Garcia, Rodriguez, Williams Named to Agency Review Teams for Biden-Harris Transition

Jay Williams, president of the Hartford Foundation for Public Giving, Bryan Garcia, president and CEO of the Connecticut Green Bank, and Yale Law School professor Cristina Rodríguez have been named as members of Agency Review Teams by the Biden-Harris Transition.  

The Agency Review Team members are responsible for “understanding the operations of each agency, ensuring a smooth transfer of power, and preparing for President-elect Biden and Vice President-elect Harris and their cabinet to hit the ground running on Day One,” according to the Transition Team website.

Rodríguez will be part of a 29-member team that will review the Department of Justice, Federal Election Commission, U.S. Election Assistance Commission, Commission on Civil Rights, National Council on Disability, the United States Access Board, AbilityOne, State Justice Institute, and Legal Services Corporation for the incoming Biden-Harris administration.

Garcia is participating on a 20-member Department of Energy team, also tasked with reviewing the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission and the Nuclear Regulatory Commission. Connecticut Green Bank is the nation’s first state-level green bank. Connecticut Green Bank won the “Innovations in American Government Award” in 2017 by the Harvard Kennedy School’s Ash Center for Democratic Governance and Innovation.

Williams has led the Hartford Foundation for Public Giving, the community foundation for Hartford and 28 surrounding communities, since mid-2017. It includes more than 750,000 residents, hundreds of nonprofits, and a network of philanthropists with more than 1200 funds. He is currently leading the Foundation’s efforts to address disparities in the region based on race/ethnicity, place and income, in order to make opportunities more available to everyone.

“These teams are composed of highly experienced and talented professionals with deep backgrounds in crucial policy areas across the federal government,” the Transition Team website explained.  “The teams have been crafted to ensure they not only reflect the values and priorities of the incoming administration, but reflect the diversity of perspectives crucial for addressing America’s most urgent and complex challenges.”

Cristina Rodríguez is the Leighton Homer Surbeck Professor of Law at Yale Law School. Her fields of research include constitutional law and theory, immigration law and policy, administrative law and process, and citizenship theory. Her new book, The President and Immigration Law (Oxford University Press, September 2020), coauthored with Adam Cox, explores the long history of presidential control over immigration policy and its implications for the future of immigration law and the presidency itself.

In recent years, Rodríguez has focused on constitutional structures and institutional design. She has used immigration law and related areas as vehicles through which to explore how the allocation of power (through federalism, the separation of powers, and the structure of the bureaucracy) shapes the management and resolution of legal and political conflict. Her work also has examined the effects of immigration on society and culture, as well as the legal and political strategies societies adopt to absorb immigrant populations.

The Connecticut Green Bank’s mission is to confront climate change and provide all of society a healthier and more prosperous future by increasing and accelerating the flow of private capital into markets that energize the green economy.  It was created by the state legislature a decade ago, and has surpassed $1 billion in clean energy investment in Connecticut.

Jay Williams served as Deputy Director of Intergovernmental Affairs managing the Obama Administration’s relationships with local elected officials.  He previously served as Executive Director of the Office of Recovery for Auto Communities and Workers at the U.S. Department of Labor. Under his leadership, the recovery office served as a coordinating body, helping communities gain access to existing federal, state and local economic development resources.

Prior to accepting an appointment in the Obama Administration, he was serving his second term as Mayor of the City of Youngstown, OH. Elected mayor in 2005, he was the city’s first African-American Mayor, and at 34 years old, was also its youngest.

Earlier this week, Williams announced a significant Hartford Foundation investment aimed at dismantling structural racism and establish more equitable opportunity, economic mobility and social capital for Greater Hartford’s Black and Latinx communities. With the approval of the Foundation’s Board of Directors, in 2021 the organization will establish two, $1 million grants in the name of The Prosperity Foundation, a Black-led philanthropic organization, and The Hispanic Federation – Connecticut, a Latinx-led organization.

The 27-member Department of Treasury review team is led by Don Graves, who heads corporate responsibility at KeyBank and previously worked as director of domestic and economic policy for President-elect Biden. Members include Nicole Isaac of LinkedIn and Marisa Lago, who works at the New York City Department of City Planning and previously oversaw global compliance at Citigroup, according to published reports.