Deal appoints new leaders to his statehouse team

Gov. Nathan Deal is shuffling his state leadership team.

His office said Thursday that Gretchen Corbin, now a deputy at the Department of Economic Development, will become the next head of the Department of Community Affairs.

She’ll replace Mike Beatty, who is leaving to serve as president of Great Promise Partnership, a nonprofit focusing on workforce development.

Braxton Cotton will lead the new Governor’s Office of Transition, Support and Re-entry. The program will support the third phase of Deal’s criminal justice overhaul, which aims to reduce recidivism rates of offenders.

Jacqueline Bunn will replace Cotton as the executive director of the Criminal Justice Coordinating Council. And Blake Ashbee will serve as the new director of the Governor’s Office of Workforce Development after Tricia Pridemore resigned to run for Congress.