Taking office in January 2012, Jon Mitchell is New Bedford's 38th Mayor. Jon's roots are deeply imbedded in the City.  He was born in New Bedford in 1969, and hails from a local fishing family that included his grandfather, Alexander Mitchell, whose name is inscribed at the Seaman’s Bethel with other local fishermen lost to the sea.  The son of public school teachers, Jon was raised in New Bedford and North Dartmouth, and attended local public schools. 

After graduating from Dartmouth High School, where he was the captain of the basketball team and a three year letterman in football, Jon went off to Harvard College.  Jon funded his college tuition by working in factories and warehouses back home during the summer, and with financial aid. After graduating from Harvard with a degree in economics, Jon went to work in Washington, D.C. for a year, and remained there to attend law school at George Washington University.  Upon graduation, Jon went to work as a federal prosecutor in the United States Department of Justice, having been selected to the prestigious Attorney General’s Honor Program, one of only five attorneys chosen from over 1,500 applicants.  As one of the youngest federal prosecutors in the country, Jon successfully prosecuted violent crime cases in the District of Columbia, as well as major white collar crime cases.  

Three years later, Jon returned to Massachusetts, where he worked briefly at the Massachusetts Attorney General’s office prosecuting public corruption cases, and then left for private practice at a major Boston law firm.  After paying off his remaining student loans, he returned to the role of federal prosecutor as an Assistant United States Attorney in Boston.  In the eight years since, Jon prosecuted cases in the areas of white collar crime, environmental crime, public corruption and violent crime.  Many of his cases were of national and local importance, including his tenure as the prosecutor on the fugitive investigation for Boston mobster Whitey Bulger, and his prosecutions of:  

• The perpetrators of the Buzzards Bay Oil Spill;
• Glenn Marshall, the former leader of the Mashpee Wampanoag tribe for a campaign finance scheme connected to disgraced lobbyist Jack Abramoff;
• Robert Mardirosian, the lawyer who sought for over twenty-five years to fence paintings from one of the largest art heists in U.S. history;
• Daniel and Aimee McElroy (Daily A. King), one the country’s largest under-the-table payroll tax prosecutions which was centered on the New Bedford waterfront;
• Oil giant ExxonMobil for an oil spill in Boston Harbor;
• Rehoboth bookkeeper Angela Buckborough, who embezzled $7 million from her employer and purchased a fleet of cars, luxury homes, and movie props;
• Albania Deleon, the owner of an asbestos training school whose practices led to “one of the country’s most egregious environmental crimes,” according to the Boston Globe.  

Jon served six years in the Army National Guard as an officer in field artillery and JAG units, having completed Army Basic Training at Fort Benning, Georgia and graduated with distinction from Officer Candidate School.  Jon is a member of numerous civic groups in the New Bedford area, and served as a board member of the Buttonwood Park Zoological Society.  He coaches girls’ soccer and softball in New Bedford’s youth leagues.  

Jon is married to Ann Partridge, a breast cancer doctor and researcher.  She is the Clinical Director of the Breast Oncology Program at the Dana Farber Cancer Institute, and founded and directs the Program for Young Women with Breast Cancer at Dana Farber.  They live in New Bedford with their three daughters, Grace (9), Natalie (8) and Lauren (5), and are parishioners of Saint Lawrence Martyr Church.