Co-Chair, Political Parity

Kerry Healey (Political Parity co-chair) served as the 70th lieutenant governor of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts from 2003 to 2007. As lieutenant governor, Dr. Healey lead successful efforts to combat drunk driving; address homelessness; and increase penalties for perpetrators of child abuse, gang violence, sexual assault, and domestic violence.

After leaving office in 2007, she became a fellow at the Harvard Kennedy School’s Institute of Politics and Center for Public Leadership. In 2008, Dr. Healey served as a senior adviser for the Romney for President campaign. She was also appointed by Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice to the Executive Committee of the State Dept.’s Public Private Partnership for Justice Reform in Afghanistan (PPP) and is currently President of the Friends of the PPP, a nonprofit organization supporting PPP programs that offer scholarships and training to Afghan lawyers. Since 2009, Ambassador Swanee Hunt and Dr. Healey have co-chaired Political Parity, a bipartisan effort to increase women’s representation in high-level state and federal offices. Dr. Healey also serves on the advisory boards of the Harvard Kennedy School’s Taubman Institute on State and Local Government and the MIT Collaborative’s Healthcare Visionary Council. She serves on many nonprofit boards, including the Pioneer Institute, Milton Academy, the Commonwealth Shakespeare Company, and Caritas Cubana.

Prior to her election, Dr. Healey was elected chair of the Massachusetts Republican Party. For more than a decade, she worked as a public policy researcher for the Cambridge-based think tank Abt Associates Inc. on contracts with the US Dept. of Justice. She is the author of many publications on criminal justice policy. Dr. Healey holds an AB from Harvard College in government and a PhD from Trinity College, Dublin in law and political science. She was a visiting researcher at Harvard Law School and a Rotary Ambassadorial Scholar in Ireland. She is a member of the Council on Foreign Relations.

Dr. Healey is the creator and host of Shining City, a television series showcasing New England’s cutting-edge scientific and social innovation, which aired on NESN in 2010. She has been married to Sean for 25 years, and they have two teenaged children.