White House Nominates Three Board Members for AmeriCorps

AmeriCorps

Office of the Chief Executive Officer
April 21, 2021

White House Nominates Three Board Members for AmeriCorps

Dear Community Friends,

Yesterday, the White House announced its intent to nominate Cynthia Hogan, Catherine McLaughlin, and Shirley Sagawa to serve on the Board of Directors of AmeriCorps (formally known as the Corporation for National and Community Service). All three nominees have extensive experience in public policy, national service, and community engagement. You will find their bios below.

As many of you may know, members of our Board are nominated by the President with the advice and consent of the Senate. The Board provides overall guidance to the agency and senior leaders, promotes our initiatives and programs, builds relationships with key stakeholders, and elevates national service and volunteerism through engagement and partnerships.

We will track the process and announce their confirmation through our public channels, refraining from public comment until then.

We are delighted that the President has nominated such experienced and accomplished leaders to help advance our mission at this critical time for national service.

Sincerely,

Mal Coles
Acting Chief Executive Officer

 


Cynthia Hogan was born and raised in Cincinnati. In 1979, she graduated from Oberlin College with a BA in art history. In 1984, she received a JD from the University of Virginia School of Law, where she served as Notes Editor of The Virginia Law Review. She served in 1984-85 as a Law Clerk to the Honorable Edward Cahn, United States District Court for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania, and worked as an associate at the Washington, DC, law firm, Williams & Connolly, from 1985-1991.

In 1991, Hogan joined the staff of United States Senate Committee on the Judiciary, serving as counsel, staff director, and then chief counsel until 1996. From 2009 to 2013, Cynthia served as Deputy Assistant to the President and Counsel to the Vice President of the United States of America. In 2014, Hogan joined the National Football League as Senior Vice President of Public Policy. In 2016, she joined Apple as Vice President for Public Policy and Government Affairs for the Americas. She resigned from Apple in 2020. In April 2020, then candidate Joe Biden asked Hogan to serve on a committee he formed to assist in the selection of a Vice Presidential candidate. Hogan is married and has two children.

Catherine McLaughlin serves as the founding Executive Director of the Biden Institute at the University of Delaware. The institute, established in 2017, brings students together with accomplished, respected practitioners from a broad diversity of backgrounds and a wide range of policy fields in order to equip aspiring public servants to elevate civil discourse and take on pressing policy challenges facing our nation.

Prior to joining the Biden Institute, McLaughlin served as the Executive Director of Harvard University’s Institute of Politics for 22 years, where she oversaw all programming including the JFK Jr Forum, the resident and visiting fellows program, and national conferences for new-elected mayors and members of Congress. McLaughlin created a national consortium of like institutions that brought together students from across the country annually to identify ways to engage college and university students in the political process. She also co-founded the institute's Biannual Youth Survey on Politics and Public Service. She previously served as Tour Manager for the Boston-based band New Kids on the Block and as director of the Office of Alumni Affairs and coordinator in the Press and Public Liaison Offices at Harvard University's John F. Kennedy School of Government. McLaughlin has her B.A. from Saint Anselm College, where she currently serves as a member of the board of the New Hampshire Institute of Politics.

Shirley Sagawa is the former CEO of Service Year Alliance and an architect of AmeriCorps. Over the last three decades, she has developed innovative social and education policy, authored groundbreaking reports, and advised national organizations and foundations on strategy. As a partner with sagawa/jospin, she played strategic roles in the creation of America Forward, Cities of Service, Service Year Exchange, and the Presidio Institute Fellows Program. She has served as a presidential appointee in both democratic and republican administrations. She served as First Lady Hillary Clinton’s policy assistant and deputy chief of staff, and helped lead the start up of the Corporation for National and Community Service for President Bill Clinton. For President George H. W. Bush, she served as first vice chair of the Commission on National and Community Service, authorized under the National and Community Service Act of 1990, which she drafted and negotiated as a Chief Counsel for Youth Policy on the Senate Labor and Human Resources Committee. A Senior Fellow at the Center for American Progress, Sagawa is author of three books, including The American Way to Change and The Charismatic Organization. She holds degrees from Harvard Law School, London School of Economics, and Smith College.