New defense nominees named

The White House has released the names of several individuals President Biden intends to nominate for senior Pentagon positions.

Christopher Maier has been tapped for assistant secretary for special operations and low-intensity conflict.

Maier, who has served in national security roles across five presidential administrations, is currently the principal deputy assistant secretary of defense for special operations and low-intensity conflict. He previously led the Defeat-ISIS Task Force.

Biden also intends to nominate Shawn Skelly for assistant secretary for readiness. Skelly previously served in the Obama administration as special assistant to the under secretary of defense for acquisition, technology, and logistics. In 2017, she was appointed to serve on the National Commission on Military, National, and Public Service. If confirmed, Skelly would be the highest-ranking openly transgender official at the Pentagon.

Additionally, Biden intends to nominate Brenda Sue Fulton to be assistant secretary for manpower and reserve affairs. Fulton graduated from West Point in 1980, in the first class to admit women. In 2011, Obama appointed her as the first openly gay member of the West Point Board of Visitors. Since 2018, Fulton has served as chief administrator of the New Jersey Motor Vehicle Commission.

Meanwhile, Biden intends to nominate Deborah Rosenblum for assistant secretary for nuclear, chemical and biological defense. She currently serves as the executive vice president of the non-profit Nuclear Threat Initiative (NTI), which aims, according to its website, "to reduce reliance on nuclear weapons, prevent their spread and ultimately end them as a threat to the world."

Prior to working at NTI, Rosenblum was vice president at The Cohen Group, an international consulting firm and served 12 years a career civil servant in the Office of the Secretary of Defense.