No: 15-058 September 28, 2015

CONTACT: Eliot Brenner 301-415-8200 

NRC Announces Management Changes, Streamlining

The Nuclear Regulatory Commission today announced senior personnel changes that help 

streamline agency management and broaden the scope and diversity of its leadership at the top as the 

agency works to reduce its size in the coming years.

The most senior changes – which required Commission approval and will occur in early 

November – include: 

Deputy Executive Director for Material, Waste, Research, State, Tribal and Compliance 

Programs Mike Weber will become director of the Office of Nuclear Regulatory Research;

Jennifer Uhle, currently deputy director for engineering in the Office of Nuclear Reactor 

Regulation, will become director of the Office of New Reactors;

Director of Nuclear Materials Safety and Safeguards Catherine Haney will become the 

Region II regional administrator in January, succeeding Victor McCree, who just assumed the agency’s 

most senior career position, Executive Director for Operations (EDO).

In addition, the position vacated by Weber will absorb new corporate management 

responsibilities and be known as the Deputy EDO for Materials, Waste, Research, State, Tribal, 

Compliance Administration and Human Capital (DEDM), effectively reducing one deputy EDO 

position and moving the Office of Administration and the Office of the Chief Human Capital Officer 

under the newly titled post. Darren Ash, the current deputy EDO for corporate management, remains as 

the agency’s Chief Information Officer and the Office of Information Services is renamed the Office of 

the Chief Information Officer.

Future announcements will focus on additional steps to fill vacancies created by personnel 

movements and enhance succession planning. 

“Our agency faces the challenge of reducing our size, becoming more efficient and delivering 

more value for the money,” said NRC Chairman Stephen G. Burns. “The steps announced today will 

put in place a management structure well suited to ensuring we accomplish our mission of protecting 

people and the environment even as we reduce our size and budget.”

“In my discussion with the Chairman and Commissioners, I recommended changes to a number 

of senior executive positions as well as a change in the organizational structure of the Office of the 

EDO,” said McCree. “The recommendations were inspired by a desire to support agency streamlining 
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efforts, nurture fresh perspectives and innovation, enhance learning and collaboration both across 

business lines and between headquarters and our regions; increase the breadth and diversity of 

leadership experience among the senior leadership team; and finally, support healthy executive 

succession planning.” 

Biographies:

Weber started his current position in May 2010, having previously been the director of the 

Office of Nuclear Material Safety and Safeguards. He joined the NRC in 1982 as a hydrogeologist in 

NMSS, where he held a number of progressively more responsible positions. In 2002, he was appointed 

as the deputy director of the newly established Office of Nuclear Security and Incident Response 

(NSIR) following the terrorist attacks on Sept. 11, 2001. In 2006, Mr. Weber was appointed as the 

deputy director, Office of Nuclear Reactor Regulation (NRR). He also served as an assistant to former 

Chairman Kenneth Carr and as the executive assistant and director for former Chairman Shirley Ann 

Jackson. He holds a bachelor of science degree in geosciences from Pennsylvania State University, is a 

graduate of the NRC’s Senior Executive Service Candidate Development Program and has received a 

number of prestigious awards for public servants.

Uhle, who has an undergraduate degree and doctorate in nuclear engineering from MIT, joined 

the NRC as part of the agency’s Graduate Fellowship Program. From 1996 to 2005, she held a number 

of progressively responsible positions in the Office of Nuclear Regulatory Research (RES), NRR, and 

the Office of former Chairman Richard A. Meserve. In 2005, she was selected for the Senior Executive 

Service (SES) position of deputy director for materials engineering, RES, and subsequently held 

additional senior positions in that office. From 2012 to mid-2015, she served as the deputy director for 

reactor safety programs in NRR until obtaining her current position. She is a graduate of the SES 

Candidate Development Program.

Haney joined the NRC in 1981 as a health physicist intern in the former Office of Inspection 

and Enforcement. In 1983, she left government service for private industry and worked as a consultant 

at Health Physics Services Inc., supporting the medical and industrial community. In 1989, Ms. Haney 

returned to the NRC’s NMSS organization as a quality assurance specialist and later as a senior health 

physicist. Haney entered the SES Candidate Development Program in 2001, and upon completion 

began serving in more senior positions in NMSS, NSIR, NRR and in the office of former Chairman 

Nils Diaz. In 2008, Haney was appointed deputy director of NMSS, and became office director in 

May 2010. She holds a B.S. degree in radiological technology from the University of Maryland and a 

master’s degree in radiological science from Emory University.