Gov. Kim Reynolds announces staff changes

Iowa Gov. Kim Reynolds has announced a promotion for one staff member and the addition of another.

Paige Thorson, formerly a lobbyist and a lawyer with the Nyemaster Good law firm in Des Moines, will move from health policy adviser to the governor to deputy chief of staff. She succeeds Tim Albrecht.

Thorson previously served in the Department of Human Services, Office of the State Long-term Care Ombudsman and Department of Aging.

Thorson, a graduate of Drake University Law School and Iowa State University, lives in Norwalk with her husband and daughters.

Sam Langholz will become senior legal counsel to Reynolds, succeeding Ryan Koopmans, who now is chief of staff.

Langholz previously served as chief administrative law judge of the Administrative Hearings Division of the Iowa Department of Inspections and Appeals. Before that, he was state public defender and practiced law with the Davis Brown law firm in Des Moines.

A member of the Federalist Society, Langholz is a University of Iowa College of Law graduate who clerked for U.S. Court of Appeals Judge Steven Colloton.

He lives in Ankeny with his wife and sons.

The governor's office did not release their salaries. Langholz's annual base pay at Inpections and Appeals was $127,849.