President Barack Obama will nominate the following individuals for administration posts: Joseph Westphal, Under Secretary of the Army, Department of Defense; Robert V. Abbey, Director, Bureau of Land Management, Department of the Interior; Sam D. Hamilton, Director, Office of Fish and Wildlife Service, Department of the Interior; Deborah A. P. Hersman, Chairman, National Transportation Safety Board; Richard A. Lidinsky, Jr., Commissioner, Federal Maritime Commission; and Harry Hoglander, Re-nominated to serve as Board Member, National Mediation Board. He also will nominate Polly Trottenberg, of Maryland, to be an Assistant Secretary of Transportation.

Abbey is currently partner at Abbey - Stubbs - Ford, LLC where he is a private consultant specializing in western land and resource strategies. Prior to this experience he was the Nevada state director for the DOI's Bureau of Land Management. There, he was responsible for managing natural resources and mineral development activities on about 48 million acres of public land in Nevada. He managed a staff of more than 700 employees in nine offices and he was responsible for the $51 million budget. He also has been the associate state director and acting state director of Colorado for the Interior's BLM. Abby was the district manager of Mississippi’s BLM. He was responsible for the strategic planning and directing operations for 85% of the producing federal land-based oil and gas leases within the eastern United States under the BLM.

Hamilton has served the U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service since 1979 and has been the regional director in Atlanta since 1997. There, he was the senior operating executive for the southeast region with full strategic planning and management responsibility for a $484 million budget. He led a 1,500-person work force operating in 10 states and the Caribbean. He provided FWS leadership and oversight to the Interior's Everglades' restoration work, which has been the largest ecosystem restoration project in the country. He has represented the Secretary of the Interior on coastal Louisiana wetlands restoration work and has been responsible for oversight and management of more than 350 federally listed threatened and endangered species. Hamilton also served as assistant regional director of the ecological service in Atlanta and as FWS Texas state administrator.

Hersman has been an NTSB board member since June, 2004. She was a senior professional staff member of the U.S. Senate Committee on Commerce, Science and Transportation from 1999 to 2004, where she was responsible for the legislative agenda and policy initiatives affecting surface transportation issues, including economic and safety regulation of railroads, trucks, buses, pipelines, and hazardous materials transportation.