The position of Guam field representative for the U.S. Department of the Interior\u2019s Office of Insular Affairs\u2014which has been vacant for so long\u2014has now been filled.<\/p>\n
Dong Hun Choe, who was born and raised in Guam and is a veteran of the U.S. Marine Corps, is the new Guam field representative, according to a U.S. Department of the Interior announcement last Friday.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe field representative, representing OIA, has an important responsibility to help liaise between the government of Guam and other federal partners on issues of importance to both the federal government and Guam,\u201d said Interior Assistant Secretary, Insular and International Affairs, Douglas W. Domenech. \u201cWe look forward to strengthening our working relations with the government and the people of Guam.\u201d<\/p>\n
The Guam field representative position has been vacant for nearly a decade. <\/p>\n
Choe has over 10 years of experience working in the government of Guam, both in the executive and legislative branches, as well as with the Guam Economic Development Authority. Choe is involved in many civic organizations in Guam. Choe was competitively selected through the federal government\u2019s hiring process. <\/p>\n
The Office of Insular Affairs operates from DOI\u2019s headquarters in Washington, D.C., and maintains a regional office in Honolulu, Hawaii. In addition, OIA currently maintains offices in American Samoa, in the CNMI, in the Federated States of Micronesia, and in the Republic of the Marshall Islands. <\/p>\n
Within the past year, OIA has also hired the following professional staff in Washington, DC: <\/p>\n
\u2022 Melissa Braybrooks has been hired as an economist and splits her time between the Office of Insular Affairs and Interior\u2019s Office of Policy, Management, and Budget. Braybrooks comes to Interior from the U.S. Department of Commerce\u2019s Bureau of Economic Analysis.<\/p>\n
\u2022 Kelsey Marand is a new full-time OIA employee who serves as a budget analyst in the Office of Insular Affairs\u2019 Budget Division. Marand holds a law degree and is a member of the Virginia Army National Guard. <\/p>\n
\u2022 Howard Hills\u00a0is serving on temporary assignment as a special adviser in the Office of Insular Affairs,\u00a0providing staff\u00a0support for U.S. government discussions with the freely associated states on the renewal of expiring provisions of the Compacts of Free Association. As a Navy JAG (lieutenant commander), Hills served previously as legal adviser for the Micronesian Status Negotiations and as\u00a0lead counsel for the U.S. during final negotiations of the first Compact of Free Association agreements signed in 1986. (PR)<\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" The position of Guam field representative for the U.S. Department of the Interior\u2019s Office of…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":28,"featured_media":327945,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[51],"class_list":["post-328204","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-local-news","tag-guam"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/328204","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/28"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=328204"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/328204\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/327945"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=328204"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=328204"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=328204"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}