Roles: Mayor, veteran, CEO MassDevelopment
Tell me a little about where you grew up?
I grew up in the Immigrant City of Lawrence, MA. We moved a lot when I was younger until my mom was able to get a public housing apartment on Market St. in Lawrence when I went into 7th grade. We were fortunate we had a yard and we were a block from a huge public park, the South Common. I felt loved and bullied and supported and always felt as if I was part of something bigger than myself, a member of a community.
How did that experience shape you as a person?
Living in public housing meant you had to learn to work with all types of people. It was a community with all its good and bad. It made me a strong, resilient, and thoughtful person. I feel that it made me a better leader with a personal understanding of how policy, emergencies, and business impacts the lives of people, and how fragile we all are.
Why is that housing important now?
Without stable, quality housing that is affordable and accessible to those with the least amount of income, families will suffer, children will suffer. I am grateful that we had that safety net.
“ I felt loved and bullied and supported and always felt as if I was part of something bigger than myself: a member of a community ”
