Public Interest Declassification Board (PIDB) - Members
The PIDB consists of nine members, five appointed by the President, and one each by the Speaker and Minority Leader of the House and the Majority and Minority Leaders of the Senate. The PIDB’s founding statute requires the appointment of U.S. citizens who are preeminent in the fields of history, national security, foreign policy, intelligence policy, social science, law, or archives.
On January 13, 2025, President Joseph R. Biden appointed Mark Angelson to a two-year term as Chair of the Public Interest Declassification Board.
Alissa M. Starzak, elected by the PIDB members as Vice Chair in 2018, was first appointed on February 27, 2018, to serve a three-year term on the PIDB by Senate Minority Leader Charles E. Schumer. Senate Majority Leader Charles E. Schumer appointed Ms. Starzak for a second three-year term in 2022, and in 2025 for a third three-term that will end on February 2, 2028.
President Joseph Biden appointed Laura A. DeBonis to serve from November 30, 2021, to December 29, 2023, and reappointed Ms. DeBonis to a three-year term that will end on January 10, 2027. Ms. DeBonis previously served from 2015-2018 as an appointee of President Barack Obama. President Biden appointed the following members to serve: Carmen Medina to serve from October 10, 2023, to October 9, 2026, John W. McCarthy to serve from January 13, 2025 to January 3, 2027, and Ryan Montoya to serve from January 15, 2025 to January 3, 2027.
Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell appointed Carter Burwell to serve on the PIDB for a three-year term from February 15, 2022, to February 14, 2025.
Ezra Cohen was first appointed by President Donald J. Trump to a three-year term and was designated to serve as Chair for a two-year term that ended on January 10, 2023. Speaker Mike Johnson appointed Mr. Cohen to a second three-term from January 11, 2024, to January 10, 2027.
Current Members Biographies
Presidential Appointees
Mark Angelson was appointed by President Joseph Biden to serve a two-year term as Chair, and member of the board from January 15, 2025, to October 9, 2026.* Angelson is Chair of the Institute of International Education. From 2022-2025, Angelson served in the Executive Office of the President of the United States as a member of the President’s Intelligence Advisory Board. Angelson previously served as the Deputy Mayor of the City of Chicago, CEO of RR Donnelley, Chair and CEO of two prominent Canadian public companies, and Chair of MidOcean Partners, an international investment firm. He earlier had a lengthy and distinguished career as an international lawyer in Singapore, New York, and London. Since 2014, Angelson has variously served as Chair and Vice Chair of the Rutgers University Board of Governors, and Chair of several Board Committees, including the search committee that recruited Jonathan Holloway to be Rutgers’ 21st President. In 2023, Rutgers conferred upon Angelson an Honorary Doctorate of Humane Letters. Angelson is a member of the Council on Foreign Relations and its membership committee; the Pilgrims (New York and London); the Royal Society for the Encouragement of Arts, Manufactures and Commerce; and the Economic Club of New York. He is a Life Trustee of Northwestern University and Adjunct Professor of Mergers and Acquisitions at Northwestern’s Kellogg School of Management. He is the coauthor (with Dr. Allan Goodman) of several articles on the efficacy of rescuing threatened professors and rebuilding national academies the world over. Angelson graduated from Rutgers College, where he was elected to Phi Beta Kappa, and from Rutgers Law School. He is a member of the Rutgers Hall of Distinguished Alumni. Angelson holds an Honorary Doctorate of Laws from John Marshall Law School and the Harold Hines Award from the United Negro College Fund. He was nominated by President Biden to be U.S. Ambassador to Norway.
Laura A. DeBonis was appointed by President Joseph Biden to serve a term on the Board from November 30, 2021, through December 29, 2023. President Biden appointed Ms. DeBonis to serve a three-year term from January 11, 2024 to January 10, 2027. Ms. DeBonis previously served on the PIDB from 2015-2018 as an appointee of President Barack Obama. She has over 20 years of experience in the information technology and media fields. She currently serves as a board member and treasurer for the Digital Public Library of America, an organization dedicated to creating an open network of online resources from libraries, archives, and museums and making them freely available to all. Her past professional experience includes a variety of leadership roles at Google, including her last position there as the Director of Library Partnerships for Book Search. Since Google, Ms. DeBonis has been a consultant to business startups and non-profit organizations, including chairing the technology review team for the Internet Safety Technical Task Force at the Berkman Klein Center at Harvard University. Ms. DeBonis is an emerita trustee for the WGBH Educational Foundation in Boston and has also served as a trustee of the Boston Public Library. She received a B.A. from Harvard College and an M.B.A. from Harvard Business School. Ms. DeBonis is serving her third term on the PIDB.
John McCarthy was appointed by President Joseph Biden to serve a term on the Board from January 13, 2025, to January 3, 2027.* John McCarthy most recently served as Deputy Assistant to the President and Senior Advisor for Political Engagement to President Biden. He served as Chief of Staff to Congressman Brendan F. Boyle. He also served as a policy aide to Congressman Frank Pallone, Jr. During the 2021 presidential transition, Mr. McCarthy worked on Legislative Affairs on the Biden-Harris Transition Team. A New Jersey native, he is a graduate of the Catholic University of America where he studied Politics and Theology. He remains active in a number of causes related to Irish-America.
Carmen Medina was appointed by President Joseph Biden to a three-year term on the Board from October 10, 202,3 to October 9, 2026. Ms. Medina, a retired senior federal executive with 32 years of experience in the intelligence community, is a recognized national and international expert on intelligence analysis, strategic thinking, diversity of thought, and innovation and intrapreneurs in the public sector. She is the co-author of the book, Rebels at Work: A Handbook for Leading Change from Within. From 2005-2007 Ms. Medina was part of the executive team that led the CIA’s Analysis Directorate. She was a leader on diversity issues at the CIA, serving on equity boards at all organizational levels and across directorates. She was the first CIA executive to conceptualize many IT applications now used by analysts, including blogs, online production, and collaborative tools; she personally gave the approval for Intellipedia. As a senior executive in 2005, Ms. Medina began using social networking and blogs to reach her diverse workforce. In her last assignment before retiring she oversaw the CIA’s Lessons Learned program. She is the recipient of the Distinguished Career Intelligence Medal. She is currently active in mentoring women in the national security field as a founding member of Amazing Women in the Intelligence Community and serves on the boards of the National Intelligence University and the National Security Institute.
Ryan Montoya was appointed by President Joseph Biden to serve a term on the Board from January 15, 2025, to January 3, 2027.* Mr. Montoya served President Biden as Assistant to the President and Director of Scheduling and Advance. Mr. Montoya served as the Director of Scheduling and Advance and Trip Director for Vice President Kamala Harris in 2020 where he was a member of the leadership team that launched a successful bid to elect the first woman and the first African American as Vice President of the United States. From 2014 to 2020, Mr. Montoya was the Chief Technology and Innovation Officer at the NBA’s Sacramento Kings. Under his leadership, the Kings reimagined the fan experience and were early adopters across a wide array of technology applications, including becoming the first team in professional sports to accept Bitcoin, mine cryptocurrency, utilize AI, deploy 5G, build a Tier 4 data center and establish a dedicated esports training facility. A native of Colorado, Mr. Montoya received his bachelor’s degree in Government and International Studies from the University of Notre Dame, a master’s degree in International Relations and Security from the Josef Korbel School of International Studies at the University of Denver, and, an MBA from California State University, Sacramento.
Congressional Appointees
Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell appointed Carter Burwell to serve on the PIDB for a three-year term from February 15, 2022, to February 14, 2025. Mr. Burwell currently serves as Counsel in the White Collar and Regulatory Defense practice at Debevoise & Plimpton LLP. Before joining the firm in 2021, Mr. Burwell spent more than 15 years in various senior roles across the federal government. Most recently, Mr. Burwell served as Counselor to the Secretary of the Treasury for Terrorism and Financial Intelligence, where he was responsible for helping to lead the Department’s national security mission. Prior to his time at the Treasury Department, Mr. Burwell served as one of the top lawyers on the U.S. Senate Judiciary Committee, including Chief Counsel to former Assistant Majority Leader and U.S. Senator John Cornyn and as Counsel to former Chairman and U.S. Senator Chuck Grassley. In the Senate, Mr. Burwell worked to reform and modernize national security and technology laws and conducted rigorous oversight of government officials. Mr. Burwell began his career in public service as a counter-terrorism prosecutor at the Department of Justice, where he served as an Assistant U.S. Attorney in the Violent Crime and Terrorism Unit of the U.S. Attorney’s Office in the Eastern District of New York and in the National Security and International Crimes Unit in the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Eastern District of Virginia. Earlier in his career, Mr. Burwell was a law clerk for the Honorable John Gleeson, U.S. District Judge for the Eastern District of New York, and the Honorable Karen Henderson on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit. Mr. Burwell is also an adjunct professor at George Mason University’s Antonin Scalia Law School and was a Wasserstein Fellow at Harvard Law School. Mr. Burwell received his J.D. from the University of Virginia School of Law, an M.Phil from the University of Cambridge, and a B.A. from Columbia University.
On January 11, 2021, President Donald J. Trump appointed Ezra Cohen to a three-year term on the PIDB and designated him to serve as Chair for a two-year term that ended on January 10, 2023. Speaker Mike Johnson appointed Mr. Cohen to a second three-year term from January 11, 2024 to January 10, 2027. Prior to his appointment to the PIDB, Mr. Cohen served in senior leadership positions at the Department of Defense (DoD) and Intelligence Community, most recently as the Acting Under Secretary of Defense for Intelligence and Security and Director for Defense Intelligence, Office of the Director of National Intelligence from November 2020 to January 2021. In this role, he exercised authority, direction, and control over the Defense Intelligence Enterprise and Combat Support Agencies. Additionally, he served as the principal civilian intelligence advisor to the Secretary of Defense on all military intelligence-related matters, including signals intelligence, human intelligence, sensitive activities, geospatial intelligence, sensitive reconnaissance, counterintelligence, law enforcement, and security. His previous government positions include Acting Assistant Secretary of Defense for Special Operations and Low-Intensity Conflict (SO/LIC); Principal Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defense for SO/LIC; Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defense for Counter-Narcotics and Global Threats; Special Assistant to the President and Senior Director for Intelligence Programs on the National Security Council; Deputy Defense Intelligence Officer for South Asia at the Defense Intelligence Agency; and as a DoD Operations Officer. Mr. Cohen began his government service as an intern researching 1820 tariff legislation in the Center for Legislative Archives, a part of the National Archives and Records Administration. Mr. Cohen has also worked in the private sector for Oracle Corporation. Mr. Cohen received a B.A. in History from the University of Pennsylvania and a J.D. from the University of Chicago Law School.
Alissa M. Starzak (Vice Chair)
First appointed by Senate Minority Leader Charles E. Schumer on February 27, 2018, to serve a three-year term, the PIDB members elected Alissa M. Starzak as Vice Chair in 2018. She then served as Vice Chair and Acting Chair from June 5, 2020, to January 10, 2021, from January 11, 2023 to December 4, 2023, and again from December 4, 2024, to January 13, 2025, pending the appointment of a Chair by the President. Authorizing legislation extended her first three-year term ending on February 26, 2021, through February 15, 2022. Senate Majority Leader Charles E. Schumer reappointed Ms. Starzak to serve from February 15, 2022, to February 14, 2025, and again for a term that began on February 3, 2025, and will end on February 2, 2028. Ms. Starzak is currently Vice President and Global Head of Public Policy at Cloudflare, a web security and optimization company. Prior to joining Cloudflare, Ms. Starzak worked for the U.S. government in a variety of national security positions. Most recently, she served as the 21st General Counsel of the U.S. Department of the Army, after confirmation by the Senate. As General Counsel of the Army, she was the primary legal counsel to the Secretary of the Army and the Army’s chief legal officer. Her appointment as Army General Counsel followed her service as the Deputy General Counsel for Legislation at the U.S. Department of Defense, where she advised on legal issues with a legislative or congressional component and managed an office of attorneys responsible for developing the Department of Defense legislative program. Prior to moving to the Department of Defense, Ms. Starzak served as Counsel to the U.S. Senate Select Committee on Intelligence, focusing on legal issues relating to intelligence collection and covert action, and as an Assistant General Counsel at the Central Intelligence Agency’s Office of General Counsel. She also worked in private practice in Washington, D.C., and clerked for The Honorable E. Grady Jolly, U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit. She graduated from Amherst College and the University of Chicago Law School, where she served as an editor of the University of Chicago Law Review. Ms. Starzak is serving her third term on the PIDB.
*Note: PIDB members typically serve for 3-year terms.
Mr. Angelson’s official appointment from the White Office of the Executive Clerk stipulated the appointment is for the remainder of the term expiring on October 9, 2026, vice Mary B. DeRosa.
Mr. McCarthy’s official appointment from the White Office of the Executive Clerk stipulated the appointment is for the remainder of the term expiring on January 3, 2027, vice David J. Hickton.
Mr. Montoya’s official appointment from the White Office of the Executive Clerk stipulated the appointment is for the remainder of the term expiring on January 3, 2027, and with Andrew Byrnes.