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THE WHITE HOUSE

                     Office of the Press Secretary
                (Hong Kong, People's Republic of China)
________________________________________________________________________
For Immediate Release                                       July 2, 1998

                          PRESIDENT CLINTON 
           NAMES THE MEMBERS OF THE PRESIDENT'S COMMISSION 
           ON THE CELEBRATION OF WOMEN IN AMERICAN HISTORY

The President today announced his intent to appoint eleven members to the President's Commission on the Celebration of Women in American History.

Ann Lewis, White House Director of Communications, and Beth Newburger, Associate Administrator for Public Affairs, General Services Administration, are Co-Chairs of the Commission. Other members named by the President are Johnnetta B. Cole, J. Michael Cook, Barbara Goldsmith, Ladonna Harris, Gloria Johnson, Elaine Kim, Ellen Ochoa, Frances Preston and Anna Roosevelt.

Ms. Ann Lewis is the Director of Communications at the White House. Prior to her work at the White House, Ms. Lewis was Vice President for Public Policy at the Planned Parenthood Federation of America and headed two consulting companies- Politics, Inc., and Ann F. Lewis, Inc. From 1978 to 1981, she was Chief of Staff to then-Congresswoman Barbara Mikulski of Maryland. In 1992, Ms. Lewis led a study group on "Going First: Women as Leaders in Contemporary Politics" for the Institute of Politics at the Kennedy School of Government, and in 1998, she participated in the First International Jewish Feminist Conference in Jerusalem. Ms. Lewis has been Chair of the Commission for Women's Equality of the American Jewish Congress and a national officer of the National Women's Political Caucus.

Ms. Beth Newburger is the General Services Administration's Associate Administrator for Communications and chief spokesperson of the agency. Before joining GSA, Ms. Newburger was outreach coordinator at the White House Office of Women's Initiatives and Outreach. Between 1984 and 1995, Ms. Newburger founded and was President and CEO of OWLCAT, Inc. and Corabi Internal Telemetrics, Inc. She has also served as Marketing Manager at the Washington Post and Publisher of the Washington Woman Magazine. Ms. Newburger is currently Chairman of the Board of the Capital Children's Museum and is a member of the Board of Directors of BOAT/U.S. and Arena Stage.

Dr. Johnnetta B. Cole, of Atlanta, Georgia, is President Emerita, Spelman College and Presidential Distinguished Professor of Anthropology, Women's Studies and African American Studies at Emory University. Also an active author, Dr. Cole has written and edited several textbooks in use today. Her most recent book is Dream the Boldest Dreams: And Other Lessons of Life. She serves on the Board of Trustees of The Rockefeller Foundation and Galludet University and on the Advisory Board of The Martin Luther King, Jr. Center for Nonviolent Social Change. Dr. Cole also serves on the board of the Center for Research on Women at Wellesley College and is a Fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. She is a Director of Merck & Co., Coca-Cola Enterprises, and Home Depot. Dr. Cole has received numerous awards, including honorary degrees from 41 colleges and universities and the first Eleanor Roosevelt Education Award on the occasion of the 75th Anniversary of the Women's National Democratic Club.

Mr. J. Michael Cook, of Greenwich, Connecticut, is the Chairman and CEO of Deloitte & Touche. He originally joined the firm in 1964, and became a partner in 1974. Mr. Cook is also a Member of the Executive Committee of the Securities Regulation Institute, the Conference Board, and the U.S. Council for International Business. In the public sector, Mr. Cook is Chairman of the Board of Governors of the United Way of America and Chairman of the Board of Catalyst, the nation's leading organization for the advancement of women in business. In 1994, he was given the Director's Choice Award by the National Women's Economic Alliance Foundation.

Ms. Barbara Goldsmith, of New York, New York, is an author and social historian. Her latest book, Other Powers--The Age of Suffrage, Spiritualism and the Scandalous Victoria Woodhull, was published in March of 1998. Her other books include Johnson v. Johnson, Little Gloria...Happy at Last, and The Straw Man. Ms. Goldsmith was a Founding and Contributing Editor of New York magazine and Senior Editor of Harper's Bazaar. During her successful literary career, Ms. Goldsmith has been the recipient of numerous book awards and several doctorate degrees. Among her public service memberships, she has served on the New York State Council on the Arts and as a Trustee of the New York Public Library and a director of the National Dance Institute.

Ms. LaDonna Harris, of Bernalillo, New Mexico, is the President of Americans for Indian Opportunity. An enrolled member of the Comanche Nation, Ms. Harris is an ardent advocate for American Indians. For more than three decades, she has served as a national leader for the advancement of basic human rights for all Americans as an active participant in the civil rights, environmental, women's and world peace movements. Ms. Harris was a founding member of the National Urban League and Common Cause. She was an original convener of the first Women's Political Caucus and helped organize the Global Tomorrow Coalition and Women for Meaningful Summits. During her career, Ms. Harris has served on many national boards, such as Girl Scouts USA, National Organization of Women, Save the Children, and the Independent Sector. She has founded several influential Native American organizations, including the National Indian Housing Council, the Council of Energy Resource Tribes and the National Tribal Environmental Council. She also served on other Presidential commissions, including Carter's Commission on Mental Health and Johnson's National Council on Indian Opportunity. She was appointed by President Clinton to the American Indian Arts Board, by Vice President Gore to the Advisory Council on the National Information Infrastructure and by Secretary of Energy O'Leary to the Secretary of Energy Advisory Board.

Ms. Gloria T. Johnson, of Camp Springs, Maryland, has served as President of the Coalition of Labor Union Women since 1993. She has also served for the past ten years as Chair of the IUE Women's Council and Director of the Union's Department of Social Action. Ms. Johnson was elected a Vice-President of the AFL-CIO in 1993, to become the second African American woman to ever hold that position, and is a member of the AFL-CIO Executive Council. A long-time advocate of women's and civil rights, Ms. Johnson has received several awards, including the PUSH Award for Outstanding Women in the Labor Movement and the NAACP's First Annual Pathway to Excellence Award "Women of Labor." She has represented the American Labor Movement on labor and women's issues at many international conferences, including Africa, Taiwan, Japan, Haiti, Brazil, Israel and Europe. Ms. Johnson was appointed by President Carter to serve on the National Advisory Council on Vocational Education.

Ms. Elaine H. Kim, of Oakland, California, is a Professor of Asian American Studies and Chair of the Comparative Ethnic Studies Department at the University of California, Berkeley. In addition to teaching, Dr. Kim has written and co-authored numerous works including Asian American Literature: An Introduction to the Writings and Their Social Context and East to America: Korean American Life Stories. She has also been active in television, as the Associate Producer for Slaying the Dragon: Asian Women in U.S. Television and as Co-Producer of Sa-I-gu: From Korean Women's Perspectives. Dr. Kim served as President of the Association for Asian American Studies and as a member of the National Council of the American Studies Association. She is a Co-Founder and member of the Board of Directors of the Asian Women United of California, and a Co-Founder of Asian Immigrant Women Advocates.

Ms. Ellen Ochoa, of Houston, Texas, is a Mission Specialist Astronaut at the NASA Johnson Space Center. Dr. Ochoa joined NASA in 1988 and assumed her astronaut role in 1990. Her flight mission assignments have been as Payload Commander on STS-66 atmospheric research flight in November, 1994, responsible for all science payloads and robotic arm operator; and as Mission Specialist on STS-56 atmospheric research flight in April 1993, responsible for primary science payload and robotic arm operator. Her current technical assignment is spacecraft communicator in Mission Control Center. Additionally, Dr. Ochoa has delivered more than 120 talks for schools and educational groups on astronaut careers, space science experiments and the importance of education, and logged over 500 hours flight time in jet aircraft. Before joining NASA, Dr. Ochoa worked for Sandia National Laboratories. She has received numerous awards, including several NASA Space Flight Medals, the Women in Aerospace Outstanding Achievement Award and the Albert Baez Award for Outstanding Technical Contribution to Humanity from Hispanic Engineer National Achievement Awards. Dr. Ochoa is a Member of the Stanford University School Engineering Advisory Council and the Board of Directors of the Manned Space Flight Education Foundation, Inc.

Ms. Frances W. Preston, of Nashville, Tennessee, is President and CEO of Broadcast Music, Inc (BMI). After working in the music and broadcasting industries in Nashville, Ms. Preston joined BMI in 1958, progressing to become Senior Vice President, Performing Rights in 1985, and President and CEO in 1986. Ms. Preston also serves on the National Academy of Recording Arts and Sciences President's Advisory Council, the Boards of the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame, and the Rhythm & Blues Foundation, and is a Vice President of the National Music Council and an Honorary Trustee of the National Academy of Popular Music (Songwriters Hall of Fame). She also serves on the Vanderbilt University Medical Center Board of Overseers. Ms. Preston received the American Women In Radio and Television's Outstanding Achievement Award in 1988. She also became the first non-performing woman invited to join the New York Friar's Club, and the first woman appointed to their Board of Directors. She was inducted into the Country Music Hall of Fame in 1992. Ms. Preston is a member of Vice President Gore's National Information Infrastructure Advisory Council and served as a member of President Carter's Panama Canal Study Committee.

Ms. Anna Eleanor Roosevelt, of Wilmette, Illinois, is a granddaughter of Franklin and Eleanor Roosevelt. Following graduation from Stanford and the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, Ms. Roosevelt served on the faculty of Western Kentucky University, teaching museum studies and working on the staff of The Kentucky Museum for eight years. She moved to Chicago in 1983, as a freelance collection consultant. Feeling the tug of her family's roots, in 1987, Ms. Roosevelt became actively involved in politics, serving as the Manager of Senator Paul Simon's Chicago office and his 1990 re-election campaign. Currently, she is the Director of the The Mayor's Office of Program Development for the City of Chicago and serves on the Boards of the March of Dimes Birth Defects Foundation, The White House Fellows Selection Committee, and the Cardinal Bernardin Center. In addition to these roles, Ms. Roosevelt is the Chairman of the Roosevelt Warm Springs Foundation and Vice President of the Franklin and Eleanor Roosevelt Institute in New York.

President Clinton has established the Commission to consider how best to acknowledge and celebrate the roles and accomplishments of women in American History. It will hold meetings to consider ideas for such celebration, including a focal point for women's history in Washington, D.C., and the use of technology to connect existing and planned historical sites, museums and libraries. The first meeting of the Commission will be held on July 16, 1998, during the celebrations for the 150th anniversary of the first Women's Rights Convention in America. The meeting will be held at the Canandaigua County Courthouse, the site where Susan B. Anthony was tried and convicted for voting. The Commission's recommendations will be reported to the President.

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