Disgraced former federal prosecutor Rachael Rollins cracked the six-figure salary mark last year and was promoted to executive director of a program at Roxbury Community College, according to state payroll records and an ethics disclosure obtained by the Herald.
Rollins, who resigned as the U.S. Attorney for Massachusetts following the release of damning federal reports in 2023, landed at Roxbury Community College as a part-time employee making $96,000 a year. But data from the Comptroller’s Office shows Rollins has moved up the ranks.
The Boston Democrat and former Suffolk County district attorney saw her pay increase to just over $106,000 and her weekly hours boosted in December 2024, almost a year after she started working as a special projects administrator at the college, according to payroll data.
She was promoted in January 2025 to executive director of The Fort, which the college described as a program providing classes, services, coaching, and programming for “justice-impacted students.” Her pay was hiked to $109,851 a year, state records show.
Rollins did not respond to a Herald inquiry Wednesday.
The Fort was developed by Rollins through her work as a restorative justice projects administrator at Roxbury Community College, said Communications, Marketing, and External Relations Associate Vice President Jordan Smock.
“Her new title and salary started Jan. 1, which reflects the additional work and hours necessary now that the program has started. Her salary is grant funded,” Smock said in a statement to the Herald.
State payroll records for 2025 classify Rollins as a full-time employee with two job titles, which Smock said is “inaccurate.” Roxbury Community College’s Human Resources Department is investigating the “discrepancies,” Smock said.
Rollins left the U.S. Attorney’s Office in May 2023 just as federal investigators found she had tried to influence a race for Suffolk County district attorney by leaking non-public information to the media.
The bombshell reports also determined Rollins committed repeated ethical breaches and misused the powers of her office, including by generating negative press about Kevin Hayden, the attorney who beat City Councilor Ricardo Arroyo for Suffolk County district attorney.
But Rollins has since secured the quiet job at Roxbury Community College, which the institution said last March would have the former lawyer working to “develop a curriculum and services for formerly incarcerated individuals, particularly women of color.”
The former prosecutor was hired by the college in January 2024 under the title “staff associate” to work 22.5 hours a week at an annual rate of $48,000, according to data provided by the Massachusetts Office of the Comptroller.
Her pay was increased a day later to $96,000, records show.
Rollins’ hours were reduced in March 2024 to 18.75 hours per week, which brought down her annual rate to $79,998, according to records from the Office of the Comptroller. She was paid a total of $88,322 in 2024, state records show.
But Rollins got a pay bump in December when her weekly hours were increased to 30 and her annual rate jumped to $106,652, according to state data. Rollins’ pay was hiked again last month to $109,851, according to data from the Comptroller’s Office.