Every Monday on GovExec.com, Comings and Goings announces the arrivals and departures of top federal managers and executives. To submit an announcement, e-mail it to ksaldarini@govexec.com or fax it to 202-739-8511.
President Clinton Wednesday announced he will nominate former Rep. Jay Johnson, D-Wis., to be the director of the U.S. Mint. Johnson, currently deputy assistant secretary for congressional relations at the Agriculture Department, was a Green Bay-based TV news anchor prior to winning a traditionally Republican House seat in northeast Wisconsin in 1996. He lost his bid for re-election in November to current GOP Rep. Mark Green. No plans have yet been announced for current Mint Director Philip N. Diehl.
Kathleen Adams, assistant deputy commissioner for systems at the Social Security Administration, has accepted an early out. Adams will leave SSA at the end of September to become a vice president for strategic accounts at SRA International Inc., a systems integrator company. A 27-year veteran of the civil service, Adams serves as the chairwoman of the Chief Information Officers Council's Year 2000 subcommittee and is widely recognized for her Y2K work.
Luther Williams, director of science and math education at the National Science Foundation, is leaving NSF at the end of August to take a post at the Payson Center for International Development and Technology Transfer at Tulane University. Judith Sunley has been named interim head of the division. Williams, a former biology professor, had been on the job for nine years. His move was prompted by a rotation policy at NSF and his desire for a change. There are no immediate plans to find a permanent replacement for Williams.
Paul Seltman, an eight-year Capitol Hill veteran, is leaving his position as minority counsel for the Senate Budget Committee to join the Department of Health and Human Services. At HHS, Seltman will be a special assistant in the Office of the Assistant Secretary for Legislation.
President Clinton recently nominated Anne H. Chasser to be assistant commissioner for trademarks at the Patent and Trademark Office. Chasser currently is the director of trademarks and licensing services at Ohio State University. She established the Ohio State University Licensing Program in 1982. In her new role, Chasser will be responsible for developing the U.S. trademark system, for proposing policy and programmatic changes to the system and for advocating U.S. trademark property worldwide.
Baruch S. Blumberg, a former Nobel Prize winner, will soon join NASA as head of the agency's Astrobiology Institute. The Institute is a public-private partnership that brings together experts in astronomy, molecular biology, genomics, geology, ecology, paleontology, physics, chemistry and zoology to research the origins of life.
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