NNSA manager is new environmental field boss at Los Alamos

Jessica Kunkle. a Los Alamos, N.M., native and longtime National Nuclear Security Administration executive, will lead the Department of Energy Office of Environmental Management field operation at the Los Alamos National Laboratory starting in June.

Kunkle has been with the National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA) about 15 years and is a deputy administrator with NNSA’s Office of Infrastructure Lifecycle Management in Washington, D.C., according to a Wednesday press release from DOE.

Kunkle’s current work involves infrastructure planning, financial management and other high-level tasks, Environmental Management said in the news release. She recently served as acting manager of NNSA’s Savannah River Site field office in Aiken, S.C.

Kunkle will assume her new role on June 16, and the current Environmental Management-Los Alamos acting field office manager, Ellie Gilbertson, will return to her role as deputy field office manager, according to the release.

Gilbertson has overseen legacy nuclear cleanup at Los Alamos since former field office boss Michael Mikolanis left in April to become NNSA’s field office manager at the Savannah River Site in South Carolina.

Kunkle holds bachelors and masters’ degrees from the University of New Mexico, Jeff Avery, the No. 2 official at DOE’s $8-billion nuclear cleanup branch said in a Wednesday email to staff. “Originally from Los Alamos, Jessica is excited to be heading back to her New Mexico roots with her husband and daughter,” Avery said.