Thursday, 4:30 PM
Patrick names communications team
By Andrea Estes, Globe Staff
Governor-elect Deval Patrick today named Nancy Fernandez Mills, a former network news reporter and founder of a website for baby boomers, as his communications director.
Mills will be joined by Kyle Sullivan, spokesman for House Speaker Sal DiMasi, who will serve as press secretary, and Cyndi Roy, spokeswoman during the Patrick transition and the current spokeswoman for the Massachusetts Democratic Party, who will serve as deputy press secretary.
Also named to posts today in the new administration were Richard Chacon, the former campaign spokesman, who will be director of policy and cabinet affairs, and Michael Morris, an aide to State Treasurer Tim Cahill, who was named director of governmental affairs.
Mike Morris was will be the next Director of Governmental Affairs, and Christy Mach was tapped to be the new governor's Director of Scheduling.
The official administration biographies of each appointment are below:
Nancy Fernandez Mills, 59, will serve as the governor's third Deputy Chief of Staff/Communications Director, overseeing and coordinating the governor’s press operation, Correspondence, and the Public Liaison department.
A former producer and correspondent for NBC News in the New England Bureau, Fernandez Mills brings to the team a keen understanding of television news and production and experience designing strategic communications plans. While at NBC, she covered medical news, health care policy, politics, sports, education, and general news in New England, Bermuda, and Canada. Fernandez Mills was also a reporter for WBZ-TV in Boston and WWLP-TV in Springfield, and the Valley Advocate newspaper.
Since 2004, Fernandez Mills has served as Executive Producer and Co-Host of Boomers! Redefining Life After Fifty, a 13-part public television series which aired on 280 stations nationwide. In her role with Boomer Media Properties, Fernandez Mills hired and managed more than 20 staff, freelancers, and consultants; oversaw design and production of a multimedia website; and served as public spokesperson in media and at national conferences.
A co-founder and former director of several media and communications-related firms, Fernandez Mills has an extensive background in media strategy. She is a former Director of Strategic Communications at Radcliffe College. Fernandez Mills holds a BA in Sociology/English from St. Joseph’s College in West Hartford. She lives in Jamaica Plain with her husband Mark. She has three children, Adam Fernandez, Carrie Fernandez, and Lauren Mills.
Fernandez Mills husband, Mark Mills, will step down as executive producer of WGBH's news and current events program Greater Boston in order to avoid conflicts of interest. Through the month of January, Mark will work on WGBH projects unrelated to state government and the Patrick administration.
Richard Chacon, 41, will serve as the Director of Policy and Cabinet Affairs, working directly with members of the governor’s cabinet to oversee his policy initiatives.
Chacon has been Deputy Campaign Manager/Communications Director for the Deval Patrick Committee since May 2006. Chacon joined the campaign from the Boston Globe, where for more than a decade he served in various reporting and editing positions, including Boston City Hall, Latin America Bureau Chief, Deputy Foreign Editor and, most recently, as the newspaper’s Ombudsman.
In 2004, Chacon was awarded a Nieman Fellowship for Journalists at Harvard University. His other journalistic experiences include reporting positions at WCVB-TV and WBUR-FM in Boston, New York Newsday and KTSM-TV in El Paso. Chacon served as Assistant to the Deputy Mayor for Economic Development under New York City Mayor David Dinkins from 1990 – 1992, and later as Deputy Media Director for the 1992 Democratic National Convention in New York.
A native of El Paso, Chacon holds a Bachelor’s degree from Boston University, and holds Master’s degrees in public administration and in journalism from Columbia University. He lives in Somerville with his wife, Lauren, and their son, Ricardo.
Kyle Sullivan, 37, will serve as Press Secretary to the Governor.
Sullivan currently serves as Director of Communications and Chief Counsel for Education Policy for Speaker of the House Salvatore DiMasi. Immediately prior to joining the Speaker’s Office, Sullivan was Deputy Campaign Director of Strategies for Children, Inc. and its Early Education for All Campaign.
From 1998 to 2004, he worked on the Senate and Presidential Campaign staffs of Senator John Kerry. On the presidential campaign, Sullivan served as Lead Press Advance for the New Hampshire primary and then for campaign events around the country during the remaining primary and general elections. In addition, he served as Deputy Convention Hall Director for the 2004 Democratic National Convention in Boston. In his five years working on Senator Kerry’s Senate staff, Sullivan served as Massachusetts Press Secretary, Deputy State Director, and Interim State Director.
Before joining Senator Kerry’s staff, Sullivan worked in the Massachusetts Senate for five years serving in roles including Press Secretary, Legislative Director and Legal Counsel for then-Senator James Jajuga of Methuen.
Sullivan holds a law degree from Suffolk University Law School in Boston and a Bachelor’s Degree in Political Science from Saint Michael's College in Colchester, Vermont. A native of Salisbury, Massachusetts, he currently lives in Boston with his wife Suzanne and son Michael.
Cyndi Roy, 24, will serve as Deputy Press Secretary to the Governor.
Roy is currently the Communications Director for the Massachusetts Democratic Party, serving as the chief spokesperson for the Democratic State Committee. During the 2006 election cycle, Roy oversaw message creation and development for the 2006 Democratic Coordinated Campaign. Since September, Roy has assisted the Patrick committee with campaign and transition team media.
Before joining the state Democratic Party, Roy was a reporter for the State House News Service, a syndicated wire service covering Massachusetts government and politics. In 2003, Roy was a reporter in the State House bureau of the Boston Globe, covering the new administration of Governor Mitt Romney and the Legislature.
A Chicopee native, Roy holds a Bachelor’s degree in Print Journalism and Political Communication from Emerson College. She currently lives in South Boston.
A second Deputy Press Secretary will be named at a later date.
Mike Morris, 37, will serve as the Director of Governmental Affairs for Governor Patrick.
Morris has served as the Government Affairs Director for State Treasurer Timothy P. Cahill for the last four years. While there, he has worked with legislative leadership and staff to help Treasurer Cahill reform the state's school building assistance program, which ultimately created a new school building authority and solved a $15.5 billion problem.
Prior to becoming Government Affairs Director, Morris served as Assistant Deputy Superintendent of Administration and Finance for Norfolk County Sheriff Michael G. Bellotti from 1999 to 2003.
Morris holds a B.A. in Human Services from Fitchburg State College and a Master's in Public Administration from Suffolk University. He lives in Quincy with his wife Katie Jo and their son Michael Jr.
Christy Mach, 32, will serve as Director of Scheduling.
Mach joined the Patrick-Murray Campaign during the general election as the surrogate scheduling director. Before joining the campaign, Mach was the Campaign Manager for Lieutenant Governor Candidate Andrea Silbert. She has worked as Deputy Finance Director for both the Democratic Governors Association and the Democratic National Committee in Washington, DC.
A native of Arlington, Virginia, Mach holds a bachelor’s degree from the University of Pennsylvania and holds a Master’s degree in French language and civilization from Middlebury’s French language school in Paris, France. She lives in Cambridge.
