Comings and Goings

Every Monday on GovExec.com, Comings and Goings announces the arrivals and departures of top federal managers and executives. To submit an announcement, e-mail it to webmaster@govexec.com or fax it to 202-739-8511.

C O M I N G S

Emmanuel "Manny" De Vera has become director of the General Services Administration's newly created Information Technology Solutions Regional Services Center. The center is within GSA's Federal Technology Service. De Vera is responsible for IT services in the agency's 11 regions nationwide. Previously director of the Information Technology and Assessment Center at the National Institutes of Health, De Vera spearheaded the creation of two governmentwide acquistion programs, Image World and the CIO Solutions and Partners program.

President Clinton has named Timothy Fields Jr., to be assistant administrator for solid waste at the Environmental Protection Agency. Fields has been with EPA for 26 years and was a 1993 winner of the Presidential Rank Award for Distinguished Executive Service.

Los Alamos National Laboratory has picked Donna M. Smith as program manager for the lab's Extractive Industries Technology Program. Smith is responsible for developing and managing research programs in the oil and gas, mining and geothermal industries. Smith has been a researcher with the lab since 1984.

Karen Kirchgasser is the new deputy press secretary at the State Department. Prior to her new appointment, Kirchgasser was a spokeswoman for Sen. Richard Bryan, D-Nev.

G O I N G S

Deborah Williams, special assistant for Alaska under Interior Secretary Bruce Babbitt, is leaving her job after nearly five years. Babbitt praised Williams for working "tirelessly to fight for the protection of Alaska's natural resources and wildlife."

Gregory Casey is leaving his post as the Senate's Sergeant at Arms at the end of this congressional session. Casey's replacement will be James W. Ziglar, former managing director of PaineWebber and assistant secretary for water and science at the Interior Department in the late 1980s.

K U D O S

The General Services Administration's Office of Governmentwide Policy has picked the winners of the second annual Achievement Award for Real Property Innovation. In the Best Policy category, GSA selected NASA's Partnering for Land Use program. Under the program, Johnson Space Center in Houston worked with a local school district to create an agricultural science center on NASA land. The Best Practice category winners were the Administrative Office of the U.S. Courts and GSA's Public Buildings Service Rocky Mountain Region. The courts created a long-term planning model to determine future space needs of all 94 judicial districts. The buildings service created a funding program for its field offices that based budgets on prior-year performance.

At a ceremony last week, Office of Personnel Management Director Janice Lachance honored nearly 200 OPM employees with the 1998 Director's Award. The award went to employees who improved customer service or developed innovative approaches to human resources management. Said Lachance: "Not a single minute of any work day goes by without one of our honorees providing information or some other form of assistance to someone, somewhere across our country."