Andrea Hagelgans named Bill de Blasio's director of agency communications
Bill de Blasio on June 12, 2014. Credit: Stephen Lovekin/Getty Images
Mayor Bill de Blasio on Monday announced a new director of agency communications with experience in crisis and nonprofit public relations.
The appointment last month of Andrea Hagelgans to coordinate communications across city agencies came about five months into de Blasio's tenure, which began with a rocky start in press relations.
As a vice president at Manhattan-based Camino Public Relations, Hagelgans developed Planned Parenthood Federation of America's response to a 2012 decision by the Susan G. Komen Foundation for the Cure to withdraw funding. Her government experience includes working as deputy press secretary for the New York City Campaign Finance Board in 2005.
Hagelgans in a statement commended de Blasio's "clear, progressive vision."
The mayor's first months in office featured some points of tension with the press, most notably when he walked out of a City Hall news conference in February and ignored questions about a call he made to a high-ranking NYPD official about the arrest of a supporter, Bishop Orlando Findlayter.
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