Ann Orr

Acting Director

Ann Orr serves as the acting director of the Center for Presidential Transition. Ms. Orr served as chief of staff at the Pension Benefit Guaranty Corporation, a government corporation that protects retirement security and the retirement income of over 35 million American workers, retirees and their families in private-sector defined benefit pension plans, in the Obama administration and continued into the Trump administration to facilitate the transition.

Ms. Orr oversaw the day-to-day management of the Director’s office, managed top agency priorities and provided strategic policy advice to the Director and agency officials. She also served as liaison to the Board of Directors and worked closely with White House officials, Members of Congress and Congressional staff.
 
Ms. Orr’s prior government service includes eight years at the National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH) in the Clinton administration where she served as chief of staff. In her tenure at NEH, Ms. Orr successfully fought efforts to eliminate the agency and created programming to engage the general public in humanities disciplines. Ms. Orr was also a professional staff member for the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee. During her ten years of service, she worked to enact legislation in elementary, secondary and vocational education.
 
In addition to time in government, Ms. Orr’s private sector experience includes positions as executive director of the National Association of Broadcasters Education Foundation and as executive director of the National Trust for the Humanities. Ms. Orr graduated from Yale University.