Why the transition isn’t over

Ann Compton, a member of the Miller Center's Governing Council, is a former news reporter and White House correspondent for ABC News. A distinguished and highly respected 40-year veteran of the White House press corps, she was the first woman assigned by a television network to cover the White House. Her tenure stretched across seven presidents as well as innumerable globe-altering events, including the end of the Cold War. During the terrorist attacks on September 11, 2001, Compton was the only broadcaster allowed to remain on board Air Force One after President George W. Bush was advised not to return to Washington, DC.

Kenneth M. Duberstein is chairman and CEO of The Duberstein Group, a strategic planning and consulting company advising leading corporations and select trade associations. Duberstein served as a key member of the Reagan Administration as White House chief of staff, deputy chief of staff and assistant to the president for legislative affairs. Among the boards of directors on which Duberstein has served: The Boeing Company, The Travelers Companies, Conoco-Phillips, Dell, Inc., and Mack-Cali Realty Corporation. He is a lifetime trustee of Franklin & Marshall College, The Kennedy Center for Performing Arts, and serves ;on the board of directors of the Brookings Institution, and the Colin L. Powell School of Civic and Global Leadership. He also served as Chairman and longtime board member of The Institute of Politics at the Harvard Kennedy School. He is a member of the Council on Foreign Relations, having served on its board for 10 years. From 2003 to 2006, he was a consultant for storyline and accuracy for the Emmy award winning TV series The West Wing.  

Over the course of a 20-year career in public service, Chris Lu, the Miller Center's Teresa A. Sullivan Practitioner Senior Fellow, worked in all three branches of the federal government, including seven years in the Obama administration. From 2014–17, Lu was the deputy secretary of labor, having been confirmed unanimously by the U.S. Senate. From 2009–13, Lu was the White House cabinet secretary and assistant to the president, serving as the president’s primary liaison to the federal agencies. At the end of the first term, Obama said: “Through his dedication and tireless efforts, Chris has overseen one of the most stable and effective cabinets in history—a cabinet that has produced extraordinary accomplishments over the past four years.”

Janet Napolitano is a professor of public policy at the Goldman School of Public Policy at UC Berkeley. She served as the 20th president of the University of California, the nation’s largest public research university with 10 campuses, five medical centers, three affiliated national laboratories, and a statewide agriculture and natural resources program. Prior to joining that position, Napolitano served as secretary of Homeland Security from 2009 to 2013. She is a former two-term governor of Arizona, a former attorney general of Arizona, and a former U.S. attorney for the district of Arizona. In 2019, Napolitano published How Safe Are We? Homeland Security Since 9/11. She earned her B.S. degree, summa cum laude, in political science from Santa Clara University, and her J.D. from the University of Virginia. She is based in Berkeley, CA.

Sean O’Keefe, is a member of the faculty at the Maxwell School of Citizenship and Public Affairs at Syracuse University. O’Keefe holds the academic faculty rank of University Professor at Syracuse, one of only 17 such faculty appointments conferred in the 150-year history of the university. He is also the Howard and Louise Phanstiel chair in Strategic Management and Leadership at the Maxwell School, and serves as a Senior Advisor at the Center for Strategic and International Studies. Before his current post, O’Keefe was chairman and CEO of Airbus Group, Inc., the North America subsidiary of the global aerospace, defense and space corporation. O’Keefe has served as a presidential appointee confirmed by the U.S. Senate on four separate occasions. He served as the 10th Administrator of the National Aeronautics and Space Administration, was appointed 69th Secretary of the Navy by President George H. W. Bush, and has also served as Comptroller and Chief Financial Officer of the Department of Defense. Prior to the Pentagon appointments, he served on the United States Senate Committee on Appropriations staff and was staff director of the Defense Appropriations Subcommittee. His public service career began in 1978 upon his selection as a Presidential Management Intern.