Transition Watch: CSC VP to review GSA for transition team

President-Elect Barack Obama today announced his transition team leaders who will review the General Services Administration.

Martha Johnson, vice president of Computer Sciences Corp., is one of two leaders. She was chief of staff at GSA in 1996. Jane Woodfin, legislative director and a senior adviser on domestic policy and legislative initiatives to Vice President-Elect Joe Biden since 1994, is the other leader.

The transition team is appointing small groups to assess major agencies and prepare reports to give Obama and his advisers information to make strategic policy, budgetary and personnel decisions before the inauguration.

The groups also will ensure senior appointees have information to complete the confirmation process, lead their departments and launch policies immediately after being sworn in.

Before arriving at CSC, Johnson had been vice president of SRA International, director of the Touchtone Consulting Group and vice president of the Council for Excellence in Government. She also was assistant deputy secretary at the Commerce Department. She joined the Clinton administration as a consultant on leadership placement and management development.

Woodfin also managed Biden’s legislative staff. She began her career as a legislative assistant to Rep. Bob Traxler (D-Mich.) and then was Michigan's assistant attorney general.

In addition, Bruce McConnell and Gloria Parker are team leaders who will review the National Archives and Records Administration and the Government Printing Office, according to the transition team's announcement. 

McConnell is an independent consultant on cybersecurity, privacy and Web 2.0. He has founded two consulting firms, McConnell International and Government Futures, which promote the cost-effective use of the private sector by government. Before that, he led the International Y2K Cooperation Center under the auspices of the United Nations and World Bank. He also served in and led the information policy and technology branch of the Office of Management and Budget.

Gloria Parker is the director of business solutions and innovation for civilian government business at CSC. During the Clinton administration, Parker became the Housing and Urban Development Department’s first chief information officer. Before that, she was deputy CIO at the Education Department.

Parker previously worked as senior vice president of business development and strategy at Apptis and at IBM. Parker has received many prestigious awards including the 2000 Presidential Rank Award given for exemplary government leadership.

Sally Katzen, a member of the Obama-Biden Transition Project’s Agency Review Working Group, is responsible for the reviews of the Executive Office of the President and government operations agencies. She is a lecturer at Michigan Law School and teaches American government at the Michigan in Washington Program. She has also taught at George Mason, Pennsylvania and Georgetown law schools in addition to Smith College and Johns Hopkins University.

From 1993-2001, she was administrator of the Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs at OMB, then deputy director of the National Economic Council, and then OMB’s deputy director for management.

She has served on National Academies of Science panels and is a fellow of the National Academy of Public Administration. Before 1993, she was a partner at the law firm formerly known as Wilmer Cutler and Pickering. She clerked for Judge J. Skelly Wright of the District of Columbia Circuit.