D.C. Mayor Muriel Bowser has appointed a new acting director for the Office of Unified Communications (OUC). The appointee, Heather McGaffin, was most recently deputy director for the agency and first joined OUC in 2020 as chief of special operations and investigations.

Bowser’s announcement Friday follows a months-long search for a new director. Late last year she fought to install Karima Holmes as the agency’s leader, but withdrew her nomination after pushback from the D.C. Council.

It was a rare defeat for a mayoral nomination to a cabinet position. Holmes, who led the agency as acting director from 2015 to 2021 and again in 2022, drew criticism from lawmakers following several dispatching errors under her leadership, including one instance in which incomplete information slowed the response of EMTs after an infant was locked in a car for an hour. The child died.

Bowser also said that she thinks Holmes will have an “outside opportunity.”

When asked whether McGaffin was best positioned to rebuild trust as someone who was already part of OUC, Bowser said she’d made her decision following conversations with people inside and outside the agency.

“What they want is someone who knows 911 from inside and out,” Bowser said. “That is the leader we have.”

Bowser declined to comment on how many candidates they’d considered.

McGaffin touted her years of experience working at 911 and in centers across the nation, including in Calvert County, MD, acknowledging the agency had “work to do.”

“We’re going to be transparent and accountable,” she said.

McGaffin is not yet a D.C. resident – Bowser says McGaffin will meet the residency requirement within 180 days.

In addition to McGaffin, Bowser announced appointments for two other agencies Friday. Charon Hines, who is currently senior advisor to the chancellor at D.C. Public Schools, will be acting director of the Department of Aging and Community Living. Jennifer Porter, who was appointed executive director of the Mayor’s Office on Women’s Policy and Initiatives, will be director of the Office of Victim Services and Justice Grants.