Oregon Health Authority Director Pat Allen resigned on Thursday, effective Jan. 9. That is the day Gov. Kate Brown, who appointed him, leaves office; Gov.-elect Tina Kotek is sworn in; and the 2023 Legislature convenes. OHA’s director of behavioral health, Steve Allen, also is resigning. The Lund Report first reported the resignations. (The Allens are not related.)

Kotek will be keynote speaker for the 20th Annual Oregon Leadership Summit of the Oregon Business Plan. The Dec. 12 event will be at the Oregon Convention Center in Portland.

Joseph Pickels began as chief counsel for the House Republican Office on Monday. A 2019 graduate of Willamette University College of Law, he previously worked for law firms in Lake Oswego and Canby.

The Oregon Department of Justice, the state’s largest law firm with more than 1,300 employees, is recruiting for a communication director. The application deadline is Nov. 21. After nearly eight years in that role, Kristina Edmunson will be departing next year. She plans to start her own communications practice.

Former gubernatorial aide Shannon Singleton, who is interim director of the Portland-Multnomah County Joint Office of Homeless Services, is leaving next week to become director of community engagement at Espousal Strategies, a government, community and public affairs firm. She worked for Gov. Brown from 2019 until last spring, first as housing policy adviser and then as director of equity and racial justice.