Five Harvard Affiliates to Serve on Healey’s Gubernatorial Transition Team

Massachusetts Governor-Elect Maura T. Healey ’92 has tapped five Harvard affiliates to serve on her gubernatorial transition team, which she rolled out Monday.

The transition team, which will be led by Lieutenant Governor-Elect Kimberly Driscoll, consists of six policy committees addressing issues including transportation, housing, climate, and the economy.

Three Harvard faculty members serve on the committees, including Healey’s former Democratic primary rival, University professor Danielle S. Allen.

Healey, the current state attorney general, handily defeated her Republican opponent earlier this month, becoming the first woman elected to the state’s highest office and the first openly lesbian governor in American history. Winning gubernatorial candidates typically stand up transition teams prior to their inauguration that are tasked with identifying political appointees and preparing a policy agenda.

Harvard Kennedy School lecturer Thomas P. Glynn III will serve as co-chair of the committee tasked with working on public transportation and infrastructure. Glynn previously served as CEO of the Massachusetts Port Authority and U.S. deputy secretary of Labor. He also previously led the Harvard Allston Land Company. State Senator Eric P. Lesser ’07, who lost the Democratic primary for lieutenant governor, also sits on the transportation committee.

Thomas P. Glynn III, pictured at a Graduate School of Design event in February 2020. By Jonathan G. Yuan

Harvard Medical School professor Lisa I. Iezzoni, a health policy expert who researches health disparities and disability, was tapped to serve on the affordable housing committee. HMS Pediatrics professor Elsie Taveras will sit on a committee looking at “community health resources,” such as mental health and substance abuse services.

Allen, who leads Harvard’s Edmond & Lily Safra Center for Ethics, will serve on the committee working on economic issues. She ran against Healey in the Democratic gubernatorial primary but dropped out of the race in February. Benjamin B. Downing, who also ran against Healey in the primary, sits on the climate committee. Gina McCarthy, a former climate adviser to President Joe Biden who previously led a climate initiative at the Harvard School of Public Health, will co-chair the climate committee.

Jerry Rubin, a visiting fellow at the Kennedy School, is also serving on the committee working on the economy.

Democrats hold a supermajority in both chambers of the state legislature, giving Healey the opportunity to push forward an ambitious policy agenda.

Driscoll said in a statement Monday the committees 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.”

—Staff writer Yusuf S. Mian can be reached at yusuf.mian@thecrimson.com. Follow him on Twitter @yusuf_mian2.