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

Patricia Fox is the new manager at South Slough National Estuarine Research Reserve, which the Department of State Lands oversees in partnership with NOAA. Bree Yednock, the former manager, took a job with an international environmental law organization. Fox previously managed the DSL teams that oversee state-owned waterways and protect wetlands and waters in the southern region of Oregon. 

The department also added staff to tackle the hazardous boats, ships, and other abandoned and derelict vessels afflicting Oregon waterways, an issue discussed at last week’s meeting of the State Land Board. Josh Mulhollem is the waterways stewardship manager and Dorothy Diehl is the waterways stewardship project manager. Both came to DSL from the State Marine Board, where they handled abandoned and derelict vessels. In addition, DSL’s Michelle Johnson has been promoted to contracting specialist 3; part of that role is the complex contracting involved in removing these vessels. 

Tiffany Johnson starts work May 28 as Region 4 manager for the Oregon Department of Transportation’s Delivery and Operations Division. Headquartered in Bend, the region covers Central Oregon. With nearly 18 years’ experience, Johnson was a regional director of operations at Amazon, responsible for fulfillment center operations with19,000 employees across multiple states.

Oregon House Democrats this week elected Rep. Tom Andersen of Salem as an assistant majority leader. He replaces Rep. Ben Bowman of Tigard, who was elevated to majority leader. Rep. Hai Pham of Hillsboro will serve the caucus as chair of professional development.

More changes are unfolding among Gov. Tina Kotek’s staff:

• Rachael Moser joins Kotek on April 22 as education policy adviser. Since 2019, Moser has been director of systems capacity and improvement at the Oregon Department of Education. Her role will include working with education agencies and stakeholders to implement Kotek’s commitment to support the social-emotional needs of students, as well as to update the state school funding formula and incorporate lessons learned from the Student Success Act. Education adviser Melissa Goff, a former school superintendent, had left the governor’s staff last October to become interim director of the Oregon Teacher Standards and Practices Commission. The agency has yet to appoint a permanent director.

• Deputy General Counsel Lindsey Burrows is leaving April 26 to resume practice as a criminal defense lawyer.

• Andrea Cooper, who as of March 29 no longer was Kotek’s chief of staff, is at the Department of Administrative Services on an eight-month role as a senior adviser under a transition agreement that began April 1.

Michael Burdick, an Association of Oregon Counties lobbyist handling community development and public safety, moved to the Oregon Department of Human Services as fiscal policy adviser.

Andrea Easton, who was vice president of government affairs at the Hospital Association of Oregon, is government relations director for Samaritan Health Services in Corvallis.

Morgan Day is the new CEO of the Portland-based education nonprofit All Hands Raised. An adjunct instructor at Portland State University, she was director of Global Youth Programs and Partnerships at The World Food Prize Foundation.

Eric Noll was promoted to director of regional government relations and policy at PSU. 

Charles F. Sams III, who in 2021 became the first Native American to lead the National Park Service, is among the 2024 Oregon History Maker honorees. He is an enrolled member of Walla Walla and Cayuse, was executive director of the Confederated Tribes of Umatilla Indian Reservation and represented Oregon on the Northwest Power and Conservation Council. The Oregon Historical Society will host the awards dinner Oct. 6 at the Portland Art Museum. Other honorees are Susan Sokol Blosser, who co-founded Sokol Blosser Winery in 1971; David Huang, an OHSU ophthalmologist who co-invented optical coherence tomography; and Papé companies, the fourth-generation family-owned heavy equipment dealer based in Eugene.

The FBI’s Oregon operations will be led by a former Salem agent. Douglas A. Olson was appointed as special agent in charge of the Portland Field Office. He most recently was a section chief in the Criminal Investigative Division at FBI headquarters in Washington, D.C. A former scout-sniper platoon commander and intelligence officer in the Marine Corps, Olson joined the FBI in 2003. He was appointed supervisory senior resident agent in Salem in 2013 before being promoted in 2016 to assistant legal attaché in Stockholm.