[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 159 (2013), Part 11]
[Senate]
[Page 16223]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                       TRIBUTE TO SANDRA MATHESON

 Ms. AYOTTE. Mr. President, today I wish to recognize and 
congratulate Director Sandra Matheson of the NH Attorney General's 
State Office of Victim/Witness Assistance, OVWA, for more than 30 years 
of dedicated service to the State of New Hampshire.
  A former law enforcement officer and crisis center director, Ms. 
Matheson was on call to respond to homicides for over 12 years, where 
she learned first hand about the unique needs of victims. She 
coordinated New Hampshire's efforts to establish victim/witness 
services in all 10 counties and to establish the New Hampshire Victim 
Compensation Program in 1989.
  During her long career, Ms. Matheson was responsible for founding and 
overseeing the OVWA homicide victim unit, which provides 24-hour 
statewide direct services in all of the State's homicide cases, from 
death notification throughout the judicial process. She has also 
developed and presented numerous trainings on traumatic grief and loss, 
homicide, and the extensive impact these crimes have on the families 
left behind. She developed and presented the State's first death 
notification training curriculum and she is a regular instructor at the 
NH Police Standards and Training Academy. She is on the faculty of the 
ME/NH Victim Assistance Academy, where she teaches the sessions on 
homicide and drunk driving, among others.
  Ms. Matheson was an instrumental part of numerous statewide 
initiatives aimed at standardizing the systemic response to crime 
victim issues, and has built a strong, effective, collaborative 
relationship with numerous State and community partners. She was a 
founder of the NH Domestic Violence, Child Fatality and Elder and 
Incapacitated Adult Fatality Review Committees, and served as chair of 
the Attorney General's Task Force on Child Abuse and Neglect, the NH 
Sexual Assault Nurse Examiner, SANE, Advisory Board, the Sexual Assault 
and Domestic Violence Protocol Projects, the Sexual Assault Domestic 
Violence Conference Committee, and is a partner of the New Hampshire 
AmeriCorps Victim Assistance Program. She has been a key player in 
getting legislation passed to help victims of crime, including drafting 
the NH Crime Victim Bill of Rights in 1991.
  A recipient of numerous awards for her work with victims and 
families, in April of 1994 Director Matheson received a National Victim 
Services Award from President Clinton and was honored at a Rose Garden 
ceremony for ``outstanding service on behalf of victims of crime.'' 
Most recently in 2013, the National Association of Attorneys General 
selected Sandra for the ``President's Award'' for her extraordinary 
work over the years.
  On a personal note, as New Hampshire's Attorney General, I was 
honored to work with Sandra. She is smart, passionate, and tireless in 
serving victims of crime and in making NH safer. She represents the 
very best of what it means to be a public servant.
  As Director Matheson celebrates her retirement, I commend her on a 
job well done, and ask my colleagues to join me in wishing her well in 
all future endeavors.

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