On September 5, 2023, President Biden announced seven new nominees for leadership roles in his administration, including two SLS grads.

David Huitema, JD ’99, was tapped to serve as the director of the Office of Government Ethics. Huitema has served as both the assistant legal adviser for ethics and financial disclosure as well as the Department of State’s alternate designated agency ethics official since 2016. Previously, he served as an attorney-adviser for the Bureau of Human Resources, the Bureau of Economic and Business Affairs, the Bureau of Energy Resources, and the Bureau of Western Hemisphere Affairs. He has provided legal advice on internet and international telecommunications issues, presidential permits for transboundary pipelines, policy toward Cuba, and foreign service personnel matters. He joined the Office of the Legal Adviser in 2006 after several years in private practice and a clerkship on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 11th Circuit.

Erik Woodhouse, JD ’04, was nominated to head the Office of Sanctions Coordination, with the rank of ambassador. Woodhouse currently serves as the deputy assistant secretary for counter threat finance and sanctions in the Bureau of Economic and Business Affairs at the State Department. In that position, he oversees the Office of Sanctions Policy and Implementation and the Office of Global Sanctions and Threat Finance. He previously served as senior advisor to the under secretary for international affairs at the Treasury Department and as an attorney-adviser with the Office of the Legal Adviser at the State Department. Earlier in his career, he was a clerk for a judge on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 9th Circuit and a researcher at the Program on Energy & Sustainable Development at Stanford University.