Rachael Taylor, chief of staff of the U.S. Department of the Interior, said the department has announced four new members who were appointed by the Biden administration.
The Interior Department announced the four new appointees will help with the department’s mission of tending to the country’s public land and water, working towards environmental justice and honoring “nation-to-nation relationships with Tribes,” according to an Oct. 27 news release.
“The Department of the Interior is making rapid progress on President Biden’s ambitious goals of creating good-paying jobs and lowering costs for working families by developing a robust and sustainable clean energy economy and implementing the historic Bipartisan Infrastructure Law and Inflation Reduction Act,” Taylor said in the release. “We look forward to continuing this work alongside our new colleagues who each bring with them unique and valuable backgrounds, skills and talents.”
According to the release, the appointees are Michelle Gullett, a speechwriter; Roque Sánchez, senior advisor to the Bureau of Reclamation; Siva Sundaresan, deputy director of the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service; and Jayne Wixtead, special assistant in the Office of the Assistant Secretary of Land and Minerals Management.
Gullett is a New Mexico native who previously worked in the congressional offices of Deb Haaland and Melanie Stansbury, the release reported. More recently, Gullett served as a legislative correspondent and then legislative aide in the office of U.S. Sen. Martin Heinrich. Her focus at that time was on preservation, the climate, natural resources and wildlife issues.
Sánchez, another New Mexico native, earned a degree in civil and environmental engineering from Rice University before going on to hold multiple positions related to clean energy and climate resiliency, the release said. Sánchez then worked in the White House Office of Domestic Climate Policy as a policy advisor.
Sundaresan holds a doctorate in ecology and evolutionary biology from Princeton University, as well as a master’s in biological sciences from the Birla Institute of Technology and Science. He has conducted research on wildlife in Kenya and India, according to the release. Sundaresan previously worked as director of conservation at the Greater Yellowstone Coalition. He then went on to work at the Wilburforce Foundation as a program officer.
Wixtead, a Connecticut native, earned a degree in diplomacy and world affairs from Occidental College, the release reported. She worked on the Biden-Harris campaign as a regional organizing director before going on to support multiple teams as a staff assistant in the White House’s Office of Presidential Personnel.
