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Date: 11/16/2021
SOUTH HADLEY – Lisa Wong was officially sworn in as South Hadley’s new town administrator on Nov. 1. She is taking over the position from Michael Sullivan, who served for more than eight years.
Wong was previously the town manager in Winchester for three years and the mayor of Fitchburg for eight years. She has been involved in several government roles and non-profit sector positions.
According to Wong, her husband is from Western Massachusetts and they had been hoping to settle in the area for quite some time.
“When I had jobs in Eastern Massachusetts, he’s the one that’s had to travel two, sometimes three, hours to go to his work in Western Massachusetts,” she said. “I think the previous town administrator’s done a fantastic job for eight years, so when I saw that he was moving on and the position was opening, I thought that would be a perfect fit.”
Wong said that she has a love for South Hadley and has visited the community many times.
“I love South Hadley. I’ve been to this community a number of times. Familiar with it from being somebody who’s visited here, I have friends that live here, big supporter of local restaurants here... It just seemed like a great opportunity when the position came up,” she said.
Wong said that she brings her broad and deep range of experiences to the position and that she will do what she can to help make necessary improvements to the community.
“The wonderful thing about municipal management is that you really get to do a lot of things. You’re working on public health, public safety, education issues, economic development issues, finance and administration and a whole variety of other things. Every day there is something interesting and sometimes new and it could be very broad or very specific, but there’s so much to a job like this that it’s always interesting,” she said. “I always feel like I’m both learning something new but also bringing in my now two decades of experience to the table in working in municipalities and working in nonprofits.”
She expressed gratitude for the community support shown to her and said that she looks forward to making more connections after COVID-19.
“It’s been very welcoming and I appreciate the help, the support and patience that people have given me to learn more about the community, but I also can’t wait until we all get through this pandemic together and then we can look forward to a lot more in-person celebrations,” said Wong.
For now, Wong said she is most excited about infrastructure projects, delivering good services to the community, addressing people’s concerns quickly and remaining open and transparent in this position.
“Every day it’s really about delivering good services and making sure that people’s concerns are being heard and that I’m there to support my colleagues here in all the departments in delivering those good services,” she said.