The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service this week announced several changes in assignment for members of its leadership team, including changes for the Pacific Region.

The new assignments, which will take effect in the coming weeks, are as follows:

-- Ren Lohoefener, currently serving as regional director for the agency's Pacific Region in Portland, will become the new director of the California-Nevada Region in Sacramento, Calif.

Lohoefener joined the USFWS in 1989 after working for six years as an ecologist for the National Marine Fisheries Service. Before that, he was a research associate and adjunct professor at Mississippi State University. Since joining the USFWS, Lohoefener has been a field biologist, the agency's Texas state administrator and assistant regional director of the agency's Southwest Region. While in the Southwest, he worked with 11 National Wildlife Refuges, four National Fish Hatcheries, two Fisheries Management offices and the Ecological Services program.

Immediately prior to becoming regional director in the Pacific Northwest, he was assistant director for Endangered Species in the Washington Office. A native of Kansas, Lohoefener received his bachelor of science and master of science degrees from Fort Hays State University in Kansas and his doctorate degree from Mississippi State University. He is a veteran of the U.S. Army.

-- Robyn Thorson, who has served since 2003 as regional director for the Great Lakes/Big Rivers Region, headquartered at Fort Snelling, Minn., will replace Lohoefener as Pacific Region director in Portland. The Pacific Region includes Washington, Oregon, Idaho, Hawaii, and the U.S. Trust Territories in the Pacific Ocean.

Thorson is returning to her roots in the Pacific Northwest, after working in four other USFWS regional offices. She served as deputy regional director in Alaska from 1995-1999 and as assistant regional director for Budget and Administration in the service's Southwest Region in Albuquerque from 1993-1995. She served in other positions in Alaska, the Pacific Regional Office in Portland, Oregon, and in Washington, D.C. She also served as associate regional chief biologist for the U.S. Geological Survey's Biological Resources Division from January 1999 to August 2000.

A native of Seattle, Thorson holds a bachelor of arts degree from Colorado Women's College and a law degree from the University of Oregon School of Law.

-- Rowan Gould will become the career deputy director of the Fish and Wildlife Service. Gould currently serves as the assistant director for Wildlife and Sport Fish Restoration in Washington, D.C.

-- Ken Stansell, now serving as career deputy director, will step aside to become special assistant to the director, charged with providing policy guidance and advice and heading the workforce planning efforts.

-- Tom Melius, now serving as regional director for the Alaska Region in Anchorage, will replace Thorson as regional director in Fort Snelling. The Great Lakes/Big Rivers Region includes Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Michigan, Minnesota, Missouri, Ohio, and Wisconsin.

-- Geoff Haskett will replace Melius as Alaska regional director. Haskett now serves in Washington, D.C. as the assistant director for the National Wildlife Refuge System.