Nicole Nelson-Jean is leaving the Department of Energy’s Office of Environmental Management for the semi-autonomous National Nuclear Security Administration, the cleanup office said Monday.
Nelson-Jean, currently associate principal deputy assistant secretary for field operations, has been chosen as the National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA) associate administrator for infrastructure, said Jeff Avery, the No. 2 boss at the Office of Environmental Management (EM), in a Monday email to staff. The email was viewed by Exchange Monitor.
The NNSA infrastructure position is currently filled on an acting basis by Ken Sheely, according to an NNSA website. Nelson-Jean’s return to NNSA was to be effective June 4, Avery said. Her last day at EM is June 3, according to DOE.
Greg Sosson, who heads EM’s safety, security, and quality assurance program, will replace Nelson-Jean on an acting basis as the Washington-based overseer of the 15 cleanup office field locations, Avery said in the email.
Prior to joining EM in August 2020, Nelson-Jean served in NNSA as its field office manager for the Savannah River Site in South Carolina and the Livermore National Laboratory field office in California, Avery said.
“She also held international roles as the DOE attaché to U.S. Ambassadors in Austria and Japan in addition to Office Director with the Global Threat Reduction Initiative and Deputy Office Director in the Material Protection, Control and Accounting Program,” said Avery.
During her time with the cleanup division, Nelson-Jean has been a leading voice in support of recruiting a more diverse workforce to the old weapons complex, and implementation of the White House’s Justice40.
The NNSA Office of Infrastructure, which Nelson-Jean will lead, was part of what was previously known as Infrastructure and Operations at NNSA. It is one of three directorates carved out of what used to be two as part of a bureaucratic reorganization that coincided roughly with the retirement of longtime NNSA acquisitions and project management lead Robert Raines.
Sosson, who joined EM in 2015, has held various management jobs with the nuclear cleanup office, including stints as the No. 2 field operations executive and acting manager of the Carlsbad Field Office in New Mexico. Prior to DOE, Sosson was in the commercial nuclear industry for 28 years. He also spent 10 years in the Army Reserve and National Guard.
