The General Services Administration has named Danielle Germain as the agency’s chief of staff, replacing Cathleen C. Kronopolus, who has been acting chief of staff since January.

Most recently, Germain worked at the National Academy of Public Administration. Previously, he worked at the American Council for Technology/Industry Advisory Council.

The GSA chief of staff job is a key post. Remember that GSA administrator nominee Martha Johnson served as the GSA chief of staff under former administrator David Barrum. But another person who served in that post: David Safavian.

The release that went out this morning:

Germain sworn in as GSA chief of staff

GSA Welcomes Danielle M. Germain as Chief of Staff

WASHINGTON — The U.S. General Services Administration announced the appointment of Danielle M. Germain as Chief of Staff, effective immediately.

In this role, she will oversee the Office of the Administrator, ensuring effective and efficient staffing of agency programs and projects, guiding the agency’s continuity of operations planning and emergency response efforts, and maintaining liaison and facilitating coordination with GSA’s 11 regions.

“I am both excited and honored to serve in the Obama administration in this capacity,” Germain said. “As the federal government’s premier provider of superior goods, services and workspace, GSA is perfectly positioned to help the President advance his recovery agenda. Important work has already begun in critical areas such as modernizing federal buildings, greening the federal fleet, and using technology to strengthen the relationship between Americans and the federal government.”

Germain has extensive experience working with organizations in the good government and federal information technology communities. Before joining GSA, she served as Director of the Collaboration Project at the National Academy of Public Administration, a nonprofit, independent organization chartered by Congress to tackle government’s most complex management challenges. She led the National Academy’s successful White House Recovery dialogue on IT solutions; and the first of its kind national pilot project on citizen engagement sponsored by the Federal CIO Council, Office of Management and Budget and GSA, titled “A National Dialogue on Health IT and Privacy.”

Before working at the National Academy, Germain served in management positions at the American Council for Technology/Industry Advisory Council; the Council for Excellence in Government as the Director of Technology Programs; the Information Technology Association of America (now TechAmerica) and IBM’s Office of Governmental Programs. Germain also served as a congressional aide to Sen. Edward M. Kennedy.

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A native of Nashua, N.H., Germain earned her master’s degree from the Johns Hopkins University School of Advanced International Studies in 1998 and a bachelor’s degree from Mount Holyoke College in 1993.

Over at GovExec’s FedBlog, NAPA’s Dan Munz was filling in and scooped me on Friday:

I had the great good fortune to work with Danielle here at the National Academy for nearly a year, and she is a stellar choice for this position. Aside from a host of great personal and leadership qualities, Danielle’s passion for collaboration (both the Interwebs kind and otherwise) will be a key asset in making sure that GSA – which has been a real leader in government’s social networking efforts — maintains that position and continues to be a pacesetter across federal space. All of us here at the National Academy wish her luck and success in this exciting new challenge. (And for once, I get to cover a National Academy personnel change before Chris Dorobek!)

Touche!

Meanwhile, all eyes at GSA are on the Senate, where Martha Johnson is expected to be confirmed as the new GSA administrator. Yesterday, Johnson was approved by committee.

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