On 29 March 2011, the White House announced that Dr. Thomas Armstrong will be the new Director of the newly created USGCRP National Coordination Office. Dr. Armstrong comes to the position having most recently served as the Senior Advisor for Climate Change at the Department of the Interior, where he was a key figure in the development of the Department’s climate-change-related policies, organizational elements, and budget strategies. He has also acted as  the Vice Chair for Adaptation Science on the National Science and Technology Council’s Subcommittee on Global Change Research (SGCR), the steering body of the USGCRP. In this role,  Dr. Armstrong has been an active participant in the program’s restructuring and the drafting of the new strategic plan and has worked to identify key priorities in the field of adaptation research and oversee the seamless integration of these goals into the larger evolving vision of the program.  For the full White House announcement, see http://www.whitehouse.gov/blog/2011/03/29/strengthening-our-understanding-changing-planet.