On August 12, 2008, Governor Sarah Palin announced the appointment of Bill McAllister as her Communications Director and Press Secretary.
“We are fortunate to have someone of Bill’s caliber joining our team,” Governor Palin said. “His talent, intelligence and incredible gift of communicating with the public will serve Alaska well. I am pleased he will be part of our efforts to build an effective, responsive and positive branch of government.”McAllister replaced Rosanne Hughes, whose initial appointment as communications director was announced May 1 of last year. The job had been vacant for some months before that. Hughes was moved to a newly created position of director of external communications. The governor's first communications director was Meghan Stapleton, also a former Anchorage television reporter, who is now the personal spokesperson for Gov. Palin and her family.
McAllister served as the Capitol bureau chief for Channel 2 News (KTUU-TV) from 2004 to 2008. He has also worked as a political reporter for the Juneau Empire (from August 1999 to July 2002), the Alaska Budget Report and for public television station KTOO-TV, where he was host and producer of "Alaska Week." He freelanced for ABC-TV and was host and producer of Alaska's SuperStation news magazine "Capital Focus." At the Anchorage Daily News, he was an Op-Ed page columnist.
Bill McAllister's first job in Alaska was working for the Chilkat Valley News in Haines from 1995 to 1997. McAllister also covered politics in Minnesota for the St. Cloud Times and the St. Paul Legal Ledger.
“I had been covering politics for most of the past 30 years, from Capitol Hill to the Iowa caucuses to the city council in Winona, Minnesota,” McAllister said. “As an Alaskan now for more than 11 years, I’m honored to be part of an administration that’s making a pivotal change for the better in how state government is conducted.”McAllister received a bachelor’s degree in mass communications in 1978 from Hamline University in St. Paul, Minnesota. He resides in Anchorage with his wife and three children.
His work has been recognized by the Alaska Press Club, the Alaska Broadcasters Association and the Society of Professional Journalists.
Bill McAllister won four awards from the Alaska Press Club in 2007, including best breaking news story for television, and two awards last year from Capitolbeat, including best single story of the year for television.
McAllister is a former board member and the former secretary of a national organization for statehouse journalists, Capitolbeat. He was co-chair of the 2005 Capitolbeat conference in Seattle and contributed a chapter to the group's nationally distributed guide for legislative reporters.
In 2004, Bill McAllister won first-place awards from the Alaska Press Club for political reporting on television and as best newspaper columnist.
Just five weeks after joining Gov. Palin's staff, Bill McAllister began his battle with lymphoma. On March 12, he spoke publicly for the first time about living with the disease in an interview with KTVA's Matthew Simon.
Other posts in this series:
Inside Sarah's Circle: 1. Meet Kristan Cole
Inside Sarah's Circle: 2. Meet Pam Pryor
Update: It was announced in June that Bill McAllister was leaving the office of the governor to go to work in the Alaska attorney general's office.
- JP
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