Gov. Kenneth Mapp sent his previously announced cabinet nominees to the V.I. Legislature for approval Thursday. The nominees are currently acting in their various roles pending legislative action.
The one returning cabinet member is Tourism Commissioner Beverly Nicholson-Doty. Nicholson-Doty has been Tourism commissioner since 2007 and before that was president of the USVI Hotel and Tourism Association. She has more than 32 years experience in tourism and is also the past chairwoman of the Caribbean Tourism Organization.
The rest of the nominees submitted Thursday are:
– Business manager and former St. Croix administrator Pedro Cruz for commissioner of Sports, Parks and Recreation. Cruz managed Glidden Paint Company on St. Croix for 10 years and unsuccessfully ran for the Senate in 2010 and 2012.
– Vivian Ebbesen-Fludd, a nursing administrator and former commissioner of the Health Department, to head the Department of Human Services.
– Milton Potter for director of the Division of Personnel. Potter was assistant director of the V.I. Personnel Department for six years. From 1994 to 2004, he was an executive assistant for the Office of Collective Bargaining. Currently he is the director of human resources at the V.I. Port Authority.
– Eugene Farrell to head Fire Services.
– Engineer Gustav James to manage the Public Works Department. James spent eight years in Saudi Arabia with the Arabian American Oil Company. James was the resident engineer for the Frederiksted Pier and has performed energy audits for commercial and government entities. He earned a mechanical engineering degree at Michigan State University.
– Carlos Robles, a Cooperative Extension Service professor at the University of the Virgin Islands and local agriculture expert, to head Agriculture.
– Taking over the Department of Licensing and Consumer Affairs is attorney Devin Carrington. Over the years, Carrington has served as counsel to several governmental agencies and most recently to Sen. Diane Capehart. He has also been a Casino Control commissioner and worked as a certified mediator with the V.I. Superior Court. Nova Southeastern University Law School awarded Carrington a Juris Doctorate in 1994.
– Marvin Pickering, a former Cruzan Rum chief financial officer, for director of the Bureau of Internal Revenue. He began his career with Cruzan in 1982 as staff accountant and retired as senior vice president in 2012. Pickering also ran for governor in 2014.
– Tapped to lead the Department of Finance is Valdamier Collens, currently the chief financial officer at the V.I. Port Authority. Collens previously helped lead the government’s conversion to its new Enterprise Resource Planning system. He was also was tapped by Mapp to be the PFA’s executive director.
– For director of the Bureau of Motor Vehicles: Lawrence Olive, a career government employee. He worked for Motor Vehicles from 1999 to 2007, finally as assistant director on St. Thomas.
– Sharon McCollum was selected as commissioner of Education. McCollum has worked for Education since 1982, most recently as the principal of Ivanna Eudora Kean High School on St. Thomas. McCollum worked in South Africa on a Fulbright Scholarship, earned a master’s in sociology and a doctorate in educational administration in 2004.
