SACRAMENTO – Governor Edmund G. Brown Jr. today announced the following appointments.
Florence Bernal, 40, of Sacramento, has been appointed deputy director of legislative affairs at the California Department of Human Resources. Bernal has been a policy analyst and constituent affairs specialist in the California Lieutenant Governor’s Office since 2011. She was legislative director for California State Assemblymember Paul Fong from 2010 to 2011 and for California State Senator Dean Florez from 2008 to 2010. Bernal was a legislative assistant for California State Senator Michael Machado from 1999 to 2008 and a standardized test supervisor at McGraw-Hill Publishing Company from 1996 to 1998. This position does not require Senate confirmation and the compensation is $80,640. Bernal is a Democrat.
Gwen Marelli, 50, of Rancho Palos Verdes, has been appointed to the California State Board of Guide Dogs for the Blind. Marelli has been director of commercial and industrial services at the Southern California Gas Company since 2011, where she has served in multiple positions since 1991, including director of customer operations, director of customer services and director of customer research, strategy and communications. She was a flight test engineer at McDonnell Douglas Corporation from 1988 to 1991 and an operating plant services engineer at Bechtel Western Power Company from 1986 to 1988. Marelli earned a Master of Business Administration degree from the Pepperdine University Graziadio School of Business and Management. This position does not require Senate confirmation and the compensation is $100 per diem. Marelli is a Republican.
Crystal Miller-O’Brien, 46, of Los Angeles, has been reappointed to the California Law Revision Commission, where she has served since 2011. Miller-O’Brien has been corporate counsel at Medical Management Consultants Inc. since 2006. She was an attorney at Anderson McPharlin and Conners LLP from 2005 to 2006, at Robie and Matthai PC from 2003 to 2005 and at Bullivant Houser Bailey LLP from 2002 to 2003. Miller-O’Brien was a judicial clerk at the Washington State Supreme Court from 2001 to 2002, a labor and employment law clerk at the Portland City Attorney’s Office from 2000 to 2001 and senior claims supervisor at the Employers Insurance Group of Wausau from 1996 to 1998. She was senior claims examiner and hearing representative at the Argonaut Insurance Company from 1990 to 1996, claims representative at Allstate Insurance Company from 1989 to 1990 and grant and project assistant at Howard University’s Center for the Study of Disabled Adults from 1988 to 1989. Miller-O’Brien is a member of the Los Angeles Black Women Lawyers Association and the National Bar Association. She earned a Juris Doctor degree from Willamette University College of Law. This position requires Senate confirmation and the compensation is $100 per diem. Miller-O’Brien is a Democrat.
Katherine Flores, 60, of Fresno, has been appointed to the California Healthcare Workforce Policy Commission. Flores has been director of the University of California, San Francisco Fresno Latino Center for Medical Education and Research since 1996, an assistant clinical professor at the University of California, San Francisco School of Medicine’s Department of Family and Community Medicine since 1984 and a family physician in private practice since 1983. She was assistant dean for the University of California, San Francisco Fresno Medical Education Program from 1993 to 1999 and principal investigator and project director at the California Area Health Education Center from 1993 to 1999 and at the California Health Education and Training Center from 1992 to 2007. Flores is chair of the National Hispanic Medical Association and a member of the American Academy of Family Physicians. She earned a Doctor of Medicine from the University of California, Davis School of Medicine. This position does not require Senate confirmation and the compensation is $100 per diem. Flores is a Democrat.
William Henning, 58, of Yorba Linda, has been appointed to the California Healthcare Workforce Policy Commission, where he has served since 2010. Henning has been the chief medical officer at Inland Empire Health Plan and a physician supervisor and preventive medicine residency advisory committee member at Loma Linda University Medical Center since 2004. He was attending physician at the Riverside County Regional Medical Center Family Care Clinic from 2001 to 2009 and a family practitioner at Fallbrook Primary Care Group from 1988 to 2001. Henning earned a Doctor of Osteopathic Medicine degree at the College of Osteopathic Medicine of the Pacific. This position does not require Senate confirmation and the compensation is $100 per diem. Henning is a Republican.
Cathryn Nation, 55, of Kensington, has been appointed to the California Healthcare Workforce Policy Commission where she has served since 2008. Nation has been associate vice president for health sciences at the University of California, Office of the President since 2005, where she has held multiple positions since 1990 including executive director of academic health sciences and interim vice president of health affairs. Nation is a member of the University of California, San Francisco Medical Alumni Association. Nation earned a Doctor of Medicine degree from the University of California, San Francisco School of Medicine. This position does not require Senate confirmation and the compensation is $100 per diem. Nation is a Democrat.