Sarah Foster on Sept. 3 will join Gov. Tina Kotek’s staff as workforce, labor and higher education adviser. Foster comes to the Governor’s Office from the Higher Education Coordinating Commission, where she was a policy adviser for the Healthcare Industry Consortium’s strategic initiative under Future Ready Oregon.

Svetha Ambati was promoted from housing analyst to senior housing adviser for Kotek. Her new role will include working closely with Matt Tschabold, who directs the governor’s Housing and Homelessness Initiative. 

Kotek named Ellen Waterston to a two-year appointment as Oregon poet laureate. Waterston is a Bend poet/writer, teacher, speaker and founder of the Writing Ranch and the Waterston Desert Writing Prize. She is Oregon’s 11th poet laureate, extending the line of Edwin Charles Markham, 1921-1940; Ben Hur Lampman, 1951-1954; Ethel Romig Fuller, 1957-1965; William Stafford, 1974-1989; Lawson Inada, 2006-2010; Paulann Petersen, 2010-2014; Peter Sears, 2014-2016; Elizabeth Woody, 2016-2018; Kim Stafford, 2018-2020; and Anis Mojgani, 2020-2024.

 The governor appointed Ryan S. Joslin as Benton County district attorney, effective Sept. 1. Currently the chief deputy district attorney, he will replace John Haroldson, who is retiring. Joslin received nearly 99% of the vote in the May primary. 

In other news involving Kotek, she will join the nation’s seven other Democratic women governors for a panel discussion on Wednesday hosted by Julia Louis-Dreyfus in conjunction with the Democratic National Convention in Chicago.

Amber Allen moved to the Oregon Department of the State Fire Marshal as safety and risk manager. She came from Oregon Parks and Recreation, where she was the risk manager for the past 15 years. 

TJ Sheehy is director of programs at the Oregon Patient Safety Commission, filling a new position. Sheehy previously was director of analytics and research at the Oregon Liquor and Cannabis Commission.

Alex Pulaski, the Oregon School Boards Association’s communications director since 2016, joined the Tigard-Tualatin School District as interim director of communications and community relations. Longtime OSBA staffers Jake Arnold, communications and news specialist, and Gina Hutchinson, graphic design and print specialist, are helping cover Pulaski’s position. Meanwhile, later this month the OSBA Board will discuss whether to appoint Interim Executive Director Emielle Nischik as permanent director.

Diane Lund-Muzikant, founder and editor emeritus of The Lund Report, is stepping down from the board of directors. The news site covers health care issues in Oregon and Southwest Washington. She will be honored at a Sept. 19 event in Portland.