RACHAEL ROLLINS, who resigned last year as US attorney after federal watchdogs found she lied to investigators and attempted to meddle in a local election, has taken a part-time job at Roxbury Community College.
Rollins started the job, which comes with an annual salary of $96,000, earlier this year.
Reached on her cell phone, Rollins said she did not want to be contacted and hung up.
Rollins is working on a new program geared towards formerly incarcerated people, with a focus on women of color.
“The project will serve individuals returning from incarceration by providing them with sufficient tools to emerge as leaders, poised to create systemic, sustainable change for their communities,” Joyce Taylor Gibson, the college’s executive vice president of academic and student affairs, said in a January 26 memo to faculty and staff.
The part-time post comes with the title of special projects administrator, and is located within the college’s academic and student support department. Rollins will “collaborate with faculty, staff, and community leaders to create a robust and responsive program that meets the needs of our community,” Gibson’s memo said.
The college, which opened in 1973, has roughly 1,700 students enrolled at its campus, according to a spokesperson.
The memo cited Rollins’s experience in criminal justice reform efforts as “essential” in ensuring the success of the new program. As an example, Gibson pointed to Rollins’s creation of a conviction integrity unit, which reviewed past convictions for potential mistakes, when she was Suffolk County’s district attorney.
The Roxbury Community College memo added: “Over the coming months, Rachael will work with RCC colleagues to develop a curriculum and support services, develop metrics for success, and identify additional funding opportunities for the program.”
Rollins, a Boston Democrat, was the first woman of color to serve as Suffolk DA and the first Black woman to serve as US attorney for Massachusetts. Rollins held the job of Suffolk DA for three years, at an annual salary of $191,000, before becoming US attorney in December 2021. The federal post came with a pay cut to $172,500, the Boston Globe reported at the time.
Rollins resigned in May 2023, after 16 months in the job, after two separate watchdog agencies at the federal level issued reports that showed she repeatedly violated the Hatch Act, which limits political activities of federal employees.
The watchdog agencies – the Justice Department’s inspector general and the Office of Special Counsel – found that Rollins leaked information to reporters during the 2022 race to succeed her as Suffolk County DA.
Rollins supported then-Boston City Councilor Ricardo Arroyo over Kevin Hayden, the interim DA appointed by Republican Gov. Charlie Baker, and sought to damage Hayden’s campaign through the leaks. She later lied about the leaks while under oath to investigators, according to the watchdogs.
Rollins’s resume also includes stints as a top attorney for Massport, the quasi-public state agency that oversees Logan International Airport, and the Massachusetts Department of Transportation.