNICEF.

Ambassador Rice received her M.Phil (Master’s degree) and D.Phil. (Ph.D) in International Relations from New College, Oxford University, England, where she was a Rhodes Scholar. She was awarded the Chatham House-British International Studies Association Prize for the most distinguished doctoral dissertation in the United Kingdom in the field of International Relations. Ambassador Rice received her B.A. in History with honors from Stanford University, where she graduated junior Phi Beta Kappa and was a Truman Scholar. Ambassador Rice is married to Ian Cameron and has two children.
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Compiled by: Adetokunbo Fakeye

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