Senator Kenneth Donnelly, Democrat of Arlington, has announced the initial formation of his legislative office for the 4th Middlesex Senate District.

Cindy Friedman will serve as chief of staff to the senator. Most recently, she served as chief of staff for Senator J. James Marzilli Jr., who resigned his office in November.

Anna Dunbar-Hester will serve as legal counsel and policy adviser, and handle the senator's committee work and policies around healthcare.

Erin Lyons will serve as a budget and policy adviser on issues primarily related to pensions, taxes, and labor and the workforce.

Sara Payton will serve as constituent services coordinator.

Before coming to Beacon Hill in 2008 in a chief of staff position, Cindy worked in the high- technology field as an engineering manager and director and before that as a public school teacher.

She has been very active in Arlington where she has lived for 28 years. 

Among her many political and civic activities, she is an elected 12-year member of Town Meeting and has cofounded and served on the board of several foundations and organizations in Arlington. She has been very active in many local and state political campaigns and referendums. 

Dunbar-Hester has a law degree and a master's in public policy from the University of Minnesota. She has over a year of experience working in the State House on budget and policy issues with a special focus on health care. Before that, Anna worked as a staff attorney at a nonprofit organization in Minnesota that focuses on access to the judicial system.

Before coming to work in state government in 2008, Lyons worked for the Joint Economic Committee and Senator Edward M. Kennedy's Labor Policy Office in the U.S. Senate.

As a member of the JEC staff, Lyons analyzed income, poverty, and health insurance trends in the American workforce. In Kennedy's office, she focused on issues that included minimum wage legislation, paid sick leave, and the right to organize. Lyons holds a bachelor's degree in political science and economics from the College of the Holy Cross.

As a 2005 graduate of Stonehill College, Payton holds a bachelor's degree in political science and public administration. Upon graduation, she became a member of the Massachusetts Attorney General's Cost Recovery Team, where she worked on legal and engineering matters in an effort to restore monetary damages to the Commonwealth resulting from failures involved with the Big Dig. During her time at the AG's office, she also participated in the criminal investigation into the I-90 tunnel collapse. Since coming to the State House in March, Payton has been providing services to constituents of the 4th Middlesex District.

The 4th Middlesex District includes the towns of Arlington, Billerica, Burlington, precincts 1, 2, 4, 5, 6 and 7 in Lexington and wards 1, 3,4,5,6, and 7 in Woburn.