Aiming High

President Obama today nominated Erin Conaton, the House Armed Services Committee's staff director, to become the next under secretary of the Air Force.

According to her White House bio:

Erin C. Conaton is currently the staff director for the House of Representatives’ Committee on Armed Services (HASC). In that capacity, she serves as the primary advisor to Chairman Ike Skelton (D-MO) and the 61 other members of the Armed Services Committee. She directs the committee’s 70 person staff who support the HASC members with drafting and negotiating each year’s National Defense Authorization Act, which provides annual funding and authorities to the Department of Defense. In the 109th Congress, she was the committee's Minority Staff Director. Prior to that, since joining the HASC staff in 2001, she served as a Professional Staff Member covering a range of defense policy issues. Before joining the committee staff, she was the Research Staff Director for the U.S. Commission on National Security/21st Century (the Hart-Rudman Commission) in the Department of Defense. She holds a bachelor’s degree from Georgetown University's School of Foreign Service and a master's degree from the Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy at Tufts University.