Acting Mayor Kim Janey has named George Huynh to serve as her liaison to Dorchester in the Mayor’s Office of Neighborhood Services (ONS).

A Dorchester native who formerly served in the Walsh administration with a focus on Fields Corner, Huynh will “work to encourage, facilitate, and maximize citizen input and participation through service requests, neighborhood meetings, mailings, and emergency responses,” according to a statement from Janey’s office.

Huynh fills a role most recently held by Patrick Fandel, who has served as the Dorchester coordinator for the mayor’s office since 2018.

“I’m honored to be in this position and have this autonomy,” Huynh told the Reporter last week. “I grew up in Fields Corner, so I’m familiar with a lot of nonprofits here, like VietAID and the Dorchester Youth Collaborative. Growing up, I went to a lot of Dorchester schools,” he said, including Mather Elementary. Later, Huynh attended the Boston Latin School and Yale College, where he graduated with a bachelor of arts in political science.

Before he began working for the city, Huynh taught 7th-grade science in the Boston Public Schools and worked for a legal services organization. He speaks both Vietnamese and Spanish.

Huynh said his family moved around a lot when he was growing up. He has lived in the Fields Corner, Shawmut, and Columbia-Savin Hill areas of Dorchester.

For the past ten years, he has called Fields Corner home, working for ONS as the Fields Corner liaison. Now, he looks forward to representing Dorchester as a whole.

“I really enjoyed working in Fields Corner with the Vietnamese community,” Huynh said. “During the pandemic, I was asked to host community meetings in other neighborhoods [including Back Bay, Beacon Hill, and Fenway]. I thought that instead of having this role and bouncing around, I’d be more established in one spot. 

“The aim for moving into the Dorchester role was to really get to know the neighborhood and keep myself from having to provide that work for other neighborhoods, and I thought it was a natural role for me to take on. I’m excited to get to know other parts of Dorchester and continue providing constituent services at a high level.”

When asked about his goals as neighborhood liaison, Huynh said, “I just want to pick up where my predecessor left off and put my own spin on it.” 

He added that he envisions “being active in the community and going to events, but overall, focusing on the priorities of the job and providing resources. Being engaged in the community. Making sure that everyone’s involved in the public process for all the projects that are in Dorchester.”