Paige Names Counselor and Senior Advisor

The White House Office of the Press Secretary today issued the following statement:

The President intends to nominate Bill Hansen to be Deputy Secretary of Education. He is presently the Executive Director and CEO of the Education Finance Council. He served in the Department of Education from 1981 to 1993, excluding one year of service as Deputy Director for Public Affairs at the Department of Commerce from 1988 to 1989. At the Department of Education he served in several positions including Assistant Secretary for Management and Budget and Chief Financial Officer from 1991 to 1993, Acting Assistant Secretary for Legislative and Congressional Affairs and Acting Deputy Under Secretary for Planning, Budget and Evaluation. He has been appointed to a number of government education commissions including the Virginia Governor's Champion Schools Commission and the Virginia Commission on the Future of Public Schools. He is a graduate of George Mason University.

Also today, U.S. Secretary of Education Rod Paige announced that Susan Sclafani will serve as counselor to the secretary and Beth Ann Bryan will be senior advisor to the secretary. Sclafani was most recently chief of staff for educational services for the Houston Independent School District (HISD). She first joined HISD in 1970 and held various positions including chief of staff to the superintendent, associate superintendent for district administration, assistant superintendent for construction management and program planning, executive director of curriculum, technology implementation coordinator, and magnet school coordinator. In the 1970s, Sclafani was a teacher in Chicago and Houston. A graduate of Vassar College, she received a Ph.D. in educational administration from the University of Texas at Austin.

Bryan was education policy director to George W. Bush during his first year as governor and most recently served as an advisor on education issues to the Texas Governor's Business Council. She was also manager of the Governor's Focus on Reading Task Force and director of the First Lady's Family Literacy Initiative for Texas. Bryan was a public elementary school teacher and worked for 12 years in a private psychological practice. Active in parent organizations and with business groups involved in education policy, she was also mayor pro-tem and a member of the city council in West University Place, Texas. She has a master's degree in guidance and counseling from the University of Houston.

###