Josh DuBois - President Obama Names 26-Year-Old Director of Faith-Based Office
White House to Broaden Religious and Community Outreach
Feb. 5, 2009
President Barack Obama has named a 26-year-old Pentecostal minister to head the White House office that coordinates outreach to religious and community organizations.
The White House will announce formally today that Josh DuBois will head the revamped White House Office for Faith-Based and Neighborhood Partnerships, created by an executive order to be signed by President Obama this morning.
Josh DuBois
DuBois directed the religious outreach for the Obama campaign. Previously, he worked as an associate pastor at a Pentecostal church in Massachusetts and received a master's degree in public affairs from Princeton University.
With this announcement, Obama continues an initiative created by an executive order signed by President George W. Bush in his first month in office.
In the Bush administration, the office was designed to work with faith-based and community organizations on social service issues and to advise them on applying for and receiving federal funding.
The Obama administration will seek to expand the role of this office as it relates to policy issues where religious and local leaders can be effective. DuBois will coordinate with faith-based and community organizations on social service outreach and will work to utilize these organizations' efforts to advance the administration's policies, with a primary focus on poverty.
One prominent progressive evangelical leader said DuBois represents a "new generation of faith leaders."
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