Speaker Robert RivasCalifornia Assembly Speaker Robert Rivas announced a new legislative leadership team on Tuesday, including Assemblymember Cecilia Aguiar-Curry, D-Davis, as the new majority leader. She replaces Assemblymember Isaac Bryan, D-Los Angeles, who will now serve as chair of the Natural Resources committee. Other changes of note: Jim Wood, D-Healdsburg, as speaker pro tem; Miguel Santiago, D-Los Angeles, as assistant majority leader; Buffy Wicks, D-Oakland, will chair the appropriations committee; and Jesse Gabriel, D-Encino, will lead the budget committee.
Helene Dillard has announced her plans to retire from her role as dean of the UC Davis College of Agricultural and Environmental Sciences, or CA&ES, after 10 years on the job. She came to UC Davis from Cornell University, where she was an associate dean, a professor of plant pathology and a cooperative extension specialist. Dillard plans to stay in the role until her successor is appointed next year.
Gov. Gavin Newsom has picked Sarah Izant as the next Deputy Secretary for Climate Policy at the California Environmental Protection Agency. Izant is currently the manager of state and federal affairs in the San Francisco mayor's office and also has experience at the California Public Utilities Commission and the California Air Resources Board.
Washington's Christine Hamp has been chosen as the next president of the National Grange. Hamp, the group’s vice president since 2021, takes over for Betsy Huber, the group’s leader since 2015.
Helene Dillard, UC DavisSeveral other Grange members took new positions on the board: John Benedik of New Jersey succeeds Hamp as vice president; Washington’s Tom Gwin is the group’s new lecturer/program director; Christopher Johnston of Michigan was chosen as a board steward; Walter Hartley of Rhode Island is the new assistant steward; Kay Hoffman Stiles of Maryland is the group’s new chaplain; David Allen of North Carolina is the new Grange gatekeeper; Barbara Foster of West Virginia is the group’s new Pomona.
Dairy Farmers of America staffer Martin Bates was recently promoted to president of global relations and marketing. Bates was previously the president of ingredient solutions and first joined DFA in 2018 as its senior VP and COO for global dairy ingredients.
Brittany Jablonsky is returning to the National Farmers Union as the group's chief of staff at the beginning of 2024. Jablonsky was with NFU from 2008 to 2014 before heading to Capitol Hill to work for Sen. Amy Klobuchar, D-Minn. She was most recently the vice president of public policy and stakeholder relations at Farm Credit Council.
Former Obama administration Commerce Secretary and U.S. Ambassador to China Gary Locke has joined international law firm Dorsey and Whitney as a senior adviser. Aside from his federal positions, Locke was also a governor of Washington. He was the first Chinese American governor and the first Asian-American governor in the continental U.S. His most recent roles include the interim presidency of Bellevue College and chair of the Committee of 100, an organization promoting civic engagement among Chinese Americans.
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Dana O’Brien has started a new boutique consulting firm, Dana O’Brien Strategies, to help clients with issues around sustainability. O’Brien is a veteran of several positions at the Biotechnology Innovation Organization, most recently as its chief sustainability officer and deputy chief operating officer.
Eric Mitchell, Alliance to End HungerEric Mitchell has a new role at the Alliance to End Hunger. After joining the group in 2020 as executive director, he was recently appointed president by the alliance board. Mitchell’s work history also includes stops at Bread for the World and on Capitol Hill, where he worked in the House for Georgia Democrats John Lewis and Sanford Bishop, the current ranking member of the House Ag Appropriations subcommittee.
Art Simon, the Lutheran pastor who convened a group of more than a dozen clergy to found Bread for the World in 1974, died last week. He was 93. Simon served 16 years as the organization’s first president and then worked another five years as the director of the Washington office of the Christian Children’s Fund. Simon received numerous awards and recognitions for his work including the Presidential Hunger Award for Lifetime Achievement and a 2019 House resolution in his honor co-introduced by House Ag Committee member Mike Bost, R-Ill., and former Ag Committee member Cheri Bustos, D-Ill. Bread for the World is planning an online service in his memory on Dec. 4.
William A. Powell, a biologist who helped create a transgenic blight-tolerant American chestnut that is poised for regulatory approval, died Nov. 12 at his home in Syracuse, New York. He was 67. Powell headed the American Chestnut Restoration Project at the State University of New York’s College of Environmental Science and Forestry (ESF), which applied for approval from USDA, FDA and EPA. Powell last year anticipated USDA approval late this year.
