The Utah Department of Environmental Quality has hired Donna Kemp Spangler to serve as the agency's public information officer.
DEQ executive director Dianne Nielson said Spangler's experience as a former environmental reporter will be an asset in the public information post.
"She will be responsible to help us effectively communicate complex environmental issues so the public can make informed decisions," Nielson said.
Spangler replaces Laura Vernon, who resigned to take a position in the private sector.
Spangler's most recent position was at the Exchange Monitor Publications in Washington, D.C., where she reported on a variety of nuclear waste, nuclear energy, low-level waste disposal and homeland security issues. From 1999 to 2004, she was an environmental reporter for the Deseret Morning News. She has worked at newspapers in Washington state and Oregon. She earned a bachelor of arts degree in communications from the University of Portland, has co-written a book and has received numerous awards as a journalist.