Three long-serving feds at the Department of Energy’s Office of Environmental Management have been formally appointed to key management roles on a permanent basis, the No. 2 official at the nuclear cleanup branch said recently.
Greg Sosson will become associate principal deputy assistant secretary for field operations effective immediately, said Jeff Avery, DOE Environmental Management (EM) second-in-command, in personnel announcements viewed by Exchange Monitor.
Kristen Ellis was appointed associate principal deputy assistant secretary for the Office of Regulatory and Policy Affairs, effective Nov. 5 and Betsy Forinash was made deputy manager of the Carlsbad Field Office in New Mexico effective Nov. 19.
All three have basically been doing these jobs for some time, Avery said in the Ellis announcement, dated Tuesday, Oct. 31.
Ellis has held many supervisory roles during her 21 years with DOE and has been acting in her current capacity since April, Avery said. She succeeded Randall Hendrickson, who took a private industry job in Canada.
Since April, Ellis has been doing double-duty, also serving as director for the regulatory, intergovernmental, and stakeholder engagement office, Avery said. Avery added that Ellis will continue in this dual role.
Sosson, an Army Reserve and National Guard veteran, spent 28 years in the commercial nuclear industry before joining EM in 2015, Avery said. Sosson has been acting head of field operations since June, developing guidance for the 15 field sites. He took over field ops when Nicole Nelson-Jean left EM to go back to the National Nuclear Security Administration.
Forinash, who worked 15 years with the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and has been with EM since 2014, has served since February as acting deputy manager at the Carlsbad Field Office in New Mexico, which oversees the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant, Avery said.
Forinash replaced Mark Bollinger, who became Carlsbad’s manager when Reinhard Knerr left to become deputy manager of the Portsmouth-Paducah Project Office.
The latest environmental management organizational chart can be found here.
