Suffolk County District Attorney Daniel F. Conley’s top gang prosecutor was honored yesterday at the University of Massachusetts Boston for his commitment to Boston’s neighborhoods and their residents.

UMass Boston Chancellor Keith Motley presented Assistant District Attorney Daniel Mulhern with the Robert H. Quinn Award for Outstanding Community Leadership, an honor named for the former attorney general, speaker of the Massachusetts House of Representatives, and chair of the UMass Board of Trustees. The award is presented annually by UMass Boston to honor individuals whose contributions have significantly improved the quality of life in the Greater Boston area.

“Dan Mulhern is first and foremost a prosecutor whose keen understanding and innovative use of the law makes him a standout among his peers,” Conley said. “But to the young people of Boston, he’s much more than that. He’s a peacemaker, an ambassador, an advisor, and an historian. His work in the courtroom makes him an outstanding lawyer, but his work on basketball courts, at community meetings, and in coffee shops and subway stations long after the workday is done makes him an outstanding community leader.”

As the chief of Conley’s Gang Unit and Safe Neighborhood Initiative, Mulhern’s primary caseload consists of gang-related homicides in Boston, Chelsea, Revere, and Winthrop. Among other responsibilities, he is tasked with the review and assignment of all firearm possession cases, all arrests involving gang-involved defendants, and all non-fatal shootings, solved or unsolved.

A prosecutor for more than a decade, Mulhern came to Conley’s office with experience built at the Middlesex DA’s office and the Massachusetts Attorney General’s office. He worked as the supervisor of Chelsea District Court staff and as a line prosecutor in the Gang Unit before taking leadership of it in 2007.

“What makes Dan so effective in his position is his ability to partner with so many individuals and agencies,” Conley said. “He’s an omnipresent figure at community meetings, crime watch presentations, strategy talks with other law enforcement agencies, intervention and prevention groups, and countless other events. And he does it not because it’s part of his job, but because he sees in each case a person and a population that deserve the best a public servant can offer.”