Comings and Goings

A regular feature of GovExec.com, Comings and Goings announces the arrivals and departures of top federal managers and executives. To submit an announcement, e-mail it to webmaster@govexec.com or fax it to 202-739-8511.

C O M I N G S

President Clinton officially nominated Togo D. West, Jr., to be secretary for veterans affairs Tuesday. The former Army secretary is already at VA in an acting capacity. His appointment will require Senate confirmation.

Dan G. Blair, the staff director for the House Subcommittee on the Postal Service, is moving to the other side of Capitol Hill. Sen. Fred Thompson, R-Tenn., has hired Blair as senior counsel for the Senate Governmental Affairs Committee, which Thompson chairs. Blair will handle federal employee and postal issues, as well as federal budget matters, for the committee. Blair is credited with helping establish an independent inspector general's office at the Postal Service.

The Food and Drug Administration's Joseph A. Levitt will spearhead President Clinton's new food safety initiative as director of the Center for Food Safety and Applied Nutrition. He is being promoted from his current position as deputy director in FDA's Center for Devices and Radiological Health. Levitt replaces Dr. Fred Shank, who will become senior advisor to FDA's commissioner for external academic affairs, where he will work with the University of Maryland and help develop the Joint Institute for Food Safety.

The Bureau of Reclamation's Denver service center has a new director: J. Neil Stessman. He was director for the bureau's Great Plains region. Stessman's appointment culminates a 36-year career with the bureau, in which he has overseen facility operations for dams, powerplants and related facilities throughout the country.

Lance R. Simmens is taking over the Health and Human Services Department's office of intergovernmental affairs. Simmens will work with state and local officials on HHS issues and have oversight responsibility for the department's regional directors and regional health administrators. He comes to HHS from the Commerce Department, where he served as both chief of intergovernmental affairs for the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration and as deputy director for the office of sustainable development.

IDG World Expo, which produces more than 100 information technology conferences and expositions each year, has appointed Denise Medved as vice president of government technology expositions. She will oversee a series of government IT trade shows the group will be putting on at the Washington, D.C. Convention Center. Medved previously worked for National Trade Productions and Reed Exhibition Companies, where she handled sales and marketing for FOSE, the popular annual government IT show.

The Federal Communication Commission's Common Carrier Bureau has promoted a new leadership team for its policy and program planning division. Carol Mattey will be division chief, and Melissa Newman and Michael Pryor will serve as her deputies.

G O I N G S

General Services Administration Chief Information Officer Joe Thompson has retired after 31 years with GSA. Thompson reportedly plans to do some gardening, cooking and relaxing back in Pennsylvania with his family. His assistant CIO, Dr. Shereen G. Remez, has taken his place.

Michael Russell, who served as press secretary for the National Performance Review, Vice President Al Gore's reinventing government task force, is now at the helm of the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration's public and consumer affairs office. Russell, who also has served as press secretary to former Surgeon General M. Joycelyn Elders, assumed his duties at NHTSA earlier this month.

K U D O S

Lisa Nelson of the Environmental Protection Agency's National Enforcement Training Institute and Anna Doroshaw of EPA's enforcement capacity and outreach office received Vice President Gore's Hammer Award last week for founding and organizing three Learning Technology Symposiums for federal agencies.