Hill moves

• Kate O'Connor Harper will serve as chief counsel for the House Energy and Commerce Subcommittee on Communications and Technology, where she's served for the past five years. She previously was chief of staff for NTIA.

• Sahil Mehrotra is now Sen. Maggie Hassan's communications director, and Marisa Nahem is joining the communications team as press secretary. Mehrota was previously deputy comms director, and Nahem was most recently the New Hampshire communications director for the Harris campaign.
• Korryn Reichard is now Rep. Brian Messmer's press secretary, per Leadership Connect. She was most recently the deputy press secretary for Sen. Mike Braun.
• Alejandro Gonzalez Vega has a new position as Sen. Cory Booker's press secretary. He was most recently the communications director at the New York City Council.
• Trace Mitchell has left Sen. Rand Paul's office and is joining the House Judiciary Subcommittee on the Administrative State, Regulatory Reform, and Antitrust as deputy chief counsel.
• House China Select Committee Chair John Moolenaar has announced that Margaret Harker will serve as the general counsel and Alyssa Pettus as communications director. Harker was previously deputy chief counsel for investigations on the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee, and Pettus was most recently at Leidos.
• David Russell, from Moolenaar's personal office, will join the committee staff as senior advisor for policy and communications.

Administration moves

• Coke Morgan Stewart is now the undersecretary of Commerce for intellectual property and deputy director of the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office. She was most recently a senior counsel for O'Melveny & Myers.
• Victoria LaCivita is now the communications director for the White House Office of Science and Technology. She was previously the Trump campaign's Michigan comms director.
• FCC Chair Brendan Carr has announced a slew of staff appointments to his office and the commission, including Scott Delacourt as chief of staff for the FCC, Greg Watson as chief of staff for Carr's office, and Matt Mittelstaedt as director of the office of legislative affairs. Delacourt was most recently at Wiley Rein, Watson began working for Carr in 2021, and Mittelstaedt worked for JD Vance's Senate office as a legislative aide.
• Carr also named acting FCC bureau leadership and other key roles: Joel Taubenblatt, acting chief of the Wireless Telecommunications Bureau; Trent Harkrader, acting chief of the Wireline Competition Bureau; Erin Boone, acting chief of the Media Bureau; Debra Jordan, acting chief of the Public Safety and Homeland Security Bureau; Jacob Lewis, acting general counsel; Patrick Webre, acting chief of the Enforcement Bureau; Eduard Bartholme, acting chief of the Consumer & Governmental Affairs Bureau; and Mark Stephens, as the FCC's managing director.
• Carr shared the appointments of additional FCC leadership positions: Tom Sullivan, acting chief of the Office of International Affairs; Ira Keltz, acting chief engineer, Office of Engineering and Technology; Catherine Matraves, acting chief of the Office of Economics and Analytics; and Katie Gorscak, acting director of the Office of Media Relations.
• Carr also announced that Adam Candeub is serving as the FCC's general counsel.
• FCC commissioner Nathan Simington has named Adam Cassady as his chief of staff following Erin Boone's move. He previously served as Simington's senior legal advisor.
• FCC commissioner Anna Gomez has announced a number of staff changes: legal advisor Hayley Steffen will join the FCC's Office of International Affairs; acting legal advisor Jessica Greffenius will return to the Wireless Telecommunications Bureau; and Jonathan Uriarte will join Gomez's office as a strategic communications and policy advisor. Uriarte most recently served as director of strategic communications and policy advisor for former FCC chair Jessica Rosenworcel.
• FCC commissioner Geoffrey Starks also had some staff announcements: Milla Anderson, his policy advisor, left the commission for the private sector and Kiara Ortiz joined as acting legal advisor. Ortiz recently served as legal advisor to the bureau chief of the FCC's Wireline Competition Bureau.
• U.S. AI Safety Institute director Elizabeth Kelly has left her role.

Industry and lobbying moves

• USTelecom has announced several new staff roles: Nirali Patel will assume the role of general counsel as part of her work as senior vice president, regulatory and legal affairs; Josh Bercu will be senior vice president, policy; Paul Raak, currently vice president, government affairs, will also serve as senior counselor; Jenna Alsayegh is now assistant vice president – strategic initiatives and partnerships; and Nicole Henry will serve as assistant vice president, government affairs.
• Romina Khananisho has joined X as head of global government affairs. She was previously at Honeywell for a decade.
• Former FCC policy advisor Evan Swarztrauber has announced the launch of his new firm, CorePoint Strategies, specializing in tech and telecom policy.
• Bronwyn Flores is no longer on the IBM policy communications team, and has accepted a role leading executive communications for one of IBM's senior vice presidents in the Cambridge office.
• Josh Arnold is joining the a16z team as government affairs partner in the D.C. office. He was most recently the executive vice president at Targeted Victory, and has also served as deputy chief of staff to Sen. Cynthia Lummis.
• The Software & Information Industry Association has announced the appointment of Abigail Wilson as state policy manager. Wilson was most recently at the Business Software Alliance.
• Chamber of Progress has shared that Drew Ambrogi and Prince Osaji have joined the team as Google public policy fellow. Ambrogi was previously director of gig worker projects, Coworker.org, and Osaji was a research and analysis assistant at the Research Special Competitive Studies Project.
• NCTA – The Internet & Television Association has announced that Austin Walton is now vice president of government relations. He was most recently policy advisor to Sen. Eric Schmitt.

Nonprofit, academic and think tank moves

• The Brookings Institution has announced the appointment of Elham Tabassi as the new director of its Artificial Intelligence & Emerging Technology Initiative. She was previously NIST's chief AI advisor and was the lead author of the agency's widely AI Risk Management Framework.
• The Center for Strategic and International Studies has announced that Matt Pearl has been named director of the CSIS Strategic Technologies Program. Pearl most recently served as director for emerging technologies and special advisor to the deputy national security advisor at the National Security Council under former President Biden.
• Margaret McGill is now the director of policy engagement for Carnegie Mellon University. She was most recently with NTIA's public affairs office and previously was an Axios reporter.