For Immediate Release
Office of the Press Secretary
September 26, 2001

President Bush to Nominate Five Individuals to Serve in his Administration

President George W. Bush today announced his intention to nominate five individuals to serve within his administration.  

The President intends to nominate John V. Hanford, III to be Ambassador at Large for International Religious Freedom.  Hanford has served as a Congressional Fellow in International Religious Freedom in the Office of Senator Richard Lugar since 1987, and has also been the Executive Director of the Congressional Fellows Program in International Religious Freedom since he established the program in 1986. In 1998, Hanford served as the lead architect of the International Religious Freedom Act.  Before coming to Washington, D.C. Hanford was a Pastoral Assistant at West Hopewell Church in Hopewell, Virginia.  He is a graduate of the University of North Carolina and the Gordon-Conwell Theological Seminary.

The President intends to nominate Mary L. Walker to be General Counsel of the Department of the Air Force.  Most recently, Walker was a Partner with the law firm of Brobeck, Phleger and Harrison in San Diego, California, and was a Partner with Luce, Forward, Hamilton and Scripps from 1991 to 1994.  In 1989, she was appointed to the Inter American Tropical Tuna Commission where she served until 1995.  From 1985 to 1988, Walker was Assistant Secretary for Environment, Safety and Health at the U.S. Department of Energy.  From 1984 to 1985, she served as Deputy Solicitor of the U.S.  Department of the Interior, and from 1982 to 1984, Walker was Principal Deputy Assistant Attorney General in the Land and Natural Resources Division of the Department of Justice.  She is a graduate of the University of California at Berkeley and Boston University School of Law.

The President intends to nominate Patrick Francis Kennedy to be Alternative Representative of the United States to the Sessions of the General Assembly of the United Nations.  Kennedy is presently serving as Representative of the United States of America to the United Nations for U.N. Management and Reform with the rank of Ambassador.   A Career Minister in the Foreign Service, he served as Assistant Secretary of State for Administration from 1993 until his confirmation.  He joined the Foreign Service in 1973 and has held multiple posts both in Washington, D.C., and abroad including Supervisory General Services Officer in Paris, France, and Deputy Executive Secretary in the State Department's Executive Secretariat.  A native of Chicago, Illinois, he is a graduate of Georgetown University.

The President intends to nominate C. William Swank to be a Member of the Board of the Overseas Private Investment Corporation for a term expiring December 17, 2002.  Currently retired, Swank served the Ohio Farm Bureau Federation for 40 years, holding the position of executive vice president from 1968 to 1996.  Since his retirement from the federation in 1996, he has served as one of three chairmen named by then-Governor George Voinovich to the Ohio Farmland Preservation Task Force.  Swank was also Chief Executive Officer for the Washington, D.C. based Cooperative Business International, a corporation that promotes global marketing among the world's cooperatives.  He received an undergraduate degree, Master's degree and Ph.D. from Ohio State University.

The President intends to nominate Leslie Silverman to be a Member of the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission for the remainder of a term expiring July 1, 2003.  She has served as Labor Counsel to the U.S. Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor and Pensions since 1997.  From 1990 to 1997, Silverman was a litigation and employment associate at Keller and Heckman in Washington, D.C.  She received an undergraduate degree from the University of Vermont, a J.D. from American University and a Master of Laws in Labor and Employment Law from Georgetown University Law Center.

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