JUNEAU -- A former reporter and public relations executive has been named Sen. Mark Begich's new press secretary.

Amy Miller will replace longtime Begich aide Julie Hasquet, who is going to work for BP Alaska. Miller is to begin in her new role Sept. 26.

According to Begich's office, Miller's journalism and public relations career includes work as a reporter for the Fairbanks Daily News-Miner and, most recently, serving as a vice president of Anchorage-based PR agency Thompson & Co. She was communications director at Pacific Lutheran University in Tacoma, Wash., in 2006 and 2007.

Miller will be based in Alaska, as Hasquet was.