U.S. Rep. Brittany Pettersen this week announced her senior staff hires, including Capital Hill veterans, a former campaign aide and top staffer for the Colorado Democrats, and a former chief of staff for a fellow member of the state’s congressional delegation.

The announcement came days after the Lakewood lawmaker opened her main district office in the suburb’s Belmar neighborhood.

Pettersen, a former state senator, was elected in November in the Jefferson County-based 7th Congressional District, which had been represented since 2007 by Democrat Ed Perlmutter, who didn’t seek reelection. The seat also includes Broomfield and six mountain counties stretching south past Cañon City.

Pettersen’s chief of staff is Macey Matthews, who most recently held the same position for U.S. Rep. Jason Crow, the Centennial Democrat reelected last year to a third term.

Pilar Chapa, who worked on Pettersen’s 2022 campaign and is a former executive director of the Colorado Democratic Party, is the lawmaker’s district director. Following her job at the state party, Chapa was state director for Bernie Sanders’ 2020 presidential campaign in Colorado.

Pettersen’s new legislative director and deputy chief of staff is Adam Finkel, whose prior job in D.C. was legislative director for Democratic U.S. Rep. Tom O’Halleran of Arizona.

Mackensie Kvalvik, Pettersen’s communications diretor and senior advisor, most recently ran communications for Democratic U.S. Rep. Stephanie Murphy of Florida.

Pettersen recently told Colorado Politics that she’s also hired some of Perlmutter’s former staffers to handle constituent services and legislative correspondence.

Last week, Pettersen opened a district office in the FirstBank Building at 550 S. Wadsworth Blvd., bordering on Lakewood’s Belmar development, and invited constituents and community members to stop in if they need help navigating the federal government.

Her office said plans are in the works to open an office in Cañon City to reach constituents in surrounding counties.

Pettersen serves on the House Financial Services Committee and is a member of two of the panel’s subcommittees, on housing and insurance, and national security, illicit finance and international financial institutions.