The Defense Nuclear Facilities Safety Board, currently lacking a quorum, said Wednesday it has filled one of three big staff vacancies by hiring a U.S. Export Import Bank manager as its new executive director of operations.
Mary Jean Buhler, chief financial officer at the Export Import Bank, will become the Defense Nuclear Facilities Safety Board (DNFSB) executive director of operations on Dec. 3, the board said in a press release. The bank is the official export credit agency of the United States.
The board, set up as a five-member watchdog for Department of Energy nuclear sites, is down to two members, chair Joyce Connery and vice chair Thomas Summers, following the recent retirement of longtime member Jessie Hill Roberson.
Savannah River National Laboratory manager Patricia Lee, nominated by President Joe Biden, was last week favorably reported out of the Senate Armed Services Committee and awaits a confirmation vote on the Senate floor that was not scheduled as of Thursday morning.
Buhler has also worked as the Export-Import bank performance improvement officer and oversaw the agency’s internal controls program and Office of Inspector General liaison function, the DNFSB said in the press release.
About 15 months ago, the last executive director, Joel Spangenberg left after serving in the post for less than two years to become the deputy director of the U.S. Selective Service system. The operations job was created through the fiscal 2020 National Defense Authorization Act following a 2018 report that said DNFSB “underperformed” its core mission of providing independent safety advice to DOE.
The 2018 report from the National Academy of Public Administration said hiring an executive director would provide “a more traditional relationship among presidentially-appointed officials and professional staff.”
Buhler has more than 25 years of federal and private sector experience, DNFSB said. She also served as the deputy chief financial officer for the executive office of the president. Buhler has been with the Export-Import Bank four years, after serving in a similar capacity for about six years at the Commodity Futures Trading Commission, according to her LinkedIn profile.
Meanwhile, the board continues to have acting managers in two key positions, technical director and general counsel.
Timothy Dwyer is the board’s acting technical director after Christopher Roscetti left to take a job at DOE. Joseph Gilman is the acting general counsel, according to a recent DNFSB organizational chart. As recently as September, Kevin Lyskowski was listed in DNFSB records as the DNFSB general counsel.
“The Board is working toward filling the various vacancies at the agency, but we can’t comment on all the specifics of ongoing recruitment efforts at this time,” associate director for board operations Tara Tadlock said in an email Monday.
