Longtime U.S. Department of Education official Joseph Conaty will take over as interim director of the Race to the Top now that Joanne Weiss is moving up the chain and becoming chief of staff to Education Secretary Arne Duncan.

Conaty, who has served in many roles since coming to the department in 1987, is currently the Office of Elementary and Secondary Education’s director of academic Improvement and teacher quality programs.

He’ll take over the post July 4 and will temporarily be in charge of both the high-profile $4 billion state competition, and the $350 million assessment competition.

If you’ll remember, dominoes started falling when chief of staff Margot Rogers announced she was leaving at the end of this month.