Kay Coles James

Kay Coles James
James in 2001
President of the Heritage Foundation
Assumed office
January 1, 2018
Preceded by Edwin Feulner (Acting)
Director of United States Office of Personnel Management
In office
July 11, 2001 – January 31, 2005
President George W. Bush
Preceded by Janice Lachance
Succeeded by Linda M. Springer
6th Virginia Secretary of Health and
Human Resources
In office
January 15, 1994 – March 12, 1996
Governor George Allen
Preceded by Howard M. Cullum
Succeeded by Robert C. Metcalf
Personal details
Born Madeline Kay Coles
(1949-06-01) June 1, 1949
Portsmouth, Virginia, U.S.
Political party Republican
Spouse(s) Charles Everett James, Sr.
Alma mater Hampton University (B.S.)

Kay Coles James (born June 1, 1949) is an American public official who served as the director for the United States Office of Personnel Management under George W. Bush from 2001 to 2005.[1] Previous to the OPM appointment, she served as Virginia Secretary of Health and Human Resources under then-Governor George Allen and was the dean of Regent University's government school. She is currently a member of the NASA Advisory Council. She is the president and founder of the Gloucester Institute, a leadership training center for young African Americans.

On December 19, 2017, she was named president of the Heritage Foundation, an influential conservative think tank.[2] She is the first African-American woman to hold that position.[3]

Education

A graduate of Hampton University, James is the recipient of numerous honorary degrees, most recently the Doctor of Laws Degree from Pepperdine University.[4] James is the recipient the University of Virginia's Publius Award for Public Service, and the Spirit of Democracy Award for Public Policy Leadership from the National Coalition on Black Civic Participation.[5]

As 1994 graduation speaker at Hampton University, her alma mater, James said, using the incurable disease as a metaphor for widespread social ills,[6]

[The United States is] experiencing cultural AIDS. We as a country have been the victims of an immune system that has broken down. It's gone.

Early career

James has served on the Fairfax County School Board and the Virginia Board of Education, and on the board of the conservative evangelical Focus on the Family.[7] She also was Senior Vice President of the Family Research Council, the conservative, Christian right group and lobbying organization.[8] She has also served as Executive Vice-President and Chief Operating Officer for One to One Partnership, a national umbrella organization for mentoring programs.[9]

She was appointed by President Ronald Reagan and reappointed by President George H. W. Bush as member of the National Commission on Children, an advisory body on children issues.[10] She served under President George H. W. Bush as Associate Director of the White House Office of National Drug Control Policy and as Assistant Secretary for public affairs at the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services.

In the mid-1990s, James served as Dean of the Robertson School of Government at Regent University in Virginia Beach, Virginia.[11] She also served as Convention Secretary for the 1996 Republican National Convention, which nominated Bob Dole for president.

Office of Personnel Management

James served as the director for the United States Office of Personnel Management from 2001 to 2005 in the George W. Bush administration.[11]

Paul Krugman, a New York Times opinion columnist, noting that Regent University boasted of 150 graduates working in the Bush administration, criticized James' tenure as the federal government’s chief personnel officer when many of these hires occurred.[12] Boston Globe, journalist Charlie Savage wrote that previous to James' work as director of OPM, "veteran civil servants screened applicants and recommended whom to hire, usually picking top students from elite schools." Noting that Regent University is ranked a "tier four" school by US News & World Report, the lowest score and essentially a tie for 136th place, Savage said James' changes resulted in lawyers with more conservative credentials, less prior experience in civil rights law and the decline of the average ranking of the law school attended by the applicants.[11] In addition to Savage, other journalists made similar comments.[13][14][15]

Later career

James is the mother of three grown children[16] and the wife of Charles E. James who was the Deputy Assistant Secretary of the Office of Federal Contract Compliance Programs from 2001 to 2009 during the administration of George W. Bush.[17]

On November 4, 2009, Governor-elect Bob McDonnell of Virginia named her one of the co-chairs of his transition committee[18] and subsequently appointed her as a member of Virginia Commonwealth University's governing body, the Board of Visitors.[19]

On December 19, 2017, the Heritage Foundation, an influential conservative Washington, D.C.-based public policy research institute, announced that James would be its sixth president.[20] She has served as a member of the Board of Trustees since 2005.[21]

James was named one of the Library of Virginia's Virginia Women in History in 2018.[22]

Books

  • Never Forget, Transforming America: From the Inside Out (1995); and What I Wish I'd Known Before I Got Married (2001).
  • Kay James (coauthor Jacquelline Cobb Fuller), Zondervan (April 1995) ISBN 0-310-49631-4.
  • Transforming America: From the Inside Out. (coauthor David Kuo) Zondervan (June 1995) ISBN 0-310-48440-5 .
  • What I Wish I'd Known Before I Got Married, Multnomah Publishers (October 13, 2001) ISBN 1-57673-781-0.

References

  1. ↑ "Kay Coles James". nndb.com.
  2. ↑ McCaskill, Nolan (December 19, 2017). "Heritage Foundation taps Kay Coles James to be next president". Politico. Retrieved 2017-12-19.
  3. ↑ Scott, Eugene. "Powerful pro-Trump think tank names first black female president". The Washington Post. Retrieved 20 December 2017.
  4. ↑ "Kay Coles James: Executive Profile & Biography - Businessweek". www.bloomberg.com. Retrieved 2016-07-16.
  5. ↑ "The Gloucester Institute". The Gloucester Institute. Retrieved 2016-07-16.
  6. ↑ Smith, Tammie (February 6, 2002). "Kay Coles James". Richmond Times Dispatch. Archived from the original on December 14, 2006. Retrieved 2007-04-13.
  7. ↑ "FCPS Resolution commending Kay Coles James (PDF)" (PDF). Archived from the original (PDF) on 2010-10-07. Retrieved 19 December 2017.
  8. ↑ "Kay James". U.S. Office of Personnel Management. Retrieved 2017-02-03.
  9. ↑ "MENTOR promotes, advocates and is a resource for mentoring".
  10. ↑ "Kay James: Executive Profile". Business Week.
  11. 1 2 3 Savage, Charlie (April 8, 2007). "Scandal puts spotlight on Christian law school". Boston Globe. Retrieved 2007-04-08.
  12. ↑ Krugman, Paul (April 13, 2007). "For God's Sake". New York Times. Retrieved 2007-04-13.
  13. ↑ Moyers, Bill (May 11, 2007). "Bill Moyers Journal Transcript". PBS. Retrieved 2007-12-12.
  14. ↑ Lithwick, Dahlia (April 8, 2007). "Justice's Holy Hires". Washington Post. Retrieved 2007-11-29.
  15. ↑ Cohen, Andrew (April 9, 2007). "The Gutting Of The Justice Department". CBS News. Retrieved 2007-11-29.
  16. ↑ "U.S. Office of Government Ethics -". usoge.gov.
  17. ↑ "www.linkedin/in/cejsr". Retrieved 15 March 2018.
  18. ↑ "Archived copy". Archived from the original on 2009-11-08. Retrieved 2009-11-06.
  19. ↑
  20. ↑ "The Heritage Foundation Names Kay Coles James New President". Heritage Foundation.
  21. ↑ "Board of Trustees". The Heritage Foundation.
  22. ↑ "Virginia Women in History 2018 Kay Coles James". www.lva.virginia.gov. Retrieved 15 March 2018.
This article is issued from Wikipedia. The text is licensed under Creative Commons - Attribution - Sharealike. Additional terms may apply for the media files.