David Vela appears headed back to Washington, D.C., to be acting deputy director at the National Park Service/NPS file

Editor's note: This corrects that there are three deputy directors, notes that Vela is replacing Ray Sauvajot, who is returning to his regular job with the arrival of Vela, and includes Lena McDowall as deputy director in charge of management and administration.

David Vela, once nominated to be director of the National Park Service but never confirmed by the Senate, is heading to Washington, D.C., just the same to serve as the agency's acting deputy director of operations.

His appointment, effective April 15, gives the Park Service three deputy directors -- one of them "acting" -- but no confirmed director more than halfway through President Donald Trump's term.

Vela's appointment was announced to Park Service employees on Friday in an email from P. Daniel Smith, who was brought out of retirement by former Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke to serve as the Park Service's director, though without that official title; instead, Smith is listed as a deputy director.

The third deputy is Lena McDowall, who oversees management and administration.

While Vela, Grand Teton National Park's superintendent, was nominated last summer to be the agency's director and went through a hearing before the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee, the nomination never went before the full Senate before the 115th Congress adjourned in December. He has not been renominated.

In his all-employees email, Smith, officially a deputy director "exercising the authority of the director," said that the Park Service stands to benefit from Vela's "leadership in building a next generation workforce that will protect our national treasures and serve all who will come to enjoy the parks as we chart a path forward for a second century service."

Ray Sauvajot, the agency's associate director for natural resource stewardship and science, had been serving as an acting deputy director, but is returning to his regular role with the arrival of Vela.

Vela is not a newcomer to the Park Service headquarters. He worked there as the agency's associate director for workforce, relevancy and inclusion before moving to Grand Teton as superintendent in 2014. While in Washington he oversaw Park Service programs including human resources, learning and development, equal opportunity, youth, and the Office of Relevancy, Diversity & Inclusion. Prior to that, he was director of the agency's Southeast Region based in Atlanta.

As acting director of operations, Vela likely will be leaned on to help fill vacancies at the top of the Midwest, National Capital, and Intermountain regional offices of the Park Service. They have been filled with acting directors since last year when the Trump administration shook up the Park Service hierarchy with a series of moves.

The administration sent Midwest Region Director Cam Sholly to Yellowstone to serve as superintendent, asked then Intermountain Region Director Sue Masica to succeed Sholly at the Midwest office, (a move she declined and instead retired), and sent National Capital Director Bob Vogel to run the Southeast Region office after Stan Austin was transferred across the country to the Pacific West Region office as director.

While Zinke and Smith wanted Yellowstone Superintendent Dan Wenk to move to Washington to fill the National Capital job, Wenk opted to retire. Also retiring rather than take a directed assignment reportedly to the Intermountain Region to succeed Masica was Lake Mead Superintendent Lizette Richardson.

Vela also will be tasked with improving employee morale across the National Park System and continuing the effort to greatly reduce the presence of harassment and discrimination -- whether sexual or related to age, gender, race, or religion -- in the employee ranks.

That morale recently got a jolt when Christine Lehnertz, sent to Grand Canyon National Park by then-Park Service Director Jon Jarvis to battle harassment issues there, was given a temporary assignment while the Interior Department's Office of Inspector General looked into claims that she had created a hostile atmosphere and spent wildly in having housing for a deputy superintendent renovated.

Those allegations were completely refuted by the OIG, but Lehnertz decided to retire rather than return to the park where her accuser remained.