White House Fellows

The White House Fellows program is a non-partisan federal fellowship established via executive order by President Lyndon B. Johnson in October 1964. The fellowship is one of America’s most prestigious programs for leadership and public service, offering exceptional Americans first-hand experience working at the highest levels of the federal government. The fellowship was founded based upon a suggestion from John W. Gardner, then the president of Carnegie Corporation and later the sixth secretary of health, education, and welfare.

White House Fellows spend a year working as a full-time, paid fellow to senior White House staff, cabinet secretaries, and other top-ranking government officials. Fellows also participate in an education program consisting of roundtable discussions with leaders from the private and public sectors. In some years, Fellows may also have the opportunity to study U.S. policy in action domestically, and potentially internationally. The selection process is very competitive and fellowships are awarded on a strictly non-partisan basis. Each year after the application period closes, the staff of the President's Commission on White House Fellowships (PCWHF) processes the applications and former fellows screen the applications to identify approximately one hundred of the most promising candidates. These selected individuals are then interviewed by several regional panels, which are composed of prominent local citizens. Based on the results of these interviews, the regional panelists and the director of the PCWHF select approximately thirty candidates to proceed as national finalists. Of the applications received, the PCWHF will interview those finalists and recommend between 11 and 19 individuals to the president for a one-year appointment as fellows. Selected civilians serve as Schedule A presidential appointees, while military members will be assigned to duty at the PCWHF at 712 Jackson Place, Washington, D.C.

Once fellows complete their year of service, they join hundreds of other fellows as alumni of the program. The White House Fellows Foundation and Association is the organization that represents the White House Fellows alumni efforts, leadership events and fundraising activities.

Demographics
White House Fellows come from a variety of backgrounds.


 * The ten universities most frequently attended by White House Fellows are, in order: Harvard, Stanford, West Point, Oxford, MIT, Columbia, the Air Force Academy, the Naval Academy, Berkeley, and Yale.
 * The average age of a Fellow is mid-30s.
 * A total of 251 women have been selected as White House Fellows since the program’s creation in 1964. They represent 28% of the 879 people who have served as White House Fellows. The percentage of women has increased over time, as shown by the statistics below:
 * 1960s: 7 of 86 – 8% women
 * 1970s: 36 of 158 – 23% women
 * 1980s: 33 of 135 – 24% women
 * 1990s: 52 of 159 – 33% women
 * 2000s: 38 of 131 – 29% women
 * 2010s: 54 of 145 – 37% women
 * 2020s: 31 of 63 – 49% women


 * A broad range of career backgrounds are represented. Fellows' professions include physicians, lawyers, teachers, military officers, scientists, non-profit leaders, engineers, CEOs, entrepreneurs, academics, and many more.

Undergraduate education

 * Earned bachelor's degree: 100%
 * Attended an Ivy League university: 18%
 * Attended a military academy: 19%
 * Graduated Phi Beta Kappa: 12%
 * Rhodes scholar: 2%

Graduate education

 * Earned a graduate degree of any kind: 96%
 * Earned a graduate degree from an Ivy League university: 41%

Notable alumni

 * 1965–1966 Tom Johnson; Former Chairman/CEO, CNN, Former Publisher Los Angeles Times
 * 1966–1967 Jane Cahill Pfeiffer; Former Chairman, NBC
 * 1966–1967 Samuel H. Howard; Senior Vice President, Financial Executives Institute; chairman, Federation of American Hospitals; Member of Bipartisan Commission on Medicare under President Bill Clinton; Member of Commission on Social Security under President Ronald Reagan; former National Chairman, Easter Seals
 * 1967–1968 Preston Townley; former CEO, The Conference Board, former Dean, Carlson School of Management University of Minnesota
 * 1967–1968 Timothy E. Wirth; President, United Nations Foundation; Former Under Secretary of State for Global Affairs; former Senator, Colorado
 * 1968–1969 Robert D. Haas; Chairman/CEO, Levi Strauss & Company
 * 1969–1970 Michael H. Armacost; Shorenstein Distinguished Fellow, Asia–Pacific Research Center, Stanford University; former president, The Brookings Institution; former Ambassador to Japan and the Philippines; former Under Secretary of State for Political Affairs
 * 1969–1970 Percy A. Pierre; former Assistant Secretary of the U. S. Army for Research, Development and Acquisition, Acting Secretary of the U.S. Army; President, Prairie View A&M University
 * 1970–1971 Dana G. Mead; former Chairman/CEO, Tenneco, Inc.
 * 1971–1972 Robert C. McFarlane; chairman and CEO, Energy and Communications Solutions; former National Security Advisor to President Ronald Reagan; former Counselor to the U.S. Department of State; former Special Assistant for National Security Affairs to President Gerald Ford; former Military Assistant to Henry Kissinger and Brent Scowcroft
 * 1971–1972 Deanell R. Tacha; Judge, United States Court of Appeals for the Tenth Circuit
 * 1972–1973 Luis G. Nogales; President, Nogales Partners; former CEO, United Press International; former president, Univision
 * 1972–1973 Joseph P. Carroll; founding President – Secrétaire Perpetuel, Association du Mécénat de l'Institut; founding President – Secrétaire Perpetuel, The American Friends of the Guimet Foundation; Emeritus Member- Board of Visitors, School of Engineering and Applied Science, Columbia University; Philanthropist
 * 1972–1973 Colin Powell; former Secretary, U.S. Department of State; former chairman, Joint Chiefs of Staff; founding chairman, America's Promise; General, U.S. Army (Ret)
 * 1973–1974 Doris M. Meissner; Senior Fellow, Migration Policy Institute; former Commissioner, Immigration and Naturalization Service
 * 1973–1974 Peter M. Dawkins; Vice Chairman, CitiGroup Private Bank; former Chairman/CEO of Primerica Financial Services, Inc.; Heisman Trophy winner; Brigadier General, U.S. Army (Ret)
 * 1973–1974 Frederick S. Benson III; President, United States – New Zealand Council; former vice president, Weyerhaeuser Company;
 * 1973–1974 Dr Delano Meriwether; Leukemia researcher; Athlete
 * 1974–1975 Roger B. Porter; Professor, John F. Kennedy School of Government, Harvard University; Former Assistant for Economic and Domestic Policy to President Ronald Reagan.
 * 1974–1975 Garrey E. Carruthers; President/CEO, Cimarron Health Plan; former Governor of New Mexico
 * 1975–1976 Marshall N. Carter; former Chairman/CEO, State Street Bank & Trust Company
 * 1975–1976 Wesley K. Clark; Chairman/CEO, Wesley K. Clark & Associates; General, U.S. Army (Ret); former Supreme Allied Commander, Europe
 * 1975–1976 Dennis C. Blair; Admiral, U.S. Navy (Ret); former Director of National Intelligence; former president, Institute for Defense Analyses; former Commander in Chief, U.S. Pacific Command
 * 1976–1977 Lynn A. Schenk; former Chief Aide and Senior Counselor to former California Governor Gray Davis; former Congresswoman, California
 * 1976–1977 Charles A. Ansbacher; Conductor, Boston Landmarks Orchestra
 * 1977–1978 Nelson A. Diaz; Partner, Blank Rome LLP; former City Solicitor, City of Philadelphia; former General Counsel, U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development
 * 1979–1980 Lincoln Caplan; author, journalist, Truman Capote Visiting Lecturer in Law and Senior Research Scholar in Law at Yale Law School
 * 1979–1980 Victoria Chan-Palay; neuroscientist, University of Zurich Medical School
 * 1979–1980 Anne Cohn Donnelly; former executive director, National Commission for Prevention of Child Abuse
 * 1979–1980 Marsha J. Evans; President/CEO of American Red Cross; former National Executive Director of the Girl Scouts of the USA; Rear Admiral, U.S. Navy (Ret)
 * 1980–1981 Joan Abrahamson; President, The Jefferson Institute; President, Jonas Salk Foundation
 * 1980–1981 Thomas J. Campbell; former U.S. Congressman, California
 * 1980–1981 M. Margaret McKeown; Judge, U.S. Court of Appeals for the 9th Circuit
 * 1981–1982 Paul V. Applegarth; CEO, Value Enhancement International; former Founding Managing Director, The Emerging Africa Infrastructure Fund; former Founding CEO, The Millennium Challenge Corporation (U.S. government corporation)
 * 1981–1982 Joe L. Barton; U.S. Congressman, Texas
 * 1981–1982 Myron E. Ullman; former CEO, Louis Vuitton Moet Hennessy; former Chairman/CEO, DFS Group, LTD; former Chairman/CEO, R.H. Macy & Company; Chairman & CEO, J.C. Penney
 * 1982–1983 Maj Gen Scott Gration, USAF (Ret) US Special Envoy to Sudan
 * 1982–1983 William L. Roper; Dean, School of Medicine, Vice Chairman for Medical Affairs, and CEO, UNC Health Care system, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill
 * 1982–1983 Frank Klotz; Lieutenant General, US Air Force; Assistant Vice Chief of Staff, director Air Force Staff (Ret)
 * 1982–1983 Douglas Kmiec; former U.S. Ambassador to Malta; United States Assistant Attorney General for the Office of Legal Counsel
 * 1983–1984 Elaine Chao; former Secretary, U.S. Department of Transportation; former Secretary, U.S. Department of Labor; former President/CEO, United Way of America; former Director, Peace Corps
 * 1983–1984 Mufi Hannemann; Mayor, City and County of Honolulu
 * 1984–1985 Tom Leppert; Mayor of Dallas; former CEO of Turner Construction Company
 * 1984–1985 Rick Stamberger; President and CEO, SmartBrief
 * 1986–1987 Paul A. Gigot; Editor, Editorial page, The Wall Street Journal
 * 1986–1987 William J. Lennox, Jr.; Lt. General, U.S. Army; Superintendent, United States Military Academy (Ret)
 * 1987–1988 The Honorable Mary Schiavo; Inspector General, U.S. Department of Transportation; Author, Flying Blind, Flying Safe; Attorney
 * 1988–1989 Jeff Colyer, Governor of Kansas, Plastic Surgeon, former representative, Medical Volunteer in Afghanistan, Iraq, Rwanda, Balkans, Cambodia, Sierra Leone, and Nairobi embassy bombing
 * 1988–1989 Charles Patrick Garcia; chairman, Board of Visitors, United States Air Force Academy; Hispanic American leader; former CEO, Sterling Financial Group of Companies; best-selling author of A Message From Garcia and Leadership Lessons of the White House Fellows
 * 1988–1989 Patrick M. Walsh; retired United States Navy Admiral, Former Commander, U.S. Pacific Fleet, Vice Chief of Naval Operations and Blue Angels pilot (Ret)
 * 1990–1991 Samuel D. Brownback; former U.S. Senator, Kansas; former Governor of Kansas
 * 1991–1992 Margarita Colmenares; first Latina engineer at Chevron
 * 1991–1992 Raymond E. Johns, Jr.; General, US Air Force; Commander, Air Mobility Command (Ret)
 * 1992–1993 Honorable Kurt M. Campbell Assistant Secretary of State for East Asia
 * 1992–1993 Robert L. Gordon III Deputy Under-Secretary of Defense, Military Community and Family Policy
 * 1993–1994 Paul Antony; Chief Medical Officer, PhRMA; Commander, U.S. Navy, Flight Surgeon, Electronic Attack Squadron VAQ-209 "Star Warriors"; Adjunct Faculty, George Washington University Medical Center, Dept of Microbiology, Immunology, & Tropical Medicine
 * 1993–1994 Honorable W. Scott Gould Deputy Secretary of Veterans Affairs
 * 1993–1994 Jami Floyd; Degrees in Law from UC Berkeley School of Law and Stanford Law School
 * 1994–1995 Wifredo Ferrer, U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of Florida
 * 1995–1996 Kinney Zalesne, co-author of bestselling book and Wall Street Journal column Microtrends
 * 1996–1997 Brenda Berkman, first female FDNY firefighter
 * 1997–1998 Dr. Sanjay Gupta; CNN Senior Medical Correspondent, neurosurgeon
 * 1997–1998 John Burchett; Former Chief of Staff to Governor Jennifer Granholm
 * 1997–1998 Brad Carson, General Counsel of the Army
 * 1998–1999 Juan M. Garcia;Asst Secretary of the Navy for Manpower, former representative District 32, Texas House of Representatives
 * 2000–2001 Dave Aronberg; Florida State Senator, District 27; Special Prosecutor for Prescription Drug Trafficking, Florida Attorney General
 * 2001–2002 Steve Poizner; California State Insurance Commissioner
 * 2002–2003 Dr. Rajeev Venkayya, Special Assistant to the President and Senior Director for Biodefense
 * 2002–2003 Daniel S. Sullivan; Senator from Alaska
 * 2002–2003 Richard Greco Jr., Assistant Secretary of the Navy (Financial Management and Comptroller) 2004–2006
 * 2004–2005 Jerry L. Johnson, managing director of RLJ Equity Partners, former Special Assistant to the Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld
 * 2004–2005 Louis O'Neill, Ambassador to Moldova (OSCE Mission) 2006–2008
 * 2005–2006 Eric Greitens, Lieutenant Commander in the US Navy and Navy SEAL, Recipient of the Bronze Star, Chairman of the Center for Citizen Leadership, Public Speaker with the Leading Authorities Speakers Bureau; former Governor of Missouri
 * 2005–2006 Robert Reffkin, co-founder and CEO of Compass, Inc.
 * 2006–2007 Wes Moore, Assistant to Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, Governor of Maryland
 * 2008–2009 Nicole Malachowski, US Air Force Colonel (Ret), recipient of the Air Medal and first woman to be a pilot with the Thunderbirds
 * 2011–2012 Clay Pell
 * 2011–2012 L. Felice Gorordo; Gorordo served as the White House Fellow to the President's Domestic Policy Advisor Cecilia Muñoz, and worked in the White House Office of Public Engagement and Intergovernmental Affairs
 * 2011–2012 Anthony Woods, secretary of the Maryland Department of Veterans Affairs
 * 2013–2014 Elliot Ackerman, served in Marine Corps, five tours of duty in Iraq and Afghanistan.
 * 2015–2016 Lashanda Holmes, first African-American female helicopter pilot for the Coast Guard.
 * 2015–2016 Shereef Elnahal, first Muslim American Cabinet member in New Jersey, serving as Commissioner of the New Jersey Department of Health in Governor Phil Murphy's administration.
 * 2016–2017 Sharice Davids, Congresswoman from Kansas's 3rd congressional district

The President's Commission on White House Fellowships
The Presidents Commission on White House Fellowships (PCWHF) consists of the program office (the Director, staff, and White House Fellows) and the Commission (the commissioners and their Chairperson). The White House Fellows program is a subunit of the White House Office  and is located on the 18 acres of the White House grounds. The Director of the PCWHF is appointed by the President, serves as the Designated Federal Officer for the Commission, and is supported by a team of staff members. The Director is responsible for administering all aspects of the program. The Commission meets twice a year and reports to the President of the United States through the Executive Office of the President. The Commission's responsibility is to recommend candidates to the President for selection as White House Fellows. The commissioners help recruit a diverse group of applicants, screen the applicants, and makes recommendations to the President.

Chairs of the Commission overseeing the White House Fellows Program include:


 * 2021-Present: Demetra Lambrose
 * 2017-21: Robert M. “Mike” Duncan
 * 2014-16: Mary Zients
 * 2009-14: John R. Phillips
 * 2006-09: Myrna Blyth
 * 2003-06: Julie Nixon Eisenhower
 * 2001-03: Bradford Freeman
 * 1994-2001: Marjorie Benton
 * 1993-94: Nancy Bekavac
 * 1990-93: Ronna Romney
 * 1981-89: James B. Stockdale
 * 1977-81: John W. Gardner
 * 1975-77: Miles W. Kirkpatrick
 * 1972-75: Francis L. Dale
 * 1971-72: Charles B. Thornton
 * 1969-71: Arthur S. Flemming
 * 1968-69: William H. Hastie
 * 1966-68: C. Douglas Dillon
 * 1964-66: David Rockefeller

Commissioners overseeing the White House Fellows Program include:


 * Demetra Lambros, chairwoman and former counsel to President Joe Biden
 * Karen R. Adler, Senior Vice President of The Adler Group
 * Raumesh Akbari, Member of the Tennessee Senate
 * Cordell Carter II, executive director of the Aspen Institute
 * Marco A. Davis, President of the Congressional Hispanic Caucus Institute
 * Shirlethia Franklin, Attorney
 * George E. Gabriel, Vice President at Northern Virginia Community College
 * Robert Hoopes, President at VOX Global
 * Nomi Hussain, Attorney
 * Joseph Patrick Kennedy III, former Congressman for Massachusetts's 4th congressional district
 * Hildy Kuryk, former National Finance Director for Democratic National Committee
 * Deborah Jospin, former Director of AmeriCorps
 * Nicole Malachowski, Air Force Veteran and 2019 inductee into National Women's Hall of Fame
 * Stacey Beth Mindich, Grammy and Tony-winning theatre producer
 * Courtney O’Donnell, former senior staffer in the Obama Administration
 * Katherine Rice, CEO of Rice Advisory Group
 * Ramona Romero, Vice President of Princeton University
 * Jennie Rosenthal, board member at Planned Parenthood
 * Michael Schrum, Political Director at Emerson Collective
 * Kenny Thompson Jr., VP of Corporate Affairs at PepsiCo
 * Linda Whitlock, founder of The Whitlock Group
 * Fidel Vargas, President of Hispanic Scholarship Fund
 * Alfred Yung, Professor of Neuro-Oncology at University of Texas

Former Commissioners overseeing the White House Fellows Program include:


 * General Wesley Clark, former NATO commander
 * Tom Brokaw, NBC news
 * Julie Nixon Eisenhower, daughter of President Richard Nixon
 * Tom Daschle, former Senate majority leader
 * John H. Frey, CT State Representative and RNC National Committeeman
 * President Vartan Gregorian, Carnegie Corporation of New York
 * Lieutenant General Claudia J. Kennedy, United States Army
 * Maya Lin, Artist
 * George Muñoz, former President of the Overseas Private Investment Corporation
 * Pierre Omidyar, Founder of eBay
 * Paul Sarbanes, former United States Senator from Maryland
 * President Ruth J. Simmons, Brown University
 * Admiral James Stockdale, Author, Vietnam POW, Medal of Honor (deceased)
 * Laurence Tribe, Harvard constitutional scholar
 * Gaddi H. Vasquez, former Director of the Peace Corps
 * Cindy S. Moelis
 * Janet Eissenstat

Directors of the President's Commission on White House Fellowships

 * Rose Vela
 * Elizabeth Pinkerton
 * Jennifer Kaplan
 * Cindy Moelis
 * Janet Eissenstat
 * Jocelyn White
 * Jacqueline Blumenthal
 * James C. Roberts