Melanie Roussell, a seasoned Democratic PR operative who was communications director for disgraced former Rep. William Jefferson, has been tapped for the assistant secretary for public affairs post at the U.S. Dept. of Housing and Urban Development.
President Barack Obama announced his intention to appoint Roussell on April 9. His first nominee for the post in 2009, Steven Jacques, was never confirmed by the Senate and Obama signed a bill last year to remove the position – along with 165 others – from the list of posts that require Senate consent.
Roussell, who is currently press secretary for the Democratic National Committee, is a former press secretary for HUD.
Starting out as an intern for Jefferson, she re-joined the Louisiana Democrat's office as communications director in 2004, handling the Hurricane Katrina aftermath and the bribery scandal that would take down the Congressman in 2007. She was later communications director for the House Judiciary Committee and handled the southern region for Obama's 2008 presidential campaign and was tapped for the HUD post after his election.
The HUD PA operation churns out an average of 250 press releases a year, in addition to blogging, social media, monitoring, internal comms. and press inquiry duties.
Alex Wohl, deputy assistant secretary for PA at HUD, currently heads the unit.
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