Ex-Swift aide killed in Iraq ambush
Civilian helped educate leaders on democracy
Colleagues recalled Andrea "Andi" Parhamovich yesterday as a vivacious public relations specialist who cut her teeth in Bay State politics. But none of them would have predicted her final career destination: Iraq.
As the war escalated and the body count mounted, the Ohio native moved to Baghdad two years ago to train Iraqi politicians in the finer points of democracy. Many of those politicians yesterday mourned her death at age 28.
Parhamovich, a former aide to Acting Governor Jane Swift , was killed Wednesday after her three-vehicle convoy was ambushed in a hail of gunfire and rocket-propelled grenades. Three members of her security detail were also killed and two were wounded.
Her death underscored a hidden toll of the war: the more than 400 US civilian workers killed. Nearly 75,000 such workers are currently in Iraq.
Parhamovich, who grew up and went to college in Ohio but started her career in Massachusetts, had been working for the National Democratic Institute, a nonprofit that is helping Iraqi leaders build political institutions. She was the institute's first full-time staff member killed in Iraq.
Parhamovich "believed passionately in helping to improve the lives of Iraqi citizens," the group's president, Kenneth Wollack, said in a statement yesterday. "This is a tragic loss for the institute and its Iraqi friends."
Those in Massachusetts who knew her were shocked at her death -- and where it occurred.
"I knew she had a desire to work in the nonprofit and government sector, but when I heard about her passing in Iraq, I was shocked," said Mark Nardone , executive vice president at PAN Communications, a public relations firm in Andover where Parhamovich worked for 15 months in 2000 and 2001.
He said Parhamovich excelled at client relations, but he could not recall anything that indicated she would make such a daring career shift. Parhamovich's easygoing ways left an impression on him more than anything.
"She had a knack for not taking things as seriously as a lot of people," said Nardone. "She had a personality that could light up a room."
She left the firm to work as a communications aide in the state Department of Economic Development under Swift. And though it was a Republican administration, Parhamovich did not appear to be overly partisan, as she would later work for Air America Radio, a left-leaning talk show station. She also worked for Mass Insight, a Boston-based public policy institute.
But by the time the Iraq war was raging, co-workers said, Parhamovich had become a political activist committed to fostering democracy abroad. She began work in Iraq with the International Republican Institute, a nonprofit dedicated to helping emerging democracies. Late last year, she jumped to the National Democratic Institute.
Officials there said she had been utilizing her experience in communications to help Iraqi politicians with voter outreach and constituent services. In a statement yesterday, the institute called her an "energetic activist who inspired her colleagues with creative ideas."
"Andi's work helped to build the kind of national-level political institutions that can help bridge the sectarian divide," the statement read. "Andi forged impressive relationships with Iraqi political leaders, many of whom have expressed their deep sadness at her murder."
Parhamovich's convoy had been traveling through Yarmouk, a Sunni-dominated neighborhood in Baghdad, when it came under fire. Her guards who were killed were from Hungary, Croatia, and Iraq, but the institute withheld their names for security reasons.
A Sunni insurgent group linked with Al Qaeda claimed responsibility for the attack. In a posting on an Islamic website often used by radical Islamic groups, they called her an agent of the "Zionist Mossad," a description usually used when a victim's nationality is unclear to insurgent groups.
The institute's chairwoman, former US secretary of state Madeleine K. Albright , said the group would carry on the work begun by Parhamovich.
"There is no more sacred roll of honor than those who have given their last full measure in support of freedom," she said in a statement. "Yesterday, in Iraq, Andrea Parhamovich and our security personnel were enshrined on that list."
Material from the Associated Press was also used in this report. Raja Mishra can be reached at rmishra@globe.com. 