There are three new federal field office managers and one new deputy field office manager across the National Nuclear Security Administration’s nuclear security enterprise, according to a recent dear-colleagues letter from acting agency administrator Charles Verdon.
Also, Verdon said, two longtime civil servants will retire from National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA) headquarters in Washington at the end of April.
First, Ted Wyka was appointed field office manager for the agency’s Los Alamos Field Office, Verdon said in the letter. Wyka will start in June, replacing Michael Weiss, who had been the local fed since January 2020. Weiss is leaving the NNSA for a position in the Department of Energy’s Office of Science, Verdon said.
Weiss replaced Steve Goodrum, who retired in 2019 after about two years as manager of the Los Alamos Field Office. Goodrum had replaced Kim Davis Lebak, who retired from federal service after 30 years DOE and four years as the Los Alamos fed — about twice as long as each of her successors lasted in the role.
Elsewhere in the NNSA enterprise, Jason Armstrong was promoted to Field Office Manager for the Savannah River Field Office. He was previously assistant manager for nuclear safety and engineering at the NNSA Production Office, since 2018. The production office covers both the Y-12 National Security Campus in Oak Ride, Tenn., and the Pantex Plant in Amarillo, Texas.
At the production office, Teresa Robbins will take over as field office manager from Geoff Beausoleil, who will retire at the end of April, Verdon said. Beausoleil had managed the NNSA production office since 2015. Robbins has been the production office’s deputy field office manager since 2014.
Finally, Laura Tomlinson was promoted to deputy field office manager for the NNSA’s Nevada Field Office. Tomlinson had been in that role on an acting basis since November 2020.
Meanwhile, Steve Lawrence, senior advisor to the associate principal deputy administrator and the longtime former field office manager for the nevada field office, will retire at the end of April. In late October, Lawrence said publicly that he was receiving treatment for cancer.
Phil Calbos, the principal assistant deputy administrator for NNSA’s office of defense programs is also retiring at the end of April. Calbos has been the number-two at the NNSA’s central weapons stovepipe since 2011.
Calbos is Verdon’s deputy. Verdon, the full-time deputy administrator for defense programs, has been the acting NNSA administrator since Jan. 21, when Joe Biden was sworn in as president. Verdon is the sole surviving Senate-confirmed NNSA headquarters official nominated by former president Donald Trump.
