Atkins will succeed Ellen D. Hanson, who retired last month.
Hanson has served as an attorney in the STB's General Counsel’s Office since 2003, where she has handled the agency's major rate cases. She has served as chief of staff to STB Chairman Daniel R. Elliott III since August 2009.
From 2000 to 2003, Atkins was an associate at Covington & Burling, where he worked in the antitrust and transportation practices. He has clerked for Judge Dolores K. Sloviter of the U.S. Court of Appeals, Third Circuit and was an adjunct professor at George Mason University School of Law.
Hanson served the Surface Transportation Board and its predecessor agency, the Interstate Commerce Commission, for 35 years. She became the STB’s general counsel in 2000.
The STB also said Timothy J. Strafford will become Elliot's new chief of staff. Strafford has worked as an attorney in the STB’s Office of Proceedings since 1999. Since 2006, he has served as assistant to the director of the Office of Proceedings. From November 2009 to June 2010 he was detailed to House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee.
