SACRAMENTO – Governor Edmund G. Brown Jr. today announced the following appointments:
Lori Ajax, 50, of Fair Oaks, has been appointed chief of the Bureau of Medical Marijuana Regulation at the California Department of Consumer Affairs. Ajax has been chief deputy director at the California Department of Alcoholic Beverage Control since 2014, where she has served in several positions since 1995, including deputy division chief, supervising agent in charge and supervising agent. She is a member of the National Liquor Law Enforcement Association and the St. Sava Mission Foundation. This position requires Senate confirmation and the compensation is $150,636. Ajax is a Republican.
Veronica Harms, 34, of Woodland, has been appointed deputy director of communications at the California Department of Consumer Affairs. Harms has been a consultant and media specialist for the California State Senate Democratic Caucus since 2012. She held multiple positions at Ogilvy Public Relations from 2007 to 2012, including senior account executive and account supervisor. She held multiple positions at KCRA-TV from 2004 to 2007, including national sales assistant, local sales assistant and account executive, and was a local sales assistant at KOVR-TV in 2003. Harms earned a Master of Business Administration degree from California State University, Sacramento. This position does not require Senate confirmation and the compensation is $98,520. Harms is a Democrat.
Peggy Reynolds, 69, of Oakland, has been reappointed to the Carcinogen Identification Committee, where she has served since 2012. Reynolds has been a consulting professor at the Stanford University School of Medicine, Department of Health Research and Policy since 2007 and senior research scientist at the Cancer Prevention Institute of California since 2006. Reynolds was chief of the Environmental Epidemiology Section at the California Department of Public Health from 1993 to 2006. Reynolds earned a Master of Public Health degree in behavioral science and a Doctor of Philosophy degree in epidemiology from the University of California, Berkeley School of Public Health. This position does not require Senate confirmation and there is no compensation. Reynolds is registered without party preference.
Luoping Zhang, 59, of Berkeley, has been reappointed to the Carcinogen Identification Committee, where she has served since 2012. Zhang has served in multiple positions at the University of California, Berkeley School of Public Health since 1992, including adjunct professor, associate adjunct professor, specialist, associate specialist and assistant specialist. She is a member of the Society of Toxicology, Environmental Mutagenesis and Genomics Society, Genetic and Environmental Toxicology Association and the American Association for Cancer Research. Zhang earned a Master of Science degree in biochemistry from the Huazhong University of Science and Technology and a Doctor of Philosophy degree in biochemical toxicology from Simon Fraser University. This position does not require Senate confirmation and there is no compensation. Zhang is a Democrat.
Ulrike Luderer, 54, of Irvine, has been reappointed to the California Scientific Guidance Panel, where she has served since 2007. Luderer has been a faculty member at the University of California, Irvine Department of Medicine’s Division of Occupational and Environmental Medicine since 1999. She was a senior post-doctoral fellow at the University of Washington, Department of Environmental and Occupational Health from 1998 to 1999. Luderer is a member of the American College of Occupational and Environmental Medicine, Society of Toxicology, Endocrine Society and the Society for the Study of Reproduction. She earned a Doctor of Medicine degree and a Doctor of Philosophy degree in neurobiology and physiology from Northwestern University and a Master of Public Health degree in occupational and environmental medicine from the University of Washington. This position does not require Senate confirmation and there is no compensation. Luderer is a Democrat.