PResident Biden announces Nominees for Senior Pentagon and other National Security and Law Enforcement POSTS, including first Woman to be nominated as SECARMY

WASHINGTON – Today, President Joe Biden announced his intent to nominate 11 members of his Administration to lead on national security and law enforcement at White House and across key agencies.
 
The President has tapped Christy Abizaid for Director of National Counterterrorism Center at the Office of the Director of National Intelligence, Chris Inglis for National Cyber Director in the Executive Office of the President, Christine Wormuth for Secretary of the Army at the Department of Defense, Gil Cisneros for Under Secretary of Defense, Personnel and Readiness at the Department of Defense, Anne Milgram for Administrator of the Drug Enforcement Administration at Department of Justice, Susanna Blume for Director of Cost Assessment and Program Evaluation at the Department of Defense, Marcela Escobari for Assistant Administrator for Latin America and the Caribbean at USAID, C.S. Eliot Kang for Assistant Secretary of State for International Security and Non-Proliferation at the Department of State, Kenneth Polite for Assistant Attorney General for Criminal Division at the  Department of Justice , Todd Robinson for Assistant Secretary of State, International Narcotics and Law Enforcement Affairs at the Department of State, and Christopher Schroeder for Assistant Attorney General for the Office of Legal Counsel at the Department of Justice.  

The DoD nominees are:

Christine Wormuth, Nominee for Secretary of the Army, Department of Defense
 
Christine E. Wormuth served as Under Secretary of Defense (Policy) during the Obama-Biden Administration, the third most senior civilian position in the Department of Defense, advising two Secretaries of Defense on the full range of foreign policy and national security issues.  She also served as the senior director for defense policy on the National Security Council, helping shape the 2012 Defense Strategic Guidance that began rebalancing the military toward the Indo-Pacific. She joined the Obama-Biden Administration in 2009 as the Principal Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defense for Homeland Defense and Civil Support. Previously, Wormuth was a senior fellow at the Center for Strategic and International Studies, worked in the private sector, and served for almost seven years as a civil servant in the Office of the Secretary of Defense, beginning as a Presidential Management Fellow.
 
Wormuth is currently Director of the International Security and Defense Policy Center at the RAND Corporation.  She teaches as an adjunct professor in Georgetown University’s graduate program in security studies and serves on the honorary advisory board of the Leadership Committee for Women in National Security (LCWINS).  In January 2021, she led the Biden-Harris Defense Agency Review Team and she has twice received the Department of Defense Medal for Distinguished Public Service. After growing up in College Station, Texas, Wormuth graduated from Williams College in Massachusetts and has a master’s degree in public policy from the University of Maryland.

If confirmed by the Senate, Wormuth would be the first woman to serve as Secretary of the Army.
 
Gil Cisneros, Nominee for Under Secretary of Defense, Personnel and Readiness, Department of Defense
 
Gilbert Cisneros enlisted in the United States Navy in 1989 after graduating from high school.  He was selected for the Broadened Opportunity for Officer Selection and Training Program, received a Navy R.O.T.C. scholarship and was commissioned as an Officer in the United States Navy in 1994.  In 2010, with his wife Jacki, he started The Gilbert & Jacki Cisneros Foundation, focused on helping students find a path to higher education with scholarships and college access programs.  Along with supporting education initiatives, they have supported the USO, an organization that supports our active duty troops.  In 2015, he founded The Cisneros Hispanic Leadership Institute at his alma mater The George Washington University, which not only provides scholarships for Latino students, but is also becoming a leading institute for policy issues that affect the Latino community.
 
As a Congressman representing CA – 39, Cisneros served on both the Armed Services and Veterans’ Affairs Committees, and was a strong advocate, for our veterans, servicemembers and our military families.   He fought to address the issue of mental health and suicide amongst both our veterans and service members.  After the death of Spc. Venessa Guillén, he was invited to participate in discussions about the status of Latinos in the Army and helped to introduce the I Am Vanessa Guillén Act to make sexual harassment a crime within the Uniform Code of Military Justice.  He has been an advocate for military families on issues of housing, child abuse, and exceptional family members.  He is committed to building a diverse military, and removing extremism from our ranks. 
 
He has been married to his wife Jacki for over 15 years, they have twin sons, Christopher and Alexander, and reside in Yorba Linda, CA.  Cisneros has a Bachelor’s degree in political science, from the George Washington University, an M.B.A. from Regis University, and a Masters in Urban Education Policy from Brown University. 

Susanna Blume, Nominee for Director of Cost Assessment and Program Evaluation, Department of Defense
 
Susanna V. Blume is currently performing the duties of the Director, Cost Assessment and Program Evaluation at the U.S. Department of Defense.  Prior to taking on this role, Blume was Senior Fellow and Director of the Defense Program at the Center for a New American Security (CNAS), where her research focused on the alignment of defense strategy, planning, and resources.  Prior to joining CNAS, Blume served as Deputy Chief of Staff for Programs and Plans to the Deputy Secretary of Defense, whom she advised on programming and budget issues, global force management, operational and strategic planning, force posture, and acquisition policy. She has also served in the Office of the Under Secretary of Defense for Policy and in the Office of the Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defense for Plans and Posture.
 
Blume holds a master’s degree in international studies from the Johns Hopkins University School of Advanced International Studies, a law degree from the George Washington University Law School, and a bachelor’s degree in the history of art from the Johns Hopkins University.