Jo-Ellen Darcy, a long-time Senate staffer who has specialized in water and environmental issues, will be nominated as assistant secretary of the Army for civil works, the White House announced on March 31. The assistant secretary oversees the civil works program of the Army Corps of Engineers.

Darcy currently is senior environmental advisor to the Senate Finance Committee. Before that, she spent more than a decade as a staffer on the Environment and Public Works Committee, where she played a key role in drafting Corps-related legislation. Her positions on the EPW staff included senior policy advisor and deputy staff director. Earlier in her career, Darcy was federal environmental issues advisor to then-Michigan Gov. James J. Blanchard (D).