White House Fellows Visit Mines

GOLDEN, Colo., July 25, 2007 – Some of the nation's most exceptional young men and women visited the Colorado School of Mines campus today during a White House sponsored tour to Colorado focused on energy and environmental issues.

Twelve White House Fellows – selected to join the program based on professional achievement, evidence of leadership skills, a strong commitment to public service, and the knowledge and skills necessary to contribute successfully at the highest levels of the federal government – had lunch with Mines President M.W. “Bill” Scoggins and other School representatives.

“We're very pleased to host this distinguished group at Mines today and to talk to them not only about our educational programs and energy-related research, but about what's going on in the Front Range and our efforts with partner institutions, such as NREL,” President Scoggins said.

The fellows who visited campus included:

• Christian Caballero, 35, Chief of Staff to the Secretary of the Florida Department of Juvenile Justice
• Jason Scott Dean, 32, Education Policy Advisor to Mississippi Governor Haley Barbour from 2003-2006
• Jeffrey William Eggers, 35, an active duty Naval Officer and most recently served as the Executive Officer of SEAL Team SEVEN
• Miguel Damian Howe, 40, a Lieutenant Colonel in the United States Army. Most recently he served as the Chief of Staff for the NATO Training Mission in Al Rustamiyah Iraq
• Eugene J. Huang, 31, previously served as Visiting Scholar at the Stanford Institute for Economic Policy Research (SIEPR) at Stanford University, where his research interests focused on technology, competitiveness and innovation
• Frederick William Kacher, 38, a Commander in the United States Navy, who most recently deployed in support of the Global War on Terror as Executive Officer on the destroyer, USS BARRY
• Westley Watende Moore, 28, was previously an investment banker with Deutsche Bank's prestigious Global Markets Division in New York and London
• Jocelyn Jones Pickford, 29, was most recently a secondary English teacher, Curriculum Coordinator, and Lead Mentor at West Springfield High School in Fairfax County, Virginia
• George Ruiz, 34, a cardiologist with a subspecialty in the care of adults with congenital heart disease and worked as an attending physician in the Washington Adult Congenital Heart Center
• Lena Sene, 28, an Investment Representative in the Private Investment Management division of Lehman Brothers
• Jeffrey Daniel Stern, 38, previously was Deputy Coordinator of Emergency Services in Arlington, Virginia
• Mark Vincent Vlasic, 32, most recently practiced law at Gibson, Dunn & Crutcher LLP