Senate Appropriations Chairman Ted Stevens (R-Alaska) changed up his personal and committee spinners last month. Melanie Alvord, Stevens’ press secretary and a 10-year veteran of his staff, will become the Senator’s new committee communications director, and Courtney Schikora will take over Alvord’s old position.

Alvord will replace Tim Boulay, who is leaving the committee office after accepting a supervisory public affairs specialist position with the Veterans Affairs Department. Alvord, 36, has held several positions over the years for Stevens including legislative correspondent and correspondence manager. She left Stevens’ office in 1997 to work for three years at The Bean Agency Inc., a public relations firm formerly based in Seattle. In 2000, she returned to the Senator’s office as his press secretary.

Alvord is a graduate of the University of Virginia where she earned a bachelor’s degree in American government.

Schikora, 27, served the Senator as deputy press secretary before her recent promotion. Prior to coming to the Hill,

she worked as a community affairs representative for Bayer Corp. in Pittsburgh. While in Pittsburgh, she was also a development officer for Junior Achievement of Southwest Pennsylvania.

Schikora, a native of Fairbanks, Alaska, holds a bachelor’s in political science and communication and a master’s in corporate communications, both from Duquesne University.

Press Change and More for Myrick. As Andy Polk was bumped up to communications director in the office of Rep. Sue Myrick (R-N.C.), Jordan Moon was hired as the office’s newest staff assistant.

Polk joined Myrick’s office in 2002 as a staff assistant. The Monroe, N.C., native graduated earlier that year from Gardner-Webb University, where he earned a bachelor’s degree in political science and business administration.

Moon, a resident of Belmont, N.C., graduated this year from the College of Charleston, where he earned a degree in corporate communications.

[IMGCAP(1)] Interning Paid Off. Sunflower State Rep. Dennis Moore (D) announced early last month the addition of two former interns to his D.C. office. The two newest legislative correspondents are Laura Hall and Samuel Dorr. Both will be responsible for drafting responses to constituent letters, faxes, phone calls and e-mails.

Hall, 22, graduated earlier this year from Miami University in Ohio, where she earned degrees in international studies and diplomacy and foreign affairs. She grew up in Overland Park, Kan.

Dorr, 23, graduated from the University of Florida in 2002. In college he spent a semester in Florence, Italy, and interned with the Italian Cultural Institute. The Miami native holds a bachelor’s degree in geography.