SACRAMENTO – Governor Gavin Newsom today announced the following appointments:
Brenda Crowding, 52, of Sacramento, has been appointed deputy director of the Office of Internal Affairs at the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation. She served in several positions at the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation, Division of Adult Parole Operations, from 2000 to 2017, including assistant deputy director, associate director, chief deputy regional administrator, parole administrator I, parole agent III, parole agent II, regional GPS coordinator and parole agent I. Crowding earned a Master of Arts degree in human services from Lincoln University. This position does not require Senate confirmation and the compensation is $166,092. Crowding is a Democrat.
Noemi Gallardo, 42, of Plumas Lake, has been appointed public advisor for the California Energy Commission. Gallardo has been senior manager of public policy at Sunrun Inc. since 2017. She was a program fellow at the Evelyn and Walter Haas, Jr. Fund from 2015 to 2016, a consultant at Gallardo Law and Policy Consulting from 2013 to 2016 and an energy and telecommunications legal fellow at the Greenlining Institute from 2012 to 2013. Gallardo was principal investigator at the Public Law Research Institute at the University of California, Hastings College of the Law from 2011 to 2013. She earned a Juris Doctor degree from the University of California, Hastings College of the Law and a Master of Public Policy degree in urban and social policy from the University of Southern California. This position does not require Senate confirmation and the compensation is $150,000. Gallardo is a Democrat.
John Connolly, 38, of Los Angeles, has been appointed deputy secretary of behavioral health at the California Health and Human Services Agency. Connolly has been director of the Substance Abuse Prevention and Control Division at the Los Angeles County Department of Public Health since 2018, where he served as acting deputy director from 2017 to 2018 and deputy director for policy, strategic planning and communications from 2015 to 2017. He was deputy director of the Insure the Uninsured Project from 2012 to 2015, a lecturer at the University of Southern California, Keck School of Medicine in 2014 and a senior policy analyst for the Kaiser Commission on Medicaid and the Uninsured at the Kaiser Family Foundation from 2010 to 2012. Connolly was a research assistant at the Harvard School of Public Health from 2007 to 2010 and a teaching fellow at the Harvard Kennedy School of Government from 2007 to 2009. He earned a Doctor of Philosophy degree in health policy from Harvard University. This position does not require Senate confirmation and the compensation is $160,008. Connolly is a Democrat.
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