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Speakers WEMO luncheon speaker: Col. Marian McGovern
Ballroom C, 3rd floor, Hynes Convention Center
When Gov. Deval Patrick appointed Marian McGovern as superintendent of the Massachusetts State Police in early 2010, Kevin Burke, then the state’s public safety secretary, noted that “the policing community wasn’t particularly fond of women joining its ranks” when McGovern began work with the state police 31 years earlier.
“Her ability to not only survive but to excel at every task and challenge assigned has prepared her for one of the most difficult positions in law enforcement,” Burke said.
Col. McGovern, the first woman to lead the state police, spent two decades as a detective, investigating murders, robberies, rapes, assaults, and incidents of child abuse. She also worked undercover to investigate the narcotics trade and organized crime.
She eventually became the Detective Unit’s executive officer. In this position, she played a lead role in creating the state’s Amber Alert system as a means of helping to locate abducted children, and she served as the system’s first coordinator. The 40-hour course she developed for training child abuse investigators remains in use today.
McGovern went on to become the state police’s chief of staff and then commanding officer of the department’s media relations unit. In August 2006, she was promoted to lieutenant colonel and assigned to head the Division of Standards and Training. She was promoted to deputy superintendent of the state police in January 2009.
“Her devotion to, and love for, the state police is unwavering, and her work ethic is unmatched,” Col. Mark Delaney, then the state police superintendent, said in a statement announcing McGovern’s selection as his deputy. “I will rely on those qualities, and her wise counsel, to assist in leading this department into the new year and beyond.”
One year later, McGovern succeeded Delaney as superintendent.
Speakers WEMO luncheon speaker: Col. Marian McGovern
WEMO luncheon speaker: Col. Marian McGovern
Ballroom C, 3rd floor, Hynes Convention Center
When Gov. Deval Patrick appointed Marian McGovern as superintendent of the Massachusetts State Police in early 2010, Kevin Burke, then the state’s public safety secretary, noted that “the policing community wasn’t particularly fond of women joining its ranks” when McGovern began work with the state police 31 years earlier.“Her ability to not only survive but to excel at every task and challenge assigned has prepared her for one of the most difficult positions in law enforcement,” Burke said.
Col. McGovern, the first woman to lead the state police, spent two decades as a detective, investigating murders, robberies, rapes, assaults, and incidents of child abuse. She also worked undercover to investigate the narcotics trade and organized crime.
She eventually became the Detective Unit’s executive officer. In this position, she played a lead role in creating the state’s Amber Alert system as a means of helping to locate abducted children, and she served as the system’s first coordinator. The 40-hour course she developed for training child abuse investigators remains in use today.
McGovern went on to become the state police’s chief of staff and then commanding officer of the department’s media relations unit. In August 2006, she was promoted to lieutenant colonel and assigned to head the Division of Standards and Training. She was promoted to deputy superintendent of the state police in January 2009.
“Her devotion to, and love for, the state police is unwavering, and her work ethic is unmatched,” Col. Mark Delaney, then the state police superintendent, said in a statement announcing McGovern’s selection as his deputy. “I will rely on those qualities, and her wise counsel, to assist in leading this department into the new year and beyond.”
One year later, McGovern succeeded Delaney as superintendent.
Written by MMA Associate Editor Mitch Evich
