Chief of staff named for DNREC Office of the Secretary

Secretary Shawn M. Garvin has announced that the Delaware Department of Natural Resources and Environmental Control will welcome a new chief of staff to the DNREC Secretary’s office Jan. 27: Gregory Patterson, who brings with him extensive experience in the fields of communications, government, and the environment, having served in three Delaware administrations. 

Most recently, Patterson served as chief of staff in the Department of Justice under Delaware Attorneys General Kathy Jennings and Matt Denn, directing policy, communications, and legislative relations. Prior to that, he served as the senior government relations director in Delaware for the law firm Drinker Biddle, where he worked on behalf of clients including St. Francis Hospital and AstraZeneca.

Patterson was legislative liaison and later deputy chief of staff for Gov. Jack Markell, coordinating the Markell administration’s effort to pass universal recycling legislation in 2010 and acting as the Governor’s point person in crisis response, including Hurricanes Sandy and Irene, snowstorms, and the 2009 swine flu outbreak. He also served as advisor to then-Delaware Insurance Commissioner Denn on policy and communications.

Earlier, Patterson served as communications director for Governor Ruth Ann Minner, after managing Minner’s campaign to become Delaware’s first woman governor and her reelection four years later. He had previously served as a special assistant to then-Lieutenant Governor Minner.

Patterson began his career as a newspaper reporter, working for The Augusta Chronicle in Georgia and the Sumter Daily Item in South Carolina. A Delaware native, Patterson graduated from Dover High School and earned a Bachelor of Arts degree in Journalism from Washington and Lee University in Virginia. He now lives near Dover with his wife and two daughters.