The Department of the Interior announced key appointments to the agency’s leadership team.
“The Interior Department is playing a key role in advancing President (Joe) Biden’s agenda by honoring our trust and treaty obligations to Tribes, tackling the climate crisis by advancing a clean energy future, protecting and conserving our nation’s public lands and waters for future generations, and creating good-paying American jobs,” Interior Department Chief of Staff Lawrence Roberts said. “I am thrilled to welcome these talented leaders to the department, who bring with them invaluable skills, backgrounds, and experiences that will help carry out Interior’s mission for the American public.”
The appointees are:
- Danielle Decker, deputy director of intergovernmental and external affairs
- Amber Gaither, deputy White House liaison
- John Grandy, advisor in the office of communications
- Betsy Hildebrandt, senior advisor for insular areas
- Kathryn Isom-Clause, deputy assistant secretary for Indian affairs
- Amanda Kules, deputy director of scheduling and advance
- Joe Younkle, special assistant to the assistant secretary for water and science
- Danielle Decker, deputy director of intergovernmental and external affairs
Hildebrandt and Isom-Clause both previously worked in the Interior Department.
Hildebrandt served in many roles between 2009 and 2020 as a political appointee and a career employee in the Office of the Secretary, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, and the U.S. Geological Survey.
Isom-Clause previously served as a senior counselor to the Assistant Secretary of Indian Affairs at the Department of the Interior, chairing interagency working groups on sacred sites and homelessness and advising on gaming matters and Tribal homelands restoration.
