JOCELYN WHITE

Director, President’s Commission On White House Fellowships

President George W. Bush appointed Jocelyn White to serve as Director of the President’s Commission on White House Fellowships in April 2001. As Director, Ms. White is responsible for administering all program elements. This includes the ongoing design, review, analysis, and improvement of the selection process, job placement for Fellows, the education program, public relations and recruiting, maintenance of historical archives, and alumni relations.

Ms. White is a businesswoman/entrepreneur with a background in strategic communications and government relations. She comes from a highly specialized field called “risk communication” which is a method of communication necessary in low trust/high concern situations usually involving environmental or health concerns. In 1990, Ms. White started a company called Environmental Issues Management, Inc. (EIM), an environmental and risk communication consulting firm. Her clients were mostly in the top 50 of the Fortune 500 companies.

While at EIM, she worked on over 100 environmental projects across the country and trained numerous corporate executives in risk communication. She is the author of various publications including an April 17, 1992 op-ed printed in The New York Times, a November 19, 1992 op-ed printed in The Washington Post, and the first book on Superfund communications entitled How to Survive Superfund: A 1990s Communications Guide. In 1993, Ms. White testified before the United States Senate Committee on Environment and Public Works, Subcommittee on Superfund. In addition, Ms. White has been a frequent speaker on risk communication at industry and legal seminars across the country.

In 1998, Ms. White sold EIM to a subsidiary of Dames and Moore, a publicly traded engineering and construction firm. While at Dames and Moore, Ms. White continued to run the EIM division and provided strategic communications counsel to Dames and Moore’s litigation and environmental clients. Ms. White also led the subsidiary’s efforts to identify strategic communications and litigation research firms as acquisition targets. Ms. White undertook the research on potential acquisition targets, including meeting with those companies and also took part in the structuring and negotiating of the acquisition deals.

Additional work includes: Serving as a Vice President at APCO Associates, the Arnold & Porter Consulting Group, where she oversaw the firm's legislative, regulatory, public relations, and grassroots coalition-building activities; serving in former President George H. W. Bush’s Transition Office; serving in The White House, Office of Intergovernmental Affairs during the Reagan Administration as Andrew H. Card Jr.’s Deputy; serving as Manager of Regulatory Affairs for the Can Manufacturers Institute; working for Beveridge & Diamond, P.C., the nation’s first boutique environmental law firm; and working for the Congressional Research Service, Library of Congress. She also has held internships in the offices of: Senator William B. Saxbe (R-OH), Senator Bennett Johnston (D-LA.), Senate Committee on Rules and Administration, Committee on House Administration, and the House Rural Development Subcommittee.

Community service includes: Volunteer with Molly, her certified pet therapy dog, at Walter Reed Army Medical Center pediatric ward (1999-Present); Board Member, Columbia Hospital for Women (1990-1997); Leadership Committee, The Salvation Army’s Turning Point Project for Women and Children (1997-1998); Board of Trustees, Westmoreland Congregational Church (1992); Volunteer Child Life Support Assistant, Children’s National Medical Center (1976-1981); Volunteer Tutor, East End Neighborhood House, Cleveland, Ohio (1970-1971)

Ms. White is a native of Shaker Heights Ohio and a graduate of St. Lawrence University.