Attorney General Hill Names Staff

Indiana Attorney General Curtis Hill has made appointments to his staff. Leading the executive staff is Aaron Negangard, who has been appointed deputy chief and will serve as second in command. Negangard was Dearborn-Ohio County prosecutor since 2006 before joining Hill’s staff. Joan Blackwell will serve as chief of staff. She served as section chief in the Office of the Attorney General from 2014 to 2016, and most recently worked as an attorney at the law firm of Barnes and Thrornburg. Kelly Craven has been named senior advisor. Craven was a deputy assistant secretary of the Air Force in the George W. Bush Administration, and served as chief of staff for Indiana congressman Steve Buyer, before most recently serving as director of house operations for Speaker Paul Ryan. Hill’s communications staff will be led by Jeremy Brilliant, an award-winning journalist who spent more than 10 years as a TV reporter in Indianapolis, most recently working at NBC affiliate WTHR. Brilliant has been named director of communications, and will handle media relations, as well as public outreach for the Hill administration. Mary Allen has been appointed director of strategic planning and resources. She is the former director of the Indiana Criminal Justice Institute where she led the state’s criminal justice policy and planning agency. Former Marion County Prosecutor Scott Newman has been named chief counsel in the Advisory Division, while Denise Robinson will serve as senior deputy attorney general. Robinson most recently served at the Marion County Prosecutor’s Office. Patricia McMath left her role as appellate public defender at the Marion County Public Defender Agency to join Hill’s staff as section chief of civil appeals.