Healey, Driscoll to speak at Connect 351

Gov. Maura Healey and Lt. Gov. Kim Driscoll will share their vision for the year ahead with local leaders from across the state during Connect 351, the MMA’s annual conference in Boston.

Healey’s appearance, at the general session on Jan. 24, will come shortly after her annual State of the Commonwealth address and two days after she files her fiscal 2026 state budget plan with the Legislature.

The governor and lieutenant governor are expected to address some of their stated priorities, such as housing creation and addressing climate change, as well as the state-local partnership and current fiscal conditions.

Over the past year, the Healey-Driscoll administration has been working to address housing and economic development needs, climate change, an emergency shelter crisis, and infrastructure concerns, to name a few challenges.

During an Opening Session address at the MMA conference this past January, Healey and Driscoll discussed their budget goals for local aid, public schools and roads, and outlined priorities for the coming year, including their Municipal Empowerment Act, with 30 provisions that Driscoll said were “designed to arm local government with the resources, tools and the flexibilities you need locally.”

Healey emphasized the critical need to address the state’s housing shortage and urged local leaders to work with her on that priority. She and Driscoll pledged to work closely with cities and towns.

“We know that everything that we want to do, and we have goals for and a vision for — all of that depends on what you all are doing in your communities, and how well we’re doing at working with and supporting all of you,” Healey said. “I want to thank you for your incredible tenacity, your hustle, your compassion and your care for our communities.”

In November 2022, Healey became the state’s first woman and first openly gay candidate to be elected governor, after serving two four-year terms as the state’s attorney general. She has been a frequent speaker at MMA events since her time as attorney general.

Raised in Hampton Falls, New Hampshire, Healey came to Massachusetts to attend Harvard College, where she majored in government, was co-captain of the women’s basketball team, and graduated with honors in 1992. She spent two years playing professional basketball in Europe before returning to earn her law degree at Northeastern University School of Law.

Healey began her legal career as a U.S. District Court clerk followed by more than seven years in private practice. She also served as a special assistant district attorney in Middlesex County. In 2007, she was hired by then-Attorney General Martha Coakley as chief of the Civil Rights Division, where she spearheaded the state’s challenge to the federal Defense of Marriage Act. She also served as chief of the Public Protection and Advocacy Bureau and chief of the Business and Labor Bureau. In 2014, she won her first campaign for elected office, as attorney general, and was reelected in 2018.

While Healey is the first woman elected to serve as governor of Massachusetts, Jane Swift served as acting governor from 2001 to 2003 after Paul Cellucci resigned to become the U.S. ambassador to Canada.

In January 2023, Healey and Driscoll became the state’s first all-women administration, and Massachusetts became one of the two first states in the country, along with Arkansas, to have women occupying the two top executive roles. Driscoll was also the first woman to serve as mayor in Salem when she was elected in 2005 as the city’s 50th mayor.

Driscoll was previously chief legal counsel and then deputy city manager in Chelsea, community development director in Beverly, a councillor in Salem, and an intern in Salem’s Planning Department.

Driscoll majored in political science and played basketball at Salem State University before earning a law degree at the Massachusetts School of Law.

During 17 years as mayor of Salem, Driscoll was credited with helping to improve Salem’s finances, overseeing infrastructure upgrades, investing in public school improvements, championing climate initiatives, prioritizing downtown and waterfront revitalization, and promoting equality, among other accomplishments.

She had been actively involved in the MMA and served as president of the Massachusetts Mayors’ Association in 2012. She also served as chair of the North Shore Coalition of the Metropolitan Area Planning Council, and served on the Massachusetts Workforce Development Board, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s Local Government Advisory Committee, the Massachusetts Seaport Economic Council, and the Massachusetts Economic Development Planning Council.

Driscoll is scheduled to speak during the MMA’s Annual Business Meeting on Saturday, Jan. 25.