Mary McFarland, a former Eagle City Council member and publisher of the Eagle Informer, will be the new communications chief for Superintendent of Public Instruction Sherri Ybarra.

According to a Thursday news release, McFarland was elected to Eagle City Council in 2011 and served a four year term,  owned the roofing company M Squared Specialty Roofing in Eagle and published community magazine the Eagle Informer between 2008 and 2018. Running as a Republican, she also launched an unsuccessful bid for Ada County Commissioner in 2020.

McFarland, an Idaho native, replaces former communications director Karlynn Laraway, who left for a job in the private sector last month. According to her LinkedIn account, Laraway is now a program manager at Cambium Assessment, which creates online testing for K-12 students. Prior to her job as communications director, Laraway ran the SDE’s assessment and accountability division.

McFarland grew up in Twin Falls and attended the University of Idaho.