OREGON CAPITAL INSIDER - Carpet in the Oregon governor's ceremonial office in the state Capitol in Salem

Attorney General Ellen Rosenblum appointed Joanne Southey as director of the new Child Advocacy and Protection Division in the Oregon Department of Justice. Southey was chief counsel for child advocacy in the Civil Enforcement Division, having been with the department since 2003. DOJ attorney Rahela Rehman is deputy director.

LaShawanta Spears, incoming assistant superintendent in the David Douglas School District, this month began her one-year term as president of the Coalition of Oregon School Administrators. She succeeds Darin Drill, superintendent of the Cascade School District. COSA members chose Majalise Tolan, incoming superintendent of the Lincoln County School District, as president-elect.

After 18 years at the Oregon Center for Public Policy, Research Director Janet Bauer is moving to the University of Oregon’s Labor Education and Research Center.

In August, former legislator Bruce Starr will complete his first year on the Dundee City Council. First appointed to fill a council vacancy, he was elected in November to a full term. Starr served on the Hillsboro City Council during 1995-98, served in the Oregon House and Senate during 1999-2014 as a Republican from Hillsboro and was the 2013-14 president of the National Conference of State Legislatures. He ran unsuccessfully for state labor commissioner in 2012 against incumbent Brad Avakian. Should Starr decide to seek legislative office again, he lives in the districts currently represented by Sen. Brian Boquist, I-Dallas, and Rep. Anna Scharf, R-Amity.

Longtime Oregon journalist Steve Bagwell, editorial page editor of the semi-weekly News-Register in McMinnville, won this year’s Golden Quill Award for editorial writing from the International Society of Weekly Newspaper Editors. Published on Dec. 8, 2022, his winning editorial was titled, “What happened to concern over the heavy hand of government?”

Elaine Lozier is now executive director of the Mid-Willamette Valley Homeless Alliance. Lozier, who was a community health coordinator for PacificSource Health Plans, has been an Alliance board member and volunteer.