• Jan Friis is the newest vice president for government affairs at the Council for Higher Education Accreditation, which bills itself as the largest U.S. institutional higher-education association by number of members. Friis previously served as vice president and director of congressional relations at Final Analysis Communications and is a former chief of staff to former Rep. Jon Fox (R-Pa.).

• Terry Nelson, who served as political director to Bush-Cheney 2004 and currently works as a senior adviser to Sen. John McCain’s (R-Ariz.) Straight Talk America PAC, has taken a position at Mercury Public Affairs, a communications shop owned by Fleishman Hillard. Nelson is also a former deputy chief of staff at the Republican National Committee.

• Paul Helmke, a Republican former mayor of Fort Wayne, Ind., has accepted the top job at the Brady Campaign to Prevent Gun Violence. Helmke previously led the U.S. Conference of Mayors and will depart his post at the Indiana law firm Helmke Beams to take the helm at Brady, named after the Reagan-era White House press secretary who became a gun-control activist.

• Mark J. Anderson is the newest federal-affairs manager at the Southern California Edison energy company, where he will focus on issues including nuclear power. He is a former senior policy aide to House Majority Whip Roy Blunt (R-Mo.), previously served as Rep. Darrell Issa’s (R-Calif.) legislative director and has experience in the offices of Rep. Lee Terry (R-Neb.) and former Rep. Frank Cremeans (R-Ohio).

• Tracy Cullen has assumed the post of vice president for communications and marketing at the Society of the Plastics Industry. She has held similar jobs at the Chlorine Institute, the American Council of Engineering Companies and the Synthetic Organic Chemical Manufacturers Association.

• Jennifer G. Williams has been named the director of capital markets and financial disclosure at the Mortgage Bankers’ Association. She comes from the Securities and Exchange Commission, where she served as special counsel for structured finance and an attorney-adviser in the rulemaking office.