Barack Obama 2008 presidential campaign nominated on a major party ticket. On November 4, 2008, Obama defeated the Republican nominee, Senator John McCain of Arizona, making him the President-elect and the first African American elected President. He was the third sitting U.S. Senator, after Warren G. Harding and John F. Kennedy, to be elected president. Upon the vote of the Electoral College on December 15, 2008, and the subsequent certification thereof by a Joint Session of the United States Congress on January 8, 2009, Barack Obama was elected President of the United States and Joe Biden Vice President of the United States, with 365 of
Kerri-Ann Jones as Assistant Secretary of State, Jones also served as the U.S. co-chair of the U.S.-Ireland R&D Partnership Steering Group. Kerri-Ann Jones Kerri-Ann Jones is a vice president of research and science at The Pew Charitable Trusts. She is the former United States Assistant Secretary of State for Oceans and International Environmental and Scientific Affairs at the U.S. State Department. Nominated by President Barack Obama in June 2009, she was sworn in on August 20 of that year. Kerri-Ann Jones received a bachelor's degree in chemistry from Barnard College in 1975. After graduating, she worked as a research assistant in immunology