# How senior is assistant secretary?

**URL:** <https://unanimousconsent.discourse.group/t/how-senior-is-assistant-secretary/778>\
**Category:** Off the Hill\
**Created:** [October 13, 2026, 6:34pm UTC](https://unanimousconsent.discourse.group/t/how-senior-is-assistant-secretary/778 "2026-10-13T18:34:19Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 2\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![bullbaby](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/e5b9ba/32.png) [@bullbaby](https://unanimousconsent.discourse.group/u/bullbaby)\
**Post date:** [October 13, 2026, 6:34pm UTC](https://unanimousconsent.discourse.group/t/how-senior-is-assistant-secretary/778/1 "2026-10-13T18:34:19Z")

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I’m new to a lot of stuff here but I was wondering how senior the role is? I saw that this guy held the role in the last admin but now he’s only an assistant professor which I thought basically translates to entry level professor?

Wondering because someone in my office was making a big deal of the fact they were friends with current asst secretaries but it doesn’t seem very impressive?

> **[Graham Steele](https://law.unc.edu/people/graham-steele/)**
>
> Assistant Professor of Law and Deputy Director of the Center for Banking and Finance

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**Author:** ![braininajar](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/ea5d25/32.png) [@braininajar](https://unanimousconsent.discourse.group/u/braininajar)\
**Post date:** [October 14, 2026, 4:10pm UTC](https://unanimousconsent.discourse.group/t/how-senior-is-assistant-secretary/778/2 "2026-10-14T16:10:13Z")

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It’s very senior. And Graham was the former chief counsel on senate banking under Sherrod brown for a while, so definitely not a junior person.

But agreed that his new role is a bit surprising given how senior he was up to this point.