Darla Ripchensky has been hired as administrative director on the Senate Energy & Natural Resources Committee. She also worked as chief clerk on the Senate Small Business & Entrepreneurship Committee. Ripchensky served as a manager and senior project manager at Northrop Grumman Information Systems. She was a program manager of the eGIS sector managed services division at Nortel Government Solutions Inc. She was administrative director in the leadership office of current Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., and former Senate Majority Leader Tom Daschle, D-S.D. She worked as chief clerk and security manager for the Senate Governmental Affairs Committee. She served as office manager and chief clerk for the leadership office of Daschle.

Jon Kyl has been hired as a senior adviser and member of the global public policy and government affairs practice at Covington & Burling. Kyl also has been named a visiting fellow at the American Enterprise Institute. He served in the Senate as a Republican representing Arizona, and later served as Senate minority whip. He also served in the House. He was an attorney at Jennings, Strouss & Salmon in Arizona. He also was chairman of the Phoenix Chamber of Commerce.

Cindy Squires has been hired as executive vice president at the International Wood Products Association. She was chief counsel for public affairs and director of regulatory affairs for the National Marine Manufacturers Association. She also has worked as an attorney at Beveridge & Diamond. She served as a legislative liaison and a regulatory analyst at the Agriculture Department’s agricultural marketing service. She also was a legislative staffer on the Senate Agriculture, Nutrition and Forestry Committee.

Jessica Ennis has been hired as senior vice president at FP1 Strategies. She was deputy director of operations for Mitt Romney’s 2012 presidential campaign. She also has served as a regional political director for the Republican National Committee and earlier as a regional finance director. She was the North Carolina victory director for the Bush-Cheney 2004 re-election campaign.

Gregory Chang has been hired as a principal at Perkins+Will. Chang was principal and managing director of global healthcare at AECOM/Ellerbe Becket. He also was principal and national director of healthcare there. He was a medical planner at KMD Architects. He also was an architect at Granary Associates.

Arturo Sarukhan has been hired as chairman of GlobalSolutions, a strategy and risk management subsidiary of the Podesta Group lobbying firm. Sarukhan was the Mexican ambassador to the United States. He has served as deputy assistant secretary for inter-American affairs in Mexico’s Foreign Ministry. He has also served as chief of policy planning at the Ministry.

Leslie Phillips has been named senior vice president of marketing and communications at FairWinds Partners, a consulting firm. Philips was a senior adviser and communications director for the Democratic staff of the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee. She has worked as a political and congressional correspondent for USA Today. She also has worked as a reporter for United Press International.

The following people have been hired or promoted at Ball Aerospace & Technology Corp:

Vonna Weir Heaton hired as vice president and lead executive of information and intelligence solutions. Heaton was senior executive special assistant to the deputy director of the National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency. She has worked at the NGA as director of the office of corporate communications and as chief information officer. She also has worked at the National Security Agency’s National Security Operations Center as deputy director of community integration.

John D. Campbell has been promoted to vice president for legislative affairs. Campbell was director of legislative affairs. He has worked as manager of legislative information services at Federal Sources Inc. He has also worked as a staff assistant for former Rep. Amo Houghton, R-N.Y.

Makenzie Lystrup has been hired as business development manager for space sciences and technologies. Lystrup is an affiliate faculty member at George Mason University’s School of Physics, Astronomy, and Computational Sciences. She has also worked in the House as an American Association for the Advancement of Science congressional science policy fellow.