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

Danny Sells is moving up at the Agriculture Department's Natural Resources Conservation Service. Sells, a Tennessee Angus cattle and horse breeder, joined the service in 1993 as special assistant to the chief. A year later he added legislative affairs to his responsibilities. On March 1, he became associate chief for the conservation service.

Also at USDA, Secretary Dan Glickman has named fellow Kansan Sally Thompson as chief financial officer for the department. She comes to the department after serving as Kansas state treasurer since 1991.

Intellectual property lawyer Q. Todd Dickinson has been picked to be deputy assistant secretary and deputy commissioner of the Patent and Trademark Office at the Commerce Department. Dickinson will have both policy and operational powers in his new positions. His job also entails promoting U.S. citizens' intellectual property rights around the globe.

The National Association of Retired Federal Employees has a new public relations director: Chuck Timanus. Timanus was a spokesman for Agriculture Secretary Dan Glickman when he was a House member from Kansas and for Sen. Thomas Daschle, D-S.D., when Daschle served in the House of Representatives.

G O I N G S

Attorney General Janet Reno has pulled naturalization operations chief Robert K. Bratt out from the Immigration and Naturalization Service. Reno moved Bratt from the Justice Department's criminal division to the INS position last April to review and revamp the troubled agency's operations. Bratt has now been assigned to Justice's management division. No explanation for the move was given. Another Justice official, James Angus, has been named acting executive director of naturalization operations.

K U D O S

Dr. Fred E. Saalfeld, deputy chief of Naval research and technical director at the Office of Naval Research, was presented with a Department of the Navy Distinguished Civilian Service Award at a recent ceremony. Saalfeld is credited with improving management and diversity at the ONR. He has received numerous awards and is a member of the President's Science Advisor's Council on Scientific Integrity and Misconduct.

Office of Personnel Management Director Janice Lachance will accept an Optimas Award for outstanding human resources management from Workforce magazine this week. Allan Halcrow, editor-in-chief at the magazine, said, "OPM is being recognized in the managing change category for an array of innovative, bottom-line labor-management initiatives."

CIO Magazine has awarded the Environmental Protection Agency an Enterprise Value Award for its Envirofacts Warehouse Web site. The site serves as a single access point for citizens looking for environmental information.