The California State Water Resources Control Board has appoint Eileen Sobeck as the new Executive Director, replacing Tom Howard who retired in May of this year.  Ms. Sobeck comes with nearly 40 years of government service, most recently as Assistant Administrator for the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) in the Fisheries Division, where she worked from 2014 to 2017.  Prior to her work at NOAA she was the Department of Interior’s Acting Assistant Secretary for Insular Affairs (2012-2014), and Deputy Assistant Secretary for Fish, Wildlife and Parks (2009-2012).  Sobeck is a lawyer by training and spent 25 years at the U.S. Department of Justice, ultimately serving as Deputy Assistant Attorney General for Environment and Natural Resources (1999-2009).  While Sobeck has spent her professional career in Washington, D.C., she has many ties to California.  She grew up in Davis, is a graduate of Stanford and Stanford Law School, and has strong family connections to California.  Sobeck will join the State Water Board following the Labor Day holiday weekend.