WILMINGTON, Del. – Brendan Mackie has joined the office of U.S. Senator Chris Coons (D-Del.) as state press secretary, based in the Senator’s Wilmington office. Brendan is joining the office from the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs (VA). Prior to the VA, he was a member of Sen. Coons’ constituent services team handling veteran health care issues and also assisted the communications team.
Brendan can be reached at Brendan_Mackie@coons.senate.gov.
Brendan is a 2011 honor graduate of the Defense Information School – the Department of Defense’s school for professional journalists, broadcasters, and public affairs professionals. He deployed to Afghanistan as an Army photojournalist with the 82nd Airborne Division from 2012 to 2013. There, he documented more than 50 missions and named operations while embedded with infantry units and special operations forces.
Brendan is the recipient of six national awards, including two Keith L. Ware Awards for photography and the James P. Hunter Award for Outstanding New Writer. He authored two history books for Arcadia Publishing’s “Images of America” series on Fort Delaware (2010) and Fort DuPont (2011).
A Delaware native, Brendan is a graduate of William Penn High School and Wilmington University, an AmeriCorps alumnus, and an Army veteran who currently serves in the Delaware National Guard as a military intelligence officer.