Thomas R. Frieden became director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and administrator of the Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry in 2009.  Frieden has worked to control both communicable and noncommunicable diseases in the United States and around the world.

From 1992 to 1996, he led New York City’s program that controlled tuberculosis, including reducing cases of multidrug-resistant tuberculosis by 80 percent. He then worked in India for five years and assisted with national tuberculosis control efforts.

As commissioner of the New York City Health Department, Frieden directed one of the world′s largest public-health agencies. During his tenure, the number of smokers declined by 350,000, teen smoking decreased by half, and New York City became the first place in the United States to eliminate trans-fats from restaurants, monitor the diabetes epidemic, and require certain restaurants to post calorie information prominently. Under Frieden’s leadership, the department also established the largest community electronic health records project in the country.

Frieden also provided pro bono assistance to New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg and helped establish the Bloomberg Initiative to Reduce Tobacco Use.

Frieden previously worked for CDC from 1990 until 2002. He began his career at CDC as an epidemiologic intelligence service officer at the New York City Health Department.

Frieden received his medical degree and master’s of public health degree from Columbia University and completed infectious-disease training at Yale University. He has received numerous awards and honors and has published more than 200 scientific articles.

Price B. Floyd is the former principal deputy assistant secretary of defense for public affairs. He served as staff adviser and assistant to the secretary of defense and deputy secretary of defense for public information, internal information, and community relations as well as information training and audiovisual matters in support of DoD activities.

Before joining the DoD, Floyd was director of external relations for the Center for New American Security. He also served at the Department of State from 1989 until 2007. He brings more than 15 years of communications and diplomatic experience with the U.S. Department of State, most recently as director of media affairs. There, he developed and implemented media strategies to promote the foreign policy agenda of the department, from elections in Afghanistan and Iraq to the responses to the tsunami in Indonesia and the earthquake in Pakistan. From 1998 to 2000, Floyd served as executive assistant to State Department Spokesman James P. Rubin, where he prepared the spokesman for daily press briefings, coordinated media appearances, and was chief interlocutor for the spokesman throughout the department.

From 1997 to 1998, Floyd served on the staff of Secretary of State Madeleine K. Albright, and he traveled to more than 50 countries to coordinate meetings and public events. From 1995 to 1997, he served in the economics section and the Office of the Ambassador at the U.S. Embassy in Bonn, Germany. Prior to serving in Germany, Floyd was seconded to the United Nations International Conference on the Former Yugoslavia, where he served as deputy envoy to the government in Montenegro. He also served as the first Bosnia desk officer from 1993 to 1994, working on the War Crimes Tribunal and negotiations for the signing of the Bosnian constitution. Floyd began his career at the State Department assisting the assistant secretary of state for European affairs from 1990 to 1993.

Floyd has received numerous awards for his service, including the State Departments Superior Honor Award, Superior Honor Award, and the Service Medal from the United Nations and European Union.

Ashton B. Carter serves as under secretary of defense for acquisition, technology and logistics. Before assuming this position, Carter was chair of the international and global affairs faculty at Harvard’s Kennedy School of Government and co-director of the Preventive Defense Project, a research collaboration of Harvard and Stanford universities. Carter was also senior partner at Global Technology Partners and a member of the board of trustees of the MITRE Corporation and the advisory boards of MIT’s Lincoln Laboratories and the Draper Laboratory. He was a consultant to Goldman, Sachs on international affairs and technology matters.

Carter was also a member of the Aspen Strategy Group, the Council on Foreign Relations, the American Physical Society, the International Institute of Strategic Studies, the advisory board of the Yale Journal of International Law, and the National Committee on U.S.-China Relations. He was also chair of the National Security Strategy and Policies Expert Working Group of the Congressional Commission on the Strategic Posture of the United States, a member of the National Missile Defense White Team, and a member of the National Academy of Sciences Committee on International Security and Arms Control.

In 1997, Carter co-chaired the Catastrophic Terrorism Study Group with former CIA Director John M. Deutch. From 1998 to 2000, he was deputy to William J. Perry in the North Korea Policy Review. Between 2001 and 2002, he served on the National Academy of Sciences Committee on Science and Technology for Countering Terrorism and advised on the creation of the Department of Homeland Security.

Carter was assistant secretary of defense for international security policy during President Bill Clinton’s first term. Some of his Pentagon duties included countering weapons of mass destruction worldwide; oversight of the U.S. nuclear arsenal and missile defense programs; the 1994 Nuclear Posture Review; and chairmanship of NATO’s High Level Group; and the Nunn-Lugar program resulting in the removal of all nuclear weapons from the territories of Ukraine, Kazakhstan, and Belarus.

Carter was twice awarded the Department of Defense Distinguished Service Medal. In 1987, Carter was named one of 10 outstanding young Americans by the United States Jaycees. He received the American Physical Society’s forum award for his contributions to physics and public policy. Carter was elected a fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences and the American Academy of Diplomacy.

Carter received bachelor’s degrees in physics and in medieval history from Yale University. He received his doctorate in theoretical physics from Oxford University, where he was a Rhodes scholar.

Former Republican Senate Whip Alan K. Simpson was chosen to co-chair the National Commission on Fiscal Responsibility and Reform in February 2010.

After graduating from the University of Wyoming in 1954, Simpson joined the Army and was commissioned a second lieutenant. In November 1954, he was ordered to Fort Benning, Ga. He served overseas in the 5th Infantry Division and in the 2nd Armored Division in the final months of the Army of Occupation in Germany. Following his honorable discharge in 1956, Simpson returned to the University of Wyoming and completed his law degree in 1958.

After being admitted to the Wyoming Bar and the United States District Court in 1958, and serving for a short time as Wyoming assistant attorney general, Simpson joined his father, Milward L. Simpson, in the law firm of Simpson, Kepler and Simpson in his hometown of Cody. He practiced law there for the next 18 years, and he also served as city attorney for 10 years.

Simpson’s political career began in 1964 when he was elected to the Wyoming State Legislature as a state representative of his native Park County. He served for the next 13 years in the Wyoming House of Representatives, holding the offices of majority whip, majority floor leader and speaker pro-tem.

In 1978, Simpson was elected to the United States Senate. After his first term, he was re-elected in 1984 and then again in 1990 to a third term. Following his first term in the Senate, Simpson was elected by his peers to the position of the assistant majority leader in 1984 and served in that capacity until 1994. He completed his final term Jan. 3, 1997.

Simpson has periodically taught at Harvard University’s John F. Kennedy School of Government, as well as at his alma mater.

Erskine Bowles was appointed to the position of co-chair of the National Commission on Fiscal Responsibility and Reform in February 2010. Currently the president of the University of North Carolina, Bowles announced his plans to retire as soon as a replacement has been found. Bowles is also a former Clinton White House chief of staff.

Bowles began his business career at Morgan Stanley & Co. in New York as an associate in the corporate finance group. In that position, he provided corporate finance expertise to America’s middle-market companies. After a while, he returned to his home state of North Carolina, where he founded and served as chairman and CEO of an investment banking firm that became Bowles Hollowell Connor & Co. Bowles also was a founder of Kitty Hawk Capital, a venture capital company, and Carousel Capital, a middle-market private equity company.

In 1993, Bowles was appointed by President Bill Clinton to serve as director of the Small Business Administration, and later was tapped to serve as deputy White House chief of staff (1994-95) and White House chief of staff (1996-98). As chief of staff, he helped negotiate the first balanced budget in a generation. As a member of the National Economic Council and National Security Council, he helped guide domestic and foreign policy.

Prior to serving as deputy White House chief of staff, Bowles helped direct the government’s response to the 1995 Oklahoma City bombing. After he left the White House, he also served from 1999 to 2001 as a general partner of Forstmann Little, a private equity firm. He ran for the U.S. Senate in 2002 and 2004, and currently serves on the boards of Morgan Stanley and Cousins Properties.

Bowles graduated from the University North Carolina at Chapel Hill in 1967, and from Columbia University’s Graduate School of Business in 1969. He holds eight honorary doctorates from universities and colleges throughout America.

Caryn Wagner became under secretary for intelligence and analysis for the Department of Homeland Security in February 2010.She was previously an instructor in intelligence resource management for The Intelligence and Security Academy, LLC.

In October 2008, Wagner retired from the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence, where she served as budget director and cybersecurity coordinator. Prior to that, Wagner served in the Office of the Director of National Intelligence as assistant deputy director of national intelligence for management and the first chief financial officer for the National Intelligence Program. She took this position after serving as executive director for intelligence community affairs.

Wagner’s previous position was that of the senior Defense Intelligence Agency representative to the United States European Command and the North Atlantic Treaty Organization. She also served as DIA deputy director for analysis and production and as director of military intelligence staff.

Before joining DIA, Wagner serves as director of the Subcommittee on Technical and Tactical Intelligence, House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence. Her experience also includes serving as a signals intelligence and electronic Warfare Officer in the United States Army.

Wagner has a bachelor’s degree from the College of William and Mary, and a master’s degree from the University of Southern California.

Peter Orszag is director of the Office of Management and Budget and oversees the Obama administration’s budget policy, coordinates the implementation of major policy initiatives through the federal government, and reviews federal regulatory action, among other responsibilities.

From 2007 to 2008, Orszag served as director of the Congressional Budget Office, overseeing the agency’s work in providing objective nonpartisan analysis of economic and budgetary issues. Under his leadership, the agency significantly expanded its focus on areas such as healthcare and climate change.

Before CBO, Orszag was the Joseph A. Pechman senior fellow and deputy director of economic studies at the Brookings Institution.  During his tenure at Brookings, he also served as director of The Hamilton Project, director of the Retirement Security Project, and co-director of the Tax Policy Center. During the Clinton Administration, he was a special assistant to the president of economic policy and before that, a staff economist and then senior adviser and senior economist at the President’s Council of Economic Advisers.

Dr. Orszag graduated summa cum laude in economics from Princeton University and obtained a doctorate degree in economics from the London School of Economics. He has co-authored or co-edited many books, including “Protecting the Homeland” (2006), “Aging Gracefully: Ideas to Improve Retirement Security in America: (2006), “Saving Social Security: A Balanced Approach” (2004), and “American Economic Policy in the 1990s” (2002). He is a member of the Institute of Medicine of the National Academies of Sciences.

As director of the United States Office of Personnel Management, John Berry is responsible for recruiting, hiring and setting benefits policies for almost two million federal civilian employees. Berry works with partners both inside and outside of government to create flexible, results-oriented HR policies and to change how Americans view their public servants.

Berry’s career in the federal government spans over more than 20 years. He is an advocate for public service and federal workers. He first developed expertise in federal employee and retirement issues when serving as legislative director for Congressman Steny Hoyer of Maryland (now majority leader).

Before serving as legislative director, Berry was deputy assistant secretary and acting assistant secretary for law enforcement at the Department of the Treasury, where he was responsible for almost half of the federal law enforcement community, including the Secret Service and the ATF. He then served as assistant secretary for policy, management and budget at the Department of the Interior.

From 2001 to 2008, Berry pursued his interest in conservation as director of the National Fish and Wildlife Foundation, and then as director of the National Zoo.

Bryan Sivak was appointed Oct. 13, 2009 to the Cabinet post of chief technology officer for the District of Columbia. In that role, Sivak leads the Office of the Chief Technology Officer, which is an organization that provides technology services and leadership for 86 agencies, 38,000 employees, residents, businesses and millions of visitors.

Sivak has more than 15 years of experience in building software and internet technologies and organizations. In 2002, he founded and developed InQuira, Inc., a multinational technology-solutions company. During his tenure, he managed all aspects of the business, including design and development of the product, and sales, marketing and management activities relating to the overall execution of InQuira’s business plan and growth of the company. In 2005, he moved to London and opened the European office of the company, which he grew from zero to 30 percent of the company’s revenue in four years.

Before joining InQira, Sivak founded Electric Knowledge LLC, which provided the world’s first natural-language search engine available on the Web. The company’s customers included Bank of America and Fidelity Investments, among others.

Sivak has a bachelor’s degree in computer science from the University of Chicago.

Julius Genachowski was nominated by President Barack Obama as chairman of the Federal Communications Commission on March 3, 2009, and sworn into office June 29, 2009. Prior to his appointment, he worked as an executive and entrepreneur. He co-founded LaunchBox Digital and Rock Creek Ventures, where he served as managing director. He was also a special adviser at General Atlantic. In these capacities, he worked to start, accelerate, and invest in early- and mid-stage technology and other companies. From 1997-2005, he was a senior executive at IAC/InterActiveCorp, a Fortune 500 company, where his positions included chief of business operations and general counsel.

Genachowski’s confirmation as FCC chairman returns him to the agency where, from 1994 until 1997, he served as chief counsel to FCC Chairman Reed Hundt. Before being chief counsel, he served as special counsel to then-FCC General Counsel (later chairman) William Kennard. Previously, he was a law clerk at the U.S. Supreme Court for Justice David Souter and Justice William J. Brennan, Jr., and at the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit for Chief Judge Abner Mikva. Genachowski also worked in Congress for then-U.S. Representative Charles E. Schumer (D-N.Y.), and on the staff of the House select committee investigating the Iran-Contra Affair.

Genachowski was part of the founding group of New Resource Bank, which specializes in serving the needs of green entrepreneurs and sustainable businesses, and has served on the Advisory Board of Environmental Entrepreneurs (E2). He also served as a board member of Common Sense Media, a leading nonpartisan, nonprofit organization that aims to improve the media lives of children and families.

Genachowski received his law degree from Harvard Law School, where he was co-notes editor of the Harvard Law Review. He received an undergraduate degree from Columbia College, where he was editor of Columbia Spectator’s Broadway Magazine, and writer and researcher for Fred Friendly. He was also a certified emergency medical technician who served on the Columbia Area Volunteer Ambulance.