Biden picks TV personality Star Jones to lead heritage board

Star Jones to chair the U.S. Commission for the Preservation of America’s Heritage Abroad

President Joe Biden has selected lawyer and television personality Star Jones Lugo to lead a U.S. government agency that identifies and protects sites of historic significance to the U.S. in Eastern Europe.

Star Jones speaks onstage during the Angel Ball Summer Gala Honoring Simone I. Smith & Maye Musk hosted by Gabrielle’s Angel Foundation on August 20, 2021 in Southampton, New York. (Photo by Dimitrios Kambouris/Getty Images for Gabrielle’s Angel Foundation)

The White House announced Friday that Jones will be the chair of the U.S. Commission for the Preservation of America’s Heritage Abroad, which is tasked with safeguarding sites associated with groups impacted by Nazism, communism and the Cold War.

Jones is a one-time prosecutor and former cohost of ABC’s The View, and will become a judge on the television show Divorce Court this fall.

Jones will preside over divorce proceedings on the show, which is the longest-running court show on television with 38 seasons.

In addition to her time as a legal correspondent for NBC, Jones, 59, was the first Black person and the first woman to serve as a TV arbitrator on the short-lived court show, Jones & Jury. In 1997, she joined The View as one of the original co-hosts and stayed with the show until 2006. She has also appeared as a commentator, host, and advocate on several networks including NBC, MSNBC, CNN, and TruTV. 

Biden, who picks seven members to the agency’s unpaid 21-person board, also selected Bill Shaheen, the husband of New Hampshire Sen. Jeanne Shaheen, to the commission.

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