Gov. Gavin Newsom Friday named an engineer from Los Angeles to the South Coast Air Quality Management District Board and reappointed two Southlanders to the Afred E. Alquist Seismic Safety Commission.
The appointments of Negar “Nikki” Noushkam, 44, to the SCAQMD board and Fuad Sweiss, 60, of Santa Ana and Andrew Tran, 50, of San Gabriel to the seismic safety panel require Senate confirmation, according to the governor’s office.
The compensation for the positions is $100 per diem.
Noushkam has been senior project manager at Environmental Remediation Services Inc. since 2007 and chief engineer for the Aerospace Corporation since 2015. Noushkam held several position at Northrop Grumman from 2004 to 2015, including senior principle engineer, project manager and lead systems and photovoltaic design engineer, and before that worked at Hudson Marine Management Services from 2001 to 2004 and as an environmental project manager and process engineer at ExxonMobil Oil Corp. from 1997 to 2001.
She is a member of the State Mining and Geology Board at the Department of Conservation and earned a Master of Science degree in electrical engineering from the University of Southern California.
Sweiss, who has served on the Seismic Safety Commission since 2013 is executive director of the city of Santa Ana’s Public Works Agency, a post he has held since 2018.
He was the city engineer and deputy director of public works for the City and County of San Francisco from 2009 to 2018; president at Access Design and Construction from 2006 to 2008; and served in various positions at the City of Oakland Department of Public Works from 1988 to 2006, including as engineering design manager.
Tran has served on the Seismic Safety Commission since 2017 and since 2015 has been senior vice president of property underwriting at Swiss Re America, where his positions since 2000 include senior vice president of natural catastrophes. Tran was an actuarial analyst for Fireman’s Fund Insurance Co. from 1994 to 1996.
Also Friday, the governor named Los Angeles resident Keshia Sexton, 35, to the Baldwin Hills Conservancy Governing Board. Sexton has been a part-time lecturer at Cal State Dominguez Hills since 2017 and deputy director of organizing at Mothers Out Front since 2019. The USC graduate was senior lead field representative for Rep. Karen Bass from 2011 to 2013 and director of organizing at the Los Angeles Neighborhood Land Trust from 2013 to 2019.
Her position does not require Senate confirmation and the compensation is $100 per diem.