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

Agriculture Department civil rights chief Pearlie S. Reed will take the helm of USDA's Natural Resources Conservation Service on March 1. Reed, a 28-year veteran of USDA, has headed up the department's civil rights efforts since December 1996 and has been acting assistant secretary for administration for a year. Reed won the Presidential Rank Award in 1996, the highest honor for a member of the Senior Executive Service.

The Senate last week confirmed Donald C. Lubick as assistant secretary of the Treasury for tax policy. Lubick has been acting in that position since June 1996. Prior to that, he directed the tax advisory program for former Communist countries. Lubick has floated between positions at Treasury and a partnership with the law firm of Hodgson, Russ, Andrews, Woods & Goodyear since 1950.

Seth D. Harris is President Clinton's choice to be administrator of the Wage and Hour Division at the Labor Department. Currently a deputy assistant secretary for policy at Labor, Harris was a special assistant to former Labor Secretary Robert Reich.

Also at Labor, Raymond L. Bramucci has been nominated to serve as an assistant secretary, heading up the Employment and Training Administration. Brammucci is executive director of the Seton Hall University Institute on Work, which advocates workplace equity.

G O I N G S

Dr. John H. "Jack" Gibbons, assistant to the President for science and technology, has announced he will resign next month from his White House post. As director of the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy since 1993, Gibbons has pushed for more energy-efficient vehicles and a safer nuclear stockpile policy. President Clinton said he will nominate Dr. Neal Lane, director of the National Science Foundation, to replace Gibbons. Dr. Rita R. Colwell, a microbiology professor at the University of Maryland, will be Clinton's nominee to take over at NSF.

K U D O S

Dr. Robert H. Purcell, head of the hepatitis viruses section at the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, was awarded the 1998 King Faisal International Prize for Medicine at a ceremony in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia this month. Purcell and Georgetown University researcher John L. Gerin were honored for their efforts to battle hepatitis. Their research led to the development of the hepatitis A vaccine that is in use worldwide, and they have also developed a hepatitis E vaccine that is now in preclinical studies. The King Faisal International Prize is given in honor of King Faisal ibn Abd Al Aziz, who ruled Saudi Arabia from 1964 to 1975.