A Graduate School of Education alumna could serve as the next under secretary of the Navy at the United States Department of Defense.
Jo Ann Rooney, a 2005 GSE graduate, was nominated to fill the position on Tuesday by President Barack Obama. If confirmed by the Senate, Rooney would become the second woman to ever hold the role of under secretary of the Navy.
Prior to her nomination, Rooney served as managing director at the Huron Consulting Group in Chicago, where she has led the Huron Healthcare practice since 2012. Before Huron, Rooney worked at the DOD, fulfilling the duties of under secretary for personnel and readiness since November 2011. She also served as president of Spalding University in Kentucky from 2002 to 2010.
Rooney’s nomination came with over a dozen other nominations announced by the White House on Tuesday. The positions for which nominees were submitted spanned from the representative of the United States to the European Union to the chief financial officer of the Environmental Protection Agency.
In a press release, Obama said he is “grateful that these talented and dedicated individuals have agreed to take on these important roles and devote their talents to serving the American people.”
“I look forward to working with them in the coming months and years,” he added.
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