Mara Sloan Boroughs was sworn in on September 27, 2023, as the Special Advisor for Oversight in the Office of Public and Intergovernmental Affairs (OPIA). She works to help communicate the work of Veterans Affairs to key stakeholders. She previously served in the Obama-Biden administration as a senior media relations advisor at the U.S. Agency for International Development. Boroughs also spent 8 years working on Capitol Hill for Sens. Bill Nelson (FL) and Bob Menendez (NJ) and for U.S. Reps. Debbie Wasserman Schultz and Al Lawson, both from Florida. She also served as a communications advisor to two U.S. Ambassadors to Argentina and at the Democratic National Committee. She worked as a reporter for the Gainesville Sun and holds degrees in journalism and political science from the University of Florida. For three years in Gainesville, she taught computer skills classes to homeless veterans at the Salvation Army. Boroughs is a North Carolina and Florida native and lives in Washington, D.C. with her husband and daughter. She is the proud granddaughter of Brig. Gen. Edwin C. Heffelfinger.
