THE WHITE HOUSE

Office of the Press Secretary

              PRESIDENT CLINTON NAMES SEVEN PERSONS TO THE
           PRESIDENT'S COMMISSION ON WHITE HOUSE FELLOWSHIPS

The President today announced his intent to appoint Rudolph Estrada, Samuel Fried, Janice Griffin, Susan Levine, Brian O'Dwyer, Reginald Robinson and Tom Werner as members of the President's Commission on White House Fellowships.

Mr. Rudolph I. Estrada, of Pasadena, California, is President and Chief Executive Officer of the Summit Group, a banking and business consulting company representing over $68 billion in banking assets, and is also on the faculty of the California State University, Long Beach, School of Business Administration. Previously, Mr. Estrada served as an executive of a major international bank, and, earlier, was the Los Angeles District Director for the United States Small Business Administration. In 1995, he was appointed by the Mayor of Los Angeles as an Incorporator/Director of the Los Angeles Community Development Bank. He serves on several major corporate and non-profit boards of directors. In 1993, Mr. Estrada was appointed to the White House Commission on Small Business. He has a Bachelors Degree from California State University and a Masters Degree from the University of Southern California, and served in the U.S. Army in military intelligence.

Mr. Samuel P. Fried, of Bexley, Ohio, is Senior Vice President, and General Counsel and Secretary for The Limited, Inc. Additionally, he is a member of IPAC, the governmental committee that provides policy advice to the Secretary of Commerce and the United States Trade Representative, and is a founding director of The Foundation for Global Environmental Education. He has also played leadership roles in numerous civic, community and religious programs. Mr. Fried received his A.B. from Washington University and his J.D. and LLM from Boston University School of Law.

Ms. Janice Griffin, of Silver Spring, Maryland, is President and CEO of Griffin & Associates, a government affairs consulting firm based in Washington, DC. Before founding the company, Ms. Griffin was Vice President, Government Relations for Prudential Insurance Company of America. She joined Prudential in 1980 and has held a number of management positions, including Program Officer in the Prudential Foundation. Ms. Griffin is a member of the Board and Treasurer of the Congressional Award Foundation and is a member of Congressional Black Caucus Foundation Board of Directors. She is National Chair of the Women's Leadership Forum. Ms. Griffin is a graduate of Northwestern University in Evanston, Illinois.

Ms. Susan B. Levine, of Washington, DC, is a managing director, with responsibility for investor relations and communications and international strategy and marketing , for J.E. Robert Companies, a McLean, Virginia based real estate private equity firm. Earlier, Ms. Levine served nearly four years in the Executive Branch of the U.S. Government -- from 1993 to 1995 as a Deputy Assistant Secretary of Treasury, responsible for U.S. participation in the multilateral development banks, and then, from 1995 through 1996, as Senior Vice President for Policy and Investment Development at the Overseas Private Investment Corporation. Prior to her government service, Ms. Levine was Senior Vice President, Investment Banking Department, Lehman Brothers. She also speaks Mandarin Chinese, and early in her work career, served as an escort interpreter for the National Geographic Society in China and for Chinese delegations in the U.S. Ms. Levine grew up in Fargo, North Dakota, and received her B.A. from Swarthmore College and her M.B.A. from Columbia University.

Mr. Brian O'Dwyer, of New York City, is a partner with O'Dwyer & Bernstien, a New York litigation law firm. Mr. O'Dwyer was appointed Commissioner of the New York City Commission on Human Rights by Mayor David Dinkins. As an active advocate for immigrant's rights, Mr. O'Dwyer is Chairman of the Emerald Isle Immigration Center and serves on the Board of the Charles Lawrence Keith and Clara Miller Foundation, which funds civil rights and immigrant rights groups. He is also Vice Chair of the National Ethnic Coalition of Organizations, the nation's largest multi-ethnic organization. Mr. O'Dwyer serves on the Board of Visitors of the City University of New York Law School and the Dean's Council of the George Washington University Graduate School of Political Management, and from 1995 to 1997 was National President of Kappa Sigma Fraternity. He received a B.A. from George Washington University, a Masters from Middlebury College, a J.D. from Georgetown University, and a Masters in Law from George Washington University.

Mr. Reginald L. Robinson, of Lawrence, Kansas, is Counselor to the Chancellor and Visiting Associate Professor of Law at the University of Kansas. He was named a White House Fellow in 1993 and served as a Special Assistant to Attorney General Reno. Following his Fellowship, Mr. Robinson was appointed Deputy Assistant Attorney General for the Office of Justice Programs, and in December, 1997 was appointed Acting Director of the Office for Victims of Crime. Earlier, he was an Associate Professor of Law at the University of Kansas and a Law Clerk for U.S. Appeals Court Judge Deanell Tacha. While on the KU Law faculty, he helped found the Kansas Journal of Law & Public Policy, and was the first two-time winner of the Frederick J. Moreau Award for Student Counseling and Advising. Mr. Robinson attended the University of Kansas on a ROTC scholarship, receiving a BA in Political Science. Following his discharge as a Captain in the U.S. Army, he returned to Kansas for his law degree, and was Editor in Chief of the Kansas Law Review.

Tom Werner, of Los Angeles, California, is a partner in The Carsey-Werner Company, a leading Hollywood independent production studio. He first teamed with his partner, Marcy Carsey in the early 1970's in ABC-TV's series programming department, where they were responsible for the creation of all the network's prime-time series. In 1981 they formed an independent production company, and swept the top three annual program rankings in the 1988-89 season, a feat unprecedented in television history, with The Cosby Show, Roseanne and A Different World ranked as 1,2 & 3 respectively. They currently have in production 3rd Rock From The Sun, Cosby, and That '70s Show. The Carsey-Werner team was recently inducted into the Academy of Television Arts and Sciences Hall of Fame and has received many awards, both for artistic accomplishments and several humanitarian awards for its efforts in producing responsible television. Mr. Werner, along with Marcy Carsey, Caryn Mandabach, Geraldine Laybourne and Oprah Winfrey have recently started Oxygen, a multi-media venture fusing a cable channel and the Internet, dedicated to serving women. He is a graduate of Harvard University.

The Commission's major responsibility is to interview national finalists and then recommend to the President those individuals they find most qualified to be White House Fellows. White House Fellows spend a year serving the President as full-time paid special assistants to members of the Cabinet and senior White House staff. The more than 500 alumni of the program have gone on to become leaders in all fields of endeavor, fulfilling the fellowship's mission to encourage active citizenship and service to the nation.

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