Elizabeth Sherwood-Randall is officially headed to the National Security Council, ending for now any prospects of a return to the Department of Energy, where the nonproliferation and weapons-of-mass-destruction policy hand was second-in-command during the Obama administration.
The Biden transition team officially announced the move Wednesday, which media had reported earlier. Sherwood-Randall will be homeland security advisor and deputy national security advisor in the Biden White House.
Sherwood-Randall was never part of Biden’s Department of Energy transition team, and with Biden choosing former Michigan Gov. Jennifer Granholm (D) to be Secretary of Energy, there were no prospects of job advancement for Granholm in the nuclear-weapons-and-waste agency.
Biden has nominated all his cabinet members, but he has yet to publicly discuss plans for DOE undersecretaries: the seniority level for the administrator of the National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA). The name of Madelyn Creedon, a former NNSA deputy administrator and member of Biden’s DOE transition team, continues to churn in the rumor mill as a possible leader for the semi-autonomous weapons agency.
