Former Salem City Councilor Lisa Peterson Named Mayor's Chief Of Staff

SALEM, MA — Lisa Peterson, a former Salem City Councilor who waged a brief challenge to incumbent U.S. Rep. Seth Moulton in the 6th Congressional District as he embarked on a presidential run in 2019, will be the new Chief of Staff in the Salem mayor's office.

Mayor Dominick Pangallo on Tuesday said that Peterson, who has worked for a nonprofit seeking to connect and empower women and girls since 2014, will fill the City Hall post that he held under former Mayor Kim Driscoll for 10 years before she left the office upon being elected as lieutenant governor.

Pangallo told Patch prior to his inauguration on May 27 that he sought to have "the right person for chief of staff and not just a person" and that he intended to name that person shortly after his swearing-in as the city's 52nd mayor.

Peterson will begin serving in the role on June 12.

"I'm so honored and proud to join this administration, and I'm eager to help move Salem forward, particularly at this time of important transition," Peterson said in a statement. "I'm enthusiastic to help Mayor Pangallo tackle the challenges and navigate the opportunities we face as a community, as we embrace our strong foundation and look forward toward our future."

Peterson was elected to the City Council in 2017 and served from 2018 to 2020. In July 2109, she announced an attempt to challenge Moulton for his seat in Washington D.C. as he launched his own bid for the presidency, but withdrew from the race about four months later.

She is the founder of Run for Our Lives, a nationwide network established to inspire and support women, gender-expansive people, and people of color to enter public service, and was the executive director of the nonprofit Adventure Girls for the past nine years.

She was also a trustee of Simmons University and was the founder of Lantern Financial, a financial planning firm based in Boston. She earned her Bachelor's degree in economics from Simmons University and a certificate of financial planning from Boston University.

"I am thrilled to welcome Lisa to our team at City Hall," Pangallo said. "Not only is she deeply familiar with the operations of our municipal government and the challenges facing our community, Lisa is also a leader committed to a Salem that serves our residents well, with a forward-looking and optimistic perspective about our city and a strong grounding in organizational management.”

Sabrina Trask was also officially named the mayor's Office Director and Michael Corley was named the Constituent Services and Special Projects Assistant on Tuesday.

Trask, who helped manage Pangallo's campaign in the mayoral special election, is a Salem native and 2020 graduate from Loyola University in New Orleans, with a Bachelor's degree in political science where she concentrated in empowerment and opportunity for women in the workforce. She also volunteers as an ESL teacher with the New Neighbor Project.

Corley graduated this year from Salem State University with a Bachelor’s Degree in media and communication and was the recipient of the Nancy D. Harrington Outstanding Student Leader Award and the MLK Jr. Leadership Award. At SSU he interned for Essex Heritage and GateHouse Media, served as president of the SSU Student Government, and was a board member of the Berry Institute of Politics.

(Scott Souza is a Patch field editor covering Beverly, Danvers, Marblehead, Peabody, Salem and Swampscott. He can be reached at Scott.Souza@Patch.com. Twitter: @Scott_Souza.)