Kay Coles James

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Official photo

Kay Coles James was the director for the Office of Personnel Management. She was nominated by George W. Bush in 2001 and left in 2005. Previous to the OPM appointment, she served as Virginia Secretary of Health and Human Resources under then-Governor George Allen and was the dean of Regent University's government school. She is currently a member of the NASA Advisory Council.

Contents

[edit] Background

As 1994 graduation speaker at Hampton University, her alma mater, James said, using the incurable disease as a metaphor for widespread social ills,[1]

“ [The United States is] experiencing cultural AIDS. We as a country have been the victims of an immune system that has broken down. It's gone. ”

In a 1994 interview, James said she expected to use her visibility as a "bully pulpit to change the culture."[2]

In 2003, James was named the 2003 Distinguished Christian Statesman, describing her as a Christian statesman who "makes it clear that the only way to transform any culture is from the inside out and that 'the children of God will be called upon to lead the way.'"[3] The award came from D. James Kennedy's Center for Christian Statemanship. Kennedy is a pastor criticized by the Jewish Anti-Defamation League for attempting to link creation theory to Hitler and for being "a leader among the distinct group of 'Christian Supremacists' who seek to 'reclaim America for Christ' and turn the U.S. into a Christian nation guided by their strange notions of biblical law."[4]

Paul Krugman, a New York Times opinion columnist, noting that Regent University boasts of 150 graduates working in the Bush administration, criticized James' tenure as the federal government’s chief personnel officer when many of these hires occurred.[5] Boston Globe, journalist Charles Savage wrote that previous to James' work as director of OPM, "veteran civil servants screened applicants and recommended whom to hire, usually picking top students from elite schools." Noting that Regent University is ranked a "tier four" school by US News & World Report, the lowest score and essentially a tie for 136th place, Savage said James' changes resulted in lawyers with more conservative credentials, less prior experience in civil rights law and the decline of the average ranking of the law school attended by the applicants.[6] The politicization of the Justice Department is one of the criticisms involving the dismissal of U.S. attorneys controversy and questions of competency were also raised with respect to one Regent graduate, Monica Goodling.[7]

Subsequent to her OPM position, James took a job with Mitchell Wade, the disgraced defense contractor who bribed Representative Randy “Duke” Cunningham in the MZM scandal.[5] Wade hired James with a compensation package that included a $150,000 signing bonus and a $350,000 base salary. She quit within two months, right after the controversy became public. Athena Innovative Solutions Inc., the successor to MZM, sued James for roughly $84,000 that it contended was due them from her signing bonus. The two settled out of court.[8]

She is currently a member of the board of trustees for the Heritage Foundation, an influential Washington, D.C.-based public policy research institute.[9]

[edit] Personal information

James is the wife of Charles E. James, Sr. and the mother of three grown children.[10]

[edit] Books

She wrote three books Never Forget, Transforming America: From the Inside Out (1995); and What I Wish I'd Known Before I Got Married (2001).

[edit] References

  1. ^ Smith, Tammie (February 6, 2002). Kay Coles James. Richmond Times Dispatch. Retrieved on 2007-04-13.
  2. ^ Jordon, Ida Kay (September 25, 1994). Reform-Minded Republican Kay Coles James Plans to Use Her Visibility as a "Bully Pulpit to Change the Culture". The Virginian-Pilot. Retrieved on 2007-04-13.
  3. ^ 2003 The Honorable Kay Coles. Retrieved on 2007-04-13.
  4. ^ ADL Press Release. Retrieved on 2007-04-13.
  5. ^ a b Krugman, Paul (April 13, 2007). For God’s Sake. New York Times. Retrieved on 2007-04-13.
  6. ^ Savage, Charlie. "Scandal puts spotlight on Christian law school", Boston Globe, April 8, 2007. Retrieved on 2007-04-08. 
  7. ^ Cohen, Andrew (April 9, 2007). The Gutting Of The Justice Department. CBS News. Retrieved on 2007-04-13.
  8. ^ Hardin, Peter (June 12, 2006). James sensed trouble at MZM. Richmond Times Dispatch. Retrieved on 2007-04-13.
  9. ^ Heritage Foundation Board of Trustees, heritage.org
  10. ^ Kay Coles James - Speaker Biography - 13th Annual Ethics Conference - March 1 - 4, 2004 - New York, NY

[edit] External links