President Biden Announces Key Nominees

WASHINGTON – Today, President Joe Biden announced his intent to nominate the following individuals to serve as key leaders in his administration:

• Kate Heinzelman, Nominee for General Counsel of the Central Intelligence Agency
• Joseph Goffman, Nominee for Assistant Administrator for the Office of Air and Radiation, Environmental Protection Agency
• Paul Rosen, Nominee for Assistant Secretary for Investment Security, Office of International Affairs, Department of the Treasury
• Evelyn Wang, Nominee for Director of the Advanced Research Project Agency – Energy, Department of Energy
• David Applegate, Nominee for Director of the United States Geological Survey, Department of Interior

Kate Heinzelman, Nominee for General Counsel of the Central Intelligence Agency

Kate Heinzelman currently serves as Chief Counselor in the Office of the Attorney General at the U.S. Department of Justice. She was previously a partner in the Washington, D.C. office of Sidley Austin LLP. During the Obama-Biden Administration, Heinzelman served as Deputy General Counsel at the U.S. Department of Health & Human Services, Special Assistant and Associate Counsel to the President, and Counsel to the Assistant Attorney General for National Security at the U.S. Department of Justice. Earlier in her career, Heinzelman was a staff member in the Office of the Director of National Intelligence and on the Commission on the Intelligence Capabilities of the United States Regarding Weapons of Mass Destruction established by President George W. Bush.

Heinzelman served as a law clerk to Supreme Court Chief Justice John G. Roberts, Jr. and to Judge Merrick B. Garland on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit. She received her law degree from Yale Law School and her B.A. from Yale University.

Joseph Goffman, Nominee for Assistant Administrator for the Office of Air and Radiation, Environmental Protection Agency

Joseph Goffman has served as the Principal Deputy Assistant Administrator in EPA’s Office of Air and Radiation (OAR) since January 2021. Prior to that, he was Executive Director of the Environmental and Energy Law Program at Harvard Law School. In 2017, he served as Democratic Chief Counsel to the U.S. Senate Committee on Environment and Public Works (EPW). From 2009 to 2017, Goffman was Associate Assistant Administrator for Climate and Senior Counsel to the Assistant Administrator for OAR. There, he played a key role in developing a range of pollution control rules under the Clean Air Act. During an earlier stint as an EPW Associate Counsel, he worked extensively on a number of provisions of the Clean Air Act Amendments of 1990, including Title IV, which pioneered the use of cap and trade to reduce the pollutants causing acid rain. His career has also included senior legal, policy, and management positions at the Environmental Defense Fund.

Goffman grew up in Philadelphia, working summers at a box plant as a member of the United Paperworkers International Union and earning enough to attend Yale University and graduate with B.A. and J.D. degrees. He and his wife live in Washington, D.C. and have three grown children.

Paul Rosen, Nominee for Assistant Secretary for Investment Security, Office of International Affairs, Department of the Treasury

Paul Rosen is a partner at the law firm Crowell & Moring LLP, where he co-chairs the firm’s national security practice and works as a cybersecurity and government investigations lawyer. Rosen has more than 15 years of experience in national and homeland security, investigations and law enforcement matters, including a dozen years in public service. In government, Rosen served in various leadership positions at the U.S. Department of Homeland Security during the Obama-Biden Administration, including as Chief of Staff to DHS Secretary Jeh Johnson. Prior to that, he worked at the Department of Justice in various roles, including as a federal prosecutor in the Criminal Fraud Section where he investigated and prosecuted financial crime. For this work, Rosen was recognized by the Council of Inspectors General on Integrity and Efficiency (CIGIE) with the Investigative Award of Excellence. 

Rosen started his legal career as Counsel on the Senate Judiciary Committee after clerking for United States District Judge Gary Allen Fees (Ret.) in the Central District of California. Rosen received his J.D. from the University of Southern California where he graduated Order of the Coif, and his Bachelor’s Degree, summa cum laude, from the University of Colorado.  

Evelyn Wang, Nominee for Director of the Advanced Research Project Agency – Energy, Department of Energy

Evelyn N. Wang is the Head of the Mechanical Engineering Department at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) and the Ford Professor of Engineering. Her research combines heat and mass transport processes with nanoengineered materials to create innovative solutions for clean energy and water. She is a leading researcher in phase-change heat transfer, which she has applied to thermal management of electronics, thermal batteries, solar thermal energy conversion, water harvesting, and desalination devices. She served as Associate Director of the Solid State Solar Thermal Energy Conversion Center, a Department of Energy, Energy Frontiers Research Center. She was also a member of the Defense Science Study Group (DSSG), where she advocated for increased collaboration between academia and national defense.

Wang grew up in California, received her B.S. degree from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, earned her S.M. and Ph.D. degrees from Stanford University, and worked as a postdoctoral researcher at Bell Laboratories, Alcatel-Lucent. 

David Applegate, Nominee for Director of the United States Geological Survey, Department of Interior

David Applegate is the Associate Director for Natural Hazards at the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS), and is currently exercising the delegated authority of the USGS Director. He joined the USGS in 2004 and has served as Associate Director since 2011 with responsibility for geologic hazard and coastal and marine programs, as well as hazard response and planning activities for the USGS. He co-chairs the federal interagency Science for Disaster Reduction coordination group. Prior to joining the USGS, Applegate worked for the American Geological Institute, a non-profit federation of geoscience societies. Applegate previously served with the U.S. Senate Committee on Energy and Natural Resources as the American Geophysical Union’s Congressional Science Fellow and as a professional staff member.

Applegate is an adjunct full professor at the University of Utah, and is a fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science and the Geological Society of America. He has an undergraduate degree in geology from Yale University and a doctorate in geology from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Born and raised in Chambersburg, Pennsylvania, he currently resides in Washington, D.C. with his wife and two daughters.

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