Gov. Rick Perry appointed Dr. Kyle Janek of Austin to the position of executive commissioner of the Texas Health and Human Services Commission. Janek, a former legislator, is director of anesthesia services at Lakeway Regional Medical Center. Chris Traylor of Austin will serve as chief deputy commissioner of HHSC. Since 2010, Traylor has been commissioner of the Texas Department of Aging and Disability Services.

Jesse Ancira will be House Speaker Joe Straus' chief of staff, a position he has held on an interim basis since the departure of Denise Davis earlier this year. Patricia Shipton is joining the speaker as strategic legislative advisor. Shipton, a former legislative advisor to Gov. Rick Perry, has been a lobbyist for the last several years.

Straus also hired Dan Madru and Shakira Pumphrey, who'll work in his policy office. Madru has worked as staff director of two Senate committees; Pumphrey is returning to the speaker's office after working in state government in Arkansas.

Patricia Vojack, who was chief of staff to then-Sen. Kyle Janek before a stint at the Comptroller's office, will serve as the inaugural compliance officer for the Cancer Prevention and Research Institute of Texas.

C.B. Rathburn III, president and CEO of Texas A&M University-Texarkana since 2008, has resigned. Keith McFarland, former president and faculty member of Texas A&M University Commerce, will serve as acting president.

The University of Texas Medical Branch at Galveston announced that Dr. Danny Jacobs, currently the David C. Sabiston Jr. Professor and chair of surgery at Duke University Medical Center, has been selected to serve as the new executive vice president and provost, and dean of the School of Medicine. His first day will be Oct. 1.

Joshua Treviño will continue to consult at the Texas Public Policy Foundation, but will give up his gig as communications guru there to take a job at Texas Monthly, where he'll be a political columnist. 

Cyrus Reed, the conservation director at the Lone Star chapter of the Sierra Club, was named acting director after the retirement of Ken Kramer, who has been at the top of that organization for years. 

The governor appointed Robert Franco Jr., an Austin banker, to the Texas Economic Development Corp.

Deaths: Chad Foster, chairman of the Texas Border Coalition and former mayor of Eagle Pass, of stomach cancer. He was 63.