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In With the New Ohioans

Sen. Mike DeWine (R-Ohio) has added Jennifer Sharp and Stacie Oliver to his Washington office as legislative correspondents.

The two Buckeye State natives, hailing from Akron and Garrettsville, respectively, will replace fellow Ohioans Lindsay Morris of Springboro and Andrew Eckstein from Oakwood. Morris joined the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee, and Eckstein moved to the office of Rep. Michael Turner (R-Ohio).

Sharp will handle health care and education issues for DeWine. She graduated from Miami University in 1999 with a bachelor’s in political science and recently earned her law degree from DePaul University.

Oliver will cover energy and environmental issues. Oliver is a 1998 graduate of Ohio’s Otterbein College, where she received her bachelor’s in international studies. She went on to obtain her master’s in education from the College of William & Mary in 2000. She has previously worked for the World Federalist Association handling environmental programming.

At Your Assistance. Yvonne Bartoli will serve as Sen. Don Nickles’ (R-Okla.) legislative assistant for foreign affairs.

Bartoli boasts 13 years of Hill experience in both defense and foreign policy issues gained through working as lead analyst for the Congressional Electromagnetic Pulse Commission and as policy analyst for the Senate Republican Policy Committee on foreign affairs and defense issues from 1989 to 2002.

Prior to that, Bartoli worked as a national security analyst for Science Applications International Corp.

The 43-year-old Los Angeles native holds a Ph.D. in international relations with an emphasis on defense and strategic studies from the University of Southern California. She earned a master’s in international relations from USC and

has a bachelor’s in political science from the University of California at Irvine.

Derek Albro will continue to serve as Nickles’ legislative assistant on key issues such as banking while broadening his scope to include defense policy.

The Oklahoma City native graduated in 1993 from the University of Oklahoma with a degree in political science. Albro worked in Rep. Frank Lucas’ (R-Okla.) office before joining Nickles’ staff in June 2001.

G.T. Bynum has served Nickles since he graduated with a bachelor’s in political science from Villanova University in 2000.

In that time the 25-year-old Tulsa native has worked both in the Washington office as a legislative correspondent and in the Oklahoma office as a field representative.

Bynum will return to Washington for his new post as legislative assistant focusing on housing, government affairs, commerce and Corps of Engineers issues.

Tim Chapman, 24, is now responsible for coordinating Nickles’ special projects.

In 2001 Chapman graduated from Gordon College with a degree in political science and began work in the office of then-Sen. Tim Hutchinson (R-Ark.). There he honed his skills in media and the legislative process as a legislative correspondent and press assistant.

Change in Resources. Jim O’Toole, a professional staffer on the Senate Energy and Natural Resources subcommittee on parks and historic preservation, has called it quits. After 14 years working for the Energy panel and more than 23 years with the National Park Service, he has decided to retire from his career of public service.

O’Toole is currently enjoying retirement, but will likely get back into the swing of things by doing some consulting work regarding national parks, natural resources, historic preservation, public lands and other related issues.

Stepping in to replace O’Toole is Tom Lillie, the committee’s new military fellow. Lillie will be responsible for developing and planning legislative initiatives and advising members on issues involving national parks, historic preservation and natural resources.

Lillie graduated with high distinction from the University of Southwestern Louisiana in 1976 with a bachelor’s in wildlife management. He was commissioned in 1977 and received his master’s in entomology from Colorado State University in 1978. In 1985 he received his doctorate in medical entomology from the University of Florida.

Lillie has completed a variety of environmental assignments, the last as military liaison to the Department of the Interior.

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