Trump Picks Ex-HP Executive for Top Management Job at Ed Department

HollyHam

President Donald Trump has selected Holly Luong Ham, a former executive for HP Inc., to serve as assistant secretary for management at the United States Department of Education (ED).

An announcement from the Trump administration underscored her experience as a sales executive for the computer company, which was at one time led by Carly Fiorina, a Republican rival of Trump’s for the presidency in 2016. The announcement also mentioned her experience at the Center for Asian Pacific American Women, a nonprofit group that promotes leadership skills for Asian American women. The ED’s office of management oversees operations and administration at the department.

Ham does not need Senate confirmation to assume the post, the ED said.

On her LinkedIn profile, Ham listed work as a program adviser for data operations in the Trump presidential campaign last year. She also listed roles on the board of directors for Skills for Living, which helps children develop social skills and connections through play groups and other extracurricular activities.

Ham received a bachelor’s degree and an MBA from the University of Houston, C.T. Bauer College of Business.  She has described herself as an “education specialist” in Washington, D.C. since January.

About the Author

Richard Chang is associate editor of THE Journal. He can be reached at [email protected].

Featured

  • Three cubes of noticeably increasing sizes are arranged in a straight row on a subtle abstract background

    A Sense of Scale

    Gardner Campbell explores the notion of scale in education and shares some of his own experience "playing with scale" — scaling up and/or scaling down — in an English course at VCU.

  • AI-inspired background pattern with geometric shapes and fine lines in muted blue and gray on a dark background

    IBM Releases Granite 3.0 Family of Advanced AI Models

    IBM has introduced its most advanced family of AI models to date, Granite 3.0, at its annual TechXchange event. The new models were developed to provide a combination of performance, flexibility, and autonomy that outperforms or matches similarly sized models from leading providers on a range of benchmarks.

  • minimalist bookcase filled with textbooks featuring vibrant, solid-colored spines with no text, and a prominent number "25" displayed on one of the shelves

    OpenStax Celebrates 25th Anniversary

    OpenStax is celebrating its 25th anniversary as 2024 comes to a close. The open educational resources initiative from Rice University has served almost 37 million students in 153 countries and saved students nearly $3 billion in course material costs since its launch in 1999.

  • a professional worker in business casual attire interacting with a large screen displaying a generative AI interface in a modern office

    Study: Generative AI Could Inhibit Critical Thinking

    A new study on how knowledge workers engage in critical thinking found that workers with higher confidence in generative AI technology tend to employ less critical thinking to AI-generated outputs than workers with higher confidence in personal skills.