Womble Bond Dickinson announced that Allison S. Mayer has joined the international law firm’s Baltimore office as a senior advisor in the Capital Markets group. Mayer has served complex, public-facing organizations for nearly two decades, utilizing her expertise in public affairs, economic development, project management, and government relations.

Mayer joins Womble from the Office of former Maryland Gov. Larry Hogan, where she served as deputy chief of staff and infrastructure director. In those roles, she helped guide the Administration’s strategy to achieve many of Gov. Hogan’s top priorities, including implementing the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law in the state. During the COVID-19 pandemic, she managed a multi-agency response and recovery strategy and shepherded multiple rounds of economic relief to help Maryland small businesses and non-profit organizations.

Immediately before becoming Gov. Hogan’s deputy chief of staff, Mayer was managing director of marketing and communications at the Maryland Department of Commerce, where she led marketing, media relations, public affairs, and advertising to promote the state’s unique assets to the broader business community. Before her move to Maryland, Mayer led strategic communications and global marketing activities at the South Carolina Department of Commerce for former Gov. Nikki Haley.

Bryan Sears, since 2013 the government reporter for The Daily Record, has moved to Maryland Matters where he will cover the governor and General Assembly, state politics and transportation. According to his Maryland Matters bio, Sears has covered the Maryland State House for the last two decades at the Baltimore Sun Media Group, Patch.com and most recently, The Daily Record. Sears has won multiple state and national awards for police and crime reporting, local and state government coverage and investigative reporting that resulted in a guilty plea by a government official for stealing from his own campaign account. He’s a frequent radio and television contributor.

WCAU meteorologist Steve Sosna is leaving the Philadelphia NBC owned station to work at CBS owned WJZ in Baltimore. According to WJZ, “We are happy to tell you that Steve Sosna will join WJZ’s First Alert Weather team as our weekend meteorologist on March 13. Steve has been a meteorologist at WCAU for the past 6 years, where he also produced stories on climate change. Fortunately, WJZ had a meteorologist opening at the same time Steve was trying to relocate to this area.” Sosna started his career at KAAL-KSTP in St. Paul, Minnesota. He then joined WNBC in New York as the senior weather producer and fill-in on air meteorologist at MSNBC.

Photo: Allison S. Mayer