DA’s victim witness director named ‘Advocate of the Year’

NORTHAMPTON — Jackie Gaw, director of the Victim Witness Unit in the Northwestern District Attorney’s Office, was honored last month with the 2023 Gerard D. Downing Advocate of the Year Award at the Massachusetts District Attorneys Association Annual Prosecutors Conference.

Northwestern District Attorney David Sullivan presented the award to Gaw during proceedings at the 27th annual prosecutors conference held at the Boston Seaport Hotel, noting the depth and breadth of her experience and calling her “a voice for thousands of victims.”

Sullivan hired Gaw to lead the victim witness unit in 2011 shortly after he was initially elected to office. Previously, she had worked as an advocate at the Hampden County District Attorney’s Office, where she was hired in 1985.

Over the course of her career, Gaw handled a wide variety of cases, spending six years, from 1990-1996, as a special advocate for child abuse cases. From 1996 until 2011, she worked predominantly with victims in homicide and other major felony cases in Hampden County. Since 2011 when she was named chief of the Victim Witness Unit in the Northwestern District, she has overseen a staff of roughly 12 people who serve victims in Hampshire and Franklin counties and the Worcester County town of Athol, as well as handling major cases herself.

Gaw lives in Southampton with her wife, Mary Hart.

The Gerard D. Downing Advocate of the Year Award is named in honor of the late Gerard Downing, who had been the DA for Berkshire County. Gaw was among three people to receive the award this year.

Pioneer Valley Osteopathy welcomes nutritionist

NORTHAMPTON — Pioneer Valley Osteopathy PLLC has added Lauren Walker to its clinical staff as a functional nutritionist, bringing her expertise in nutrition and functional medicine to patients seeking comprehensive care and more direct consideration of the significant role that diet and lifestyle play in the process of achieving optimal health.

As a certified nutrition specialist and functional diagnostic nutrition practitioner, Walker has extensive experience working with patients to identify and address the root causes of chronic conditions. Her approach is rooted in the belief that optimal health requires personalized, evidence-based nutrition and lifestyle recommendations that take into account an individual’s unique needs and goals.

She received her Bachelor of Science degree in wellness and alternative medicine from Johnson State College in Vermont. She then practiced massage therapy for several years, and is still licensed in Massachusetts and New York, before turning her focus to nutrition. She went on to receive a Master of Science in Human Nutrition and Functional Medicine from the University of Western States, which is partnered with the Institute for Functional Medicine.

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