View Header

THE WHITE HOUSE

Office of the Press Secretary


For Immediate Release May 13, 1994
                 PRESIDENT NAMES PHYLLIS ELLIOTT OAKLEY 
         ASSISTANT SECRETARY OF STATE FOR POPULATION, REFUGEES, 
                              AND MIGRATION

President Clinton today announced his intention to nominate Phyllis Elliott Oakley, of Louisiana, a career member of the Senior Foreign Service, class of Counselor, as Assistant Secretary of State of the new Bureau of Population, Refugees, and Migration.

Mrs. Oakley was named to the former Bureau for Refugee Programs as Senior Deputy Assistant Secretary in September 1993 and became Acting Director in March 1994. She joined the State Department in 1957, resigned a year later upon marriage, and rejoined the Foreign Service in 1974. During her career, Mrs. Oakley served as Deputy Spokesman of the State Department and as a Deputy Assistant Secretary in the Bureau of Intelligence and Research. She has also worked on Middle East issues, served as Afghanistan desk officer, and was seconded to the US AID Afghanistan Cross-Border Humanitarian Assistance Program in Islamabad.

Mrs. Oakley was born in 1934 in Omaha, Nebraska and grew up in St. Louis. She is a Phi Beta Kappa graduate of Northwestern University with a B. A. in Political Science, and holds a Master's Degree in International Relations/Affairs from the Fletcher School of International Law and Diplomacy of Tufts University. She is married to Ambassador Robert B. Oakley, has two grown children and two grandsons.

-30-30-30-