CHERYL WATSON

Cheryl Watson is the Chief of Victim Witness Services for District Attorney Jonathan Blodgett’s office. In this capacity, she oversees services provided to victims and witnesses in Essex County. Cheryl has been working in the field of victim services for more than twenty years. In 1986, she co-founded one of the first Victim of Crime Act funded programs in Massachusetts, the Victim of Crime and Loss Program (VOCAL), at Project RAP in Beverly. Cheryl worked for almost eight years at the Essex County District Attorney’s Office as a Victim Witness Advocate, assisting victims and witnesses of crime through the criminal justice system. Upon leaving the District Attorney’s office, she became the Victim Advocate/Outreach Coordinator for the Massachusetts Office for Victim Assistance. She then began working at the Attorney General’s Office and became Director of the Victim Compensation and Assistance Division. While there, Cheryl was invited to travel to Haifa, Israel to participate in a domestic violence conference for Israeli and Palestinian women.

Cheryl is a member of the Essex County Child Fatality Review Team, a member of the steering and advisory committees of the Essex Child Advocacy Center, Co-Chairperson of the Lynn, Salem, Peabody and Lawrence Domestic Violence Roundtables, the Salem and Gloucester Domestic Violence High Risk Teams and a member of the Greater Newburyport High Risk Team. She is also on the steering and curriculum committee of the Massachusetts Victim Assistance Academy. She has presented on numerous victim-related issues locally and nationally.