WASHINGTON – Today, President Joe Biden announced his intent to nominate the following individual to serve as a key leader in his administration:

• Jim Coughlan, Nominee to be a Member of the United States International Trade Commission

Additionally, President Biden announced his intent to nominate the following individuals to serve as members of boards and commissions that are required, by statute or longstanding practice, to include bipartisan membership:

• Beth Harwell, Nominee to be a Member of the Board of Directors of the Tennessee Valley Authority
• Brian Noland, Nominee to be a Member of the Board of Directors of the Tennessee Valley Authority
• Halie Craig, Nominee to be a Member (Republican) of the United States International Trade Commission

Jim Coughlan, Nominee to be a Member of the United States International Trade Commission

Jim Coughlan is currently Senior Vice President and General Counsel at the Export-Import Bank of the United States. He was previously an attorney in private practice where he focused on litigation before the United States International Trade Commission (ITC), most recently as Partner at Holland & Knight LLP. Coughlan has been recognized by Chambers Global and Chambers USA, as well as being chosen as a Crain’s Chicago Business Notable Gen X Leaders in Law honoree. He was formerly a Senior Staff Attorney at the ITC, served as Legal Counsel for Senator Carl Levin (D-MI) and was a judicial law clerk for the Judge Marion T. Bennett of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit. Coughlan has a B.S. in mechanical engineering from Bradley University, a J.D. from the DePaul University College of Law and an LLM from the University of Illinois, Chicago School of Law. He is from Oak Park, Illinois.

Beth Harwell, Nominee to be a Member of the Board of Directors for the Tennessee Valley Authority

Beth Harwell has served as a member of the Tennessee Valley Authority Board of Directors since 2021. She represented Tennessee’s 56th District in the state’s House of Representatives for nearly 30 years, including seven years as Speaker of the House, a position to which she was elected with bipartisan support. Previously, Harwell chaired the Tennessee Republican Party and served as an Assistant Professor of Political Science at Belmont University. Harwell moved to Nashville, Tennessee to attend David Lipscomb University, and subsequently completed her graduate work at Vanderbilt University. She is married to Sam Harwell, with whom she has three children.

Brian Noland, Nominee to be a Member of the Board of Directors of the Tennessee Valley Authority

Brian Noland became the ninth president of East Tennessee State University (ETSU) in January 2012. During his tenure, ETSU has achieved its highest graduation, retention, and employee satisfaction rates in history and secured record-breaking levels of research funding. Noland has secured resources for and overseen some of the institution’s largest and most transformative capital projects, including the complete renovations of the D.P. Culp Student Center, Brown Hall, and Lamb Hall, as well as the construction of Greene Stadium, the Martin Center for the Arts, Bishop Hall, a new humanities building, and a new integrated health services center.

Sustaining ETSU’s focus on regional stewardship, Noland has partnered with civic and corporate entities to position the university as a national leader in interprofessional health care and rural health. Under his leadership, ETSU has launched several health research and care centers, including the Ballad Health Strong BRAIN Institute, a first-of-its-kind institute dedicated to promoting the awareness and study of adverse childhood experiences; the Center for Applied Research and Evaluation (CARE) in Women’s Health; the Addiction Science Center; the Center for Rural Health and Research; the ETSU/NORC Rural Health Equity Research Center; the Center for Cardiovascular Risk Research; and the Tennessee Center for Nursing Advancement. Noland has guided ongoing innovations within ETSU’s academic portfolio and curricula. This includes the launch of the BlueSky Institute, a 27-month computer science program developed hand-in-hand with BlueCross BlueShield of Tennessee through which students receive training and mentoring onsite at BCBS’s headquarters and earn job offers immediately following graduation. 

Noland has served as a board member for the American Council on Education, the American Association of State Colleges and Universities, the NCAA Division I Board of Directors, Ballad Health, Bank of Tennessee, and the Tennessee Valley Authority.

Halie Craig, Nominee to be a Member (Republican) of the United States International Trade Commission

Halie Craig currently serves as the Policy Director, Tech for the U.S. Senate Commerce Committee Republican staff, where she oversees all aspects of technology policy for Ranking Member Ted Cruz (R-TX). Prior to the U.S. Senate Commerce Committee, she held various positions on the staff of former U.S. Senator Pat Toomey (R-PA), including serving on the U.S. Senate Banking Committee and leading the senator’s trade policy portfolio during the negotiation of the United States-Mexico-Canada Agreement, various Section 232 investigations, and the imposition of Section 301 duties on imports from China. In addition to her service in the U.S. Senate, Craig spent two years at Meta, where she handled content policy for News Feed, recommendations, and behavioral abuse issues. Craig also previously served as an Associate Fellow with the R Street Institute, where she provided commentary and published research on trade policy issues. Craig earned her B.A. in Political Science at the University of Pennsylvania and is a native of Bucks County, Pennsylvania.

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