Massachusetts Governor Healey Spotlights Climate Workforce Development at Harvard Symposium

Massachusetts Governor Maura T. Healey ’92 touted her administration’s climate initiatives for workforce development at a Friday event for the Salata Institute’s annual Harvard Climate Action Week.

Healey was invited as the keynote guest for the Harvard Climate Symposium, a two-day program centered on climate policy and environmental progress. Healey focused on workplace innovation and economic progress in her discussion with Tracy Palandjian ’93, CEO of finance nonprofit Social Finance and a member of the Harvard Corporation, the University’s highest governing board.

Healey highlighted her administration’s investment in career training initiatives like the Climate Careers Fund — a no-cost loan program for training in high-demand climate industries that is managed by Palandjian’s Social Finance.

Healey’s administration first announced the fund last year as a component of the Commonwealth’s goal of achieving Net Zero by 2050 and training an additional 34,000 workers for climate sector jobs by 2030.

In his introduction for Healey and Palandjian, Harvard University President Alan M. Garber ’76 praised the Salata Institute’s climate and sustainability research for “meeting the urgency of the moment with the intensity it deserves.”

Healey has been a vocal Harvard supporter in the last several months as the University continues its legal battle with the Trump administration over federal funding and international student enrollment. Healey argued that federal funding for Harvard was an economic necessity in a May webinar with Crimson Courage, a grassroots alumni organization that has worked to pressure the University to not concede to federal demands.

The governor also wrote in an April statement to The Crimson that she was grateful that Harvard had chosen to reject President Donald Trump’s demands, adding that compliance “would have made us all less safe and less free.”

Garber avoided political commentary on Friday, but he said Healey was a leader with “ambition, creativity, and optimism” in the climate field.

Healey, who announced her 2026 re-election bid in February, called the symposium “a terrific opportunity to highlight Massachusetts’ leadership in this moment,” in a statement.

“My hope is we make the most of it here, and that we also see it scaled across the country,” Healey said of the Climate Career Fund. “It’s something that I want to talk to other governors and states about doing.”

Healey’s administration also made a $50,000 donation to the Harvard Innovation Lab in May, part of a $1.4 million initiative from the Massachusetts Clean Energy Center to fund climate startups.

“We have a huge opportunity when it comes to an energy transition, not only for what it will mean for emissions, also what it means for economic growth, for jobs,” Healey said on Friday. “That’s something that we’re very much invested in in Massachusetts.”

—Staff writer Megan L. Blonigen can be reached at megan.blonigen@thecrimson.com. Follow her on X at @MeganBlonigen.

—Staff writer Yahir Ramirez can be reached at yahir.ramirez@thecrimson.com.