A panel of experts mandated by Congress to modernize the State Department is about to gain some new members.

President Joe Biden announced Tuesday he intends to appoint four members to the State Department’s Commission on Reform and Modernization.

All of Biden’s intended picks are former State Department officials with decades of experience. One of the intended nominees previously led the State Department’s investigation of Havana Syndrome, which has impacted hundreds of U.S. personnel overseas.

“The commission’s recommendations will aim to improve the department’s structural organization, revamp training requirements for personnel, and improve facilities and embassies around the world,” the White House wrote in its press release.

Congress created the commission in the fiscal 2023 National Defense Authorization Act.

The FY 2023 NDAA gives the commission 18 months to examine the challenges of modern-day diplomacy and report its findings to Congress and the president.

Lawmakers gave the new commission $2 million in funding in the FY 2024 omnibus spending bill.

Secretary of State Antony Blinken and Deputy Secretary for Management and Resources Richard Verma have told lawmakers they support the commission’s work.

During his tenure, Blinken has led a diplomatic modernization agenda, focused on equipping the agency with experts in cybersecurity, public health and strategic competition with China.

“We’ve reorganized the department to make sure that it can be fit for purpose for the challenges of this time, whether that comes to dealing with new technologies, whether that comes to dealing with global health, climate, dealing with China,” Blinken told members of Senate Appropriations Committee in May.” We are making the necessary investments to try to attract and retain the most talented workforce possible. We’re investing in our people in Washington, at our post overseas with training, with technology for promoting more agility, innovation, efficiency in our processes.”

Blinken said he and other State Department have been in talks with lawmakers with recommendations for the commission.

“We very much want to make sure that we provide the support to do it,” Blinken said.

Among his picks, Biden plans to appoint Pamela Spratlen, the former member of a State Department task force investigating cases of “Havana Syndrome” — which the department calls anomalous health incidents.

Spratlen served as coordinator for the Health Incident Response Task Force. She started the job in March 2021, but stepped down six months later.

During her tenure, she told Federal News Network in an exclusive interview she was determined to “reinvigorate” the task force, after it had spent years investigating health incidents, but reached few conclusions about root causes.

“The question always is, what caused this? How is it that five years after initial reports of these kinds of incidents at our embassy in Havana, Cuba, could we still not know exactly what happened? That’s the big question that we all want to know,” Spratlen said in an April 2021 interview.

The National Academy of Sciences, in a report contracted by the department, concluded that “pulse radio frequency,” or high-frequency microwaves led to these health problems.

“The basic fact is that we’re still perplexed about what exactly happened. So, the pulse radio frequency seems to be the leading kind of idea about what might have caused this. But it’s not the only idea out there,” Spratlen said.

However, a 2019 FBI report first reported by the New York Times found these anomalous health incidents were mostly caused by an “episode of social contagion,” or mass hysteria.

Common Havana Syndrome symptoms include severe headaches, dizziness, blurred vision, tinnitus and vertigo.

The Government Accountability Office estimates more than 300 Americans have been treated for Havana Syndrome symptoms in the military health system.

State Department employees made up about 11% of those cases. Defense Department and intelligence community personnel each accounted for 35% of cases.

Spratlen now serves as a member and leader on non-profit organization boards that address foreign affairs issues, including the American Academy of Diplomacy and the Association of Black American Ambassadors.

Spratlen is also an advisor to programs focused on expanding diversity across foreign affairs agencies.

Biden also intends to appoint the following members to the commission:

• Michael Guest, a retired career member of the Foreign Service, who previously served as deputy executive secretary and principal deputy assistant secretary for legislative affairs.
• Caroline Tess, executive director of National Security Action, an organization dedicated to advancing American global leadership; and former member of the Biden-Harris transition team responsible for the confirmation of national security Cabinet secretaries.
• Ricardo Zuniga, partner of Dinámica Americas, a strategic advisory firm, and former principal deputy assistant secretary of state for Western Hemisphere Affairs

These appointees will join 12 other individuals appointed to the commission by Members of Congress.

Those include Rep. Max Miller (R-Ohio) and former Ambassador to Russia John Sullivan.

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