Governor Mike Dunleavy is proud to announce the arrival this week of two new Deputy Press Secretaries: Patty Sullivan and Shannon Mason.
Sullivan is a longtime Alaska journalist and public relations professional with 11 years as a journalist in print, radio, and TV and 15 years in external affairs at local government and a global energy company. Most recently she worked as Senior Communications Advisor for two years with ConocoPhillips Alaska, where she started the Business Unit’s first internal podcast, FarthestNorth. For 13.5 years, Sullivan worked in local government at the Matanuska-Susitna Borough, serving five mayors as the Public Affairs Director. In 2009, she created the Borough’s first social media channels for communicating with the public. Sullivan also led crisis communications as the Borough’s lead Public Information Officer through multiple declared disasters including floods, fires, glacial river erosion, and cyberattack.
In 1995, her Alaska journalism career began on Kodiak and led her to Bethel, Anchorage, Palmer and Wasilla. Her most recent journalism work was for a Valley bureau, which she ran out of her home for six years for KSKA Radio and the former Alaska Public Radio Network. Some of Sullivan’s Alaska features aired on National Public Radio. Her radio work was recognized with an Edward R. Murrow award. Sullivan earned her master’s in journalism at U.C. Berkeley. Her bachelor’s in English and Spanish was earned at U.C. Davis.
Mason grew up in Juneau, Alaska and is a lifelong Alaska Native resident of Southeast Alaska. Prior to being Deputy Press Secretary, Mason worked as a Communications Specialist for the Central Council of Tlingit & Haida. She recently graduated in May of 2021 from The King’s College in New York City with a Bachelor of the Arts degree in Journalism, Culture and Society.
Throughout her time in college, Mason gained the necessary journalism skills through her internships with the Rolling Stone magazine, New York Daily News and as the Editor-in-Chief for the Empire State Tribune, an award-winning student ran newspaper in Manhattan.
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