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Maryland Department of the Environment

Shaffer Named MDE Communications Director

MEDIA CONTACTS:

Jay Apperson

(410) 537-3003
jay.apperson@maryland.gov

Shaffer Named MDE Communications Director

Baltimore, MD (May 28, 2015) – Veteran journalist and environmental communicator Mark Shaffer has been selected communications director for the Maryland Department of the Environment.

Shaffer was communications and media relations director for the Arizona Department of Environmental Quality (ADEQ) in Phoenix for the past eight years, where he served under MDE Secretary Ben Grumbles, the former director of ADEQ.

In addition to his communications role, Shaffer specialized in forming public-private partnerships that resulted in environmental good, most notably staging free electronic waste recycling events throughout the state that collected more than 2.5 million pounds of discarded electronics. Shaffer also served as a facilitator for ADEQ in instituting the Lean workplace efficiency program and modernizing other work processes for the agency. Shaffer will also use his Spanish language skills to expand MDE’s outreach efforts.

Prior to his public service, Shaffer was a senior reporter and editor for The Arizona Republic newspaper in Phoenix for 27 years, where he reported on the environment, immigration, Native American and public land issues. He also was director of the paper’s Mexico bureau in Mexico City and Northern Arizona bureau in Flagstaff. OF

Shaffer spent many of his formative years on a ranch in central Texas and received his bachelor of arts degree in journalism, history and political science from Midwestern State University in Wichita Falls, Texas. He attended graduate school at the University of Wyoming in Laramie, where he also was assistant sports information director for the university.

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