Meet the bloggers

Mary Elizabeth Heffernan is the Secretary of Public Safety and Security for the Commonwealth of Massachusetts. She is responsible for the policy development and budgetary oversight of secretariat agencies, independent programs and several boards which aid in crime prevention, homeland security preparedness and ensuring the safety of residents and visitors in the Commonwealth.

John A.  Grossman is the Undersecretary of Forensic Science and Technology, within Massachusetts Governor Deval Patrick’s Executive Office of Public Safety and Security.  He provides strategic leadership to the State Crime Lab, the Office of the Chief Medical Examiner, the Criminal Justice Information System, the Massachusetts 911 Department, and the state’s witness protection program. .

Kurt N. Schwartz is Undersecretary of Law Enforcement and Fire Services for the Commonwealth of Massachusetts.  He focuses on policy and legislation in the areas of law enforcement, fire services and emergency management and provides strategic leadership to the Massachusetts State Police, Department of Fire Services, Governor’s Highway Safety Board, Massachusetts Emergency Management Agency, Municipal Police Training Committee and Department of Public Safety. 

Sandra M. McCroom serves as Undersecretary of Criminal Justice within the Patrick-Murray administration’s Executive Office of Public Safety and Security (EOPSS). In that role, Ms. McCroom supervises the functions and provides strategic leadership for the Department of Correction, the Parole Board and the Sex Offender Registry Board.

Gregory I. Massing is the General Counsel of the Executive Office of Public Safety and Security. He coordinates all legal matters within EOPSS and its 13 agencies and provides legal advice and analysis to the Secretary and the Undersecretaries. Since assuming the position in 2007, Mr. Massing has been instrumental in crafting and drafting the Administration’s criminal justice legislation.

Colonel Marian J. McGovern is the Colonel of the Massachusetts State Police. Colonel McGovern was sworn in as Superintendent of the Department in January 2010. As Colonel, she has made enforcement of traffic safety and impaired driving laws a priority. She was appointed to the Department’s top position after a long career that included service as a road trooper, a homicide detective, and commander of the Department’s Division of Standards and Training. She played a leading role in instituting the AMBER Alert program in Massachusetts.

Major General Joseph C. Carter is currently assigned as The Adjutant General, Massachusetts National Guard. General Carter oversees the administration and operation of the Massachusetts National Guard to ensure troops are trained, equipped and mission-ready to support national security objectives, as well as protect life and property, and preserve peace, order and public safety as directed in times of natural disaster and civil emergency. General Carter received his commission as a second lieutenant at the Massachusetts Military Academy on July 17, 1979. He entered the Massachusetts Army National Guard in January 1974 and rose to the rank of Staff Sergeant prior to his commission.

Stephen D. Coan has served as the State Fire Marshal since 1995 and has been head of the Department of Fire Services, an agency within the Executive Office of Public Safety, since it was created in 1996. The Department of Fire Services has responsibility for all fire service related matters within the Commonwealth and includes as its divisions the Massachusetts Firefighting Academy, the Division of Fire Safety, and Emergency Response & Homeland Security. In addition, specially trained state police are assigned to him in the Fire and Explosion Investigation Section that includes fire investigators and the bomb squad.

Sheridan Haines was named as Executive Director of Governor Patrick’s Council to Address Sexual and Domestic Violence in July 2007. With thirty appointees from the private sector and state agency officials responsible prevention and funding for services to survivors of sexual and domestic violence, the Council acts as an advisory board for the Patrick/Murray administration on issues relating to sexual and domestic violence across the Commonwealth. The council is chaired by Lt. Governor Tim Murray.

Sheridan served as Deputy Director at Jane Doe, Inc. the Massachusetts Coalition Against Sexual and Domestic Violence from 2001 to 2007. Prior to her work at Jane Doe, Sheridan was executive director of the Samaritans of Boston, a non-profit suicide prevention center. From 1982-1999 Sheridan served in a number of roles and as a member of the management team at Elizabeth Stone House, an alternative mental health program for women in recovery from emotional distress, domestic violence and chemical addiction.

T. Jane Gabriel is the Deputy General Counsel for the Executive Office of Public Safety and Security. She began her public service career as a Court Liaison for the Department of Mental Health’s Boston Juvenile Court Clinic. She subsequently joined the Boston Juvenile Court Probation Department serving as a Probation Officer on the Care and Protection Unit for 8 years. After completing law school she joined the Suffolk County District Attorney’s Office where she spent 6 of her 8 years on a Superior Court trial team. After leaving the DA’s office, Ms. Gabriel served as Counsel to the Commissioner of Insurance for 6 years where she was involved in many areas of law and service including employment/labor, enforcement, hearings, and emergency management. Ms. Gabriel is a graduate of New England School of Law, J.D. 1990, Northeastern College of Criminal Justice, M.S. 1983, and the University of Massachusetts at Amherst, B.A. 1981.