Eagle Tribune | Healey's transition team to plot agenda
By Christian Wade
Story Originally Appeared in The Eagle Tribune
BOSTON — Governor-elect Maura Healey has tapped dozens of state leaders for her transition team as she prepares to take the reins from outgoing Gov. Charlie Baker.
Healey, the state’s attorney general since 2015, won the Nov. 8 gubernatorial election against Republican Geoff Diehl, a former state lawmaker.
She moves into the governor’s corner office Jan. 5, following a swearing-in ceremony at the Statehouse.
Healey’s running mate, Lt. Gov.-elect Kim Driscoll, is heading up the transition.
“We’re excited to welcome this experienced, innovative and hardworking group of leaders to our transition policy committees,” Driscoll, who has served as Salem mayor for the past 16 years, said in a statement.
“They will play a critical role in the important work we are doing to ensure that our administration is ready to begin moving Massachusetts forward on day one.”
The duo’s transition team is a diverse mix of longtime campaign supporters and former political rivals, mayors and other municipal officials, public administrators, leaders of private business and industry, women’s reproductive rights advocates, lawyers and community activists.
They’ve been divided into committees focusing on public transportation infrastructure, housing, climate change resilience and adaptation, jobs and the economy, health care and youth issues. They’re expected to help Healey, a Democrat, shape her administration and policies in the coming months.
Healey said every committee will “apply an equity and affordability lens to their work, always considering the ways in which historically marginalized communities may be impacted and how to alleviate economic burdens for Massachusetts residents.”
Among the more notable appointees are Michael Dandorph, president and CEO of Tufts Medicine; John M. Pourbaix, Jr., executive director of Construction Industries of Massachusetts; Max Page, president of the Massachusetts Teachers Association; and Steve Walsh, president & CEO, Massachusetts Health & Hospital Association.
Others chosen by Healey to help with the transition include Lora Pellegrini, president & CEO, Massachusetts Association of Health Plans; Rebecca Hart Holder, president of Reproductive Equity Now; and Joanne Peterson, executive director of Learn to Cope.
Among the appointees from the North of Boston region are Jason Etheridge, president of Lifebridge North Shore; Beth Kontos, president of the American Federation of Teachers Massachusetts; Jo Ann Simons, president & CEO, Northeast Arc; and Marta García, a teacher in Salem Public Schools who was chosen Massachusetts teacher of the year.
Team members have been told not to talk to the press about specific proposals discussed in any transition meetings, which are expected to get underway early next month.
Healey faces a litany of challenges when she takes over the reins of state government, from the ongoing impact of record-high inflation and the possibility of a recession next year, to skyrocketing energy prices and a lack of affordable housing that economists say hinder the state’s growth.
After taking office, Healey will also have to get to work on putting together her first budget proposal as governor, which is due by March 1 under state law.