SACRAMENTO – Governor Edmund G. Brown Jr. today announced the following appointments:
Janet Marie Weeks, 56, of Sacramento, has been appointed director of communications at the California State Board of Education. Weeks has been communications manager for the Sacramento City Unified School District since 2010, where she was a teacher at C.K. McClatchy High School from 2004 to 2010. She was a national writer at TV Guide from 1998 to 2003. Weeks was a staff writer at USA Today from 1997 to 1998 and at the Los Angeles Daily News from 1993 to 1997. This position does not require Senate confirmation and the compensation is $118,008. Weeks is a Democrat.
Leon Szeptycki, 52, of Stanford, has been appointed to the Klamath River Renewal Corporation Board of Directors. Szeptycki has been the professor of the practice and executive director of Water in the West at Stanford University’s Stanford Woods Institute for the Environment since 2013. He was a professor and director of the Environmental Law and Conservation Clinic at the University of Virginia School of Law from 2006 to 2012, where he was a lecturer from 2002 to 2005. Szeptycki was general counsel and eastern conservation director at Trout Unlimited from 1997 to 2006 and an attorney at McGuire, Woods, Battle and Boothe from 1992 to 1996. He was served as a trial attorney at the U.S. Department of Justice, Office of Consumer Litigation in the Civil Division from 1990 to 1992 and as a law clerk for the Honorable Stephanie K. Seymour at the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Tenth Circuit from 1988 to 1989. He earned a Juris Doctor degree from Yale Law School. This position does not require Senate confirmation and there is no compensation. Szeptycki is a Democrat.
Michael Barr, 68, of Los Angeles, has been appointed to the Klamath River Renewal Corporation Board of Directors. Barr has been a partner at Pillsbury, Winthrop, Shaw, Pittman LLP since 1981, where he was an associate from 1973 to 1981. He is a member of the American College of Environmental Lawyers Board of Regents. Barr earned a Juris Doctor degree from Harvard Law School. This position does not require Senate confirmation and there is no compensation. Barr is a Republican.
Kim Behrens, 53, of Springville, has been reappointed to the Porterville Developmental Center Advisory Board, where she has served since 2016. Behrens has been associate dean for health careers at Porterville College since 2011, where she has held several positions since 2001, including faculty, division chair and interim director of health careers. She was an instructor at the Sierra View District Hospital from 2006 to 2008, where she held several positions from 1989 to 2000, including staff nurse, director of critical care services and director of the Emergency Department. Behrens was a nurse instructor at Porterville Developmental Center from 2000 to 2001 and a staff registered nurse at the Kaweah Delta Health Care District in 2000. She was an instructor at San Joaquin Valley College from 1998 to 1999 and at Pace Symposia from 1997 to 2003. Behrens was a staff registered nurse at Redwood Memorial Hospital from 1987 to 1989 and at Saint Luke’s Manor from 1987 to 1989. She is a member of the California Organization of Associate Degree Nurses, Tulare County Emergency Medical Care Committee and the California Association of Psychiatric Technician Educators. She earned a Master of Science degree in nursing from Graceland University. This position does not require Senate confirmation and there is no compensation. Behrens is a Republican.
Katie Delbar, 48, of Potter Valley, has been appointed to the California Board of Forestry and Fire Protection. Delbar has been county executive director at the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Farm Service Agency for Humboldt and Del Norte Counties since 1998 and for Mendocino and Lake Counties since 1992. She was a program technician for the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Agricultural Stabilization and Conservation Service from 1989 to 1992. Delbar is president of the California Association of Farm Service Agency County Office Employees and a member of the Potter Valley Community Parks and Recreation Board of Directors and the Potter Valley Community Unified School District School Board. This position requires Senate confirmation and the compensation is $100 per diem. Delbar is a Republican.