District Attorney creates communications post

By Owen Boss

Staff Writer

NORTHAMPTON - Northwestern District Attorney David Sullivan has created a new position of communications director, and named a former news reporter to fill it.

Mary Carey, a former Daily Hampshire Gazette reporter who worked on Sullivan's election campaign, was hired as communications director for the Northwestern district attorney's office.

Carey, 53, of Amherst, served as media coordinator during Sullivan's election campaign. Carey said she and Sullivan recognized the need for a communications director when the pair toured other district attorneys' offices following Sullivan's election in Novemeber.

"We went around to the other DA's offices and found that most of them have a communications director and some even have more than one," Carey said. She noted that transparency is one of Sullivan's top priorities.

"Dave wants to be quicker with our responses to inquiries," she said.

In addition to adding a communications director, Carey said an effort is being made to open up the line of communication between Sullivan and the general public through the office website.

"Dave wants to make the website much more interactive because he wants to do more outreach and we feel the website is the perfect venue to do that," Carey said.

From 1994 to 2007, Carey worked as a news reporter for the Gazette and the Amherst Bulletin. She has been an adjunct professor of journalism at the University of Massacchusetts since 2002, teaching a class on news writing.

Sullivan, who offered Carey the position on Christmas Eve, said he expects her expertise will help in his office's effort to communicate openly with area residents.

"Her experience as a professional journalist will help make our district attorney's office more accessible and responsive," Sullivan said. "She will also be a part of our community outreach and education efforts to help with crime prevention and consumer protection. We look forward to Mary's work in the community."

Carey said she became increasingly interested in working in law enforcement during her time spent as Sullivan's campaign media coordinator.

"During the campaign I became more and more impressed with Dave. He's really a fantastic leader, he listens to advice and he's super prepared for everything," Carey said. "I learned so much about about the benefit of being well-prepared ahead of time."

Although she said her new 30-hour-a-week position will leave her without time to continue working as a freelance writer, Carey plans to keep teaching at UMass and hopes to bring some of her students along for internships. "I'm going to continue teaching Journalism 300 at UMass and Dave has been very supportive of that," Carey said. "We hope to revive the internship program that this office used to have. I'm sure there are a lot of students who would be excited to be part of that."

Owen Boss can be reached at oboss@gazettenet.com