About Maureen

Maureen has spent her entire life fighting to improve the quality of life in her community. As a mother and civic activist, Maureen organized her neighbors to build better parks and raise funds for a local school. She established volunteer programs like blood drives and visits to a local soup kitchen. After working in the insurance industry, Maureen went on to make public service her career, serving as community liaison to then City Councillor Jim Byrne.

In 1993, Maureen stepped forward as a candidate for city council representing Dorchester's district three and was elected with an overwhelming margin. For fourteen years, she has worked tirelessly for her constituents with a trademark "strong record of constituent service" (Boston Globe, 2005). In 2007, her colleagues unanimously elected Maureen to serve as their president, a post which made her only the second woman to lead the body and for which she was unanimously reelected in 2008. Maureen maintains her commitment to delivering effective basic city services for her constituents while fighting for safer streets, better schools, lower property taxes and fairer zoning rules across our city.

During her time on the Council, Maureen was an early leader in the effort to merge University and Boston City hospitals, guiding the enabling legislation to create Boston Medical Center and ensuring that medical care for the needy remain as its core mission. She led the council's efforts to approve the site cleanliness ordinance which created new regulations for dumpster and trash removal, significantly improving the quality of life in many densely packed neighborhoods. She was influential in establishing the city's living wage ordinance and in maintaining the residency requirement for city employees. In the community, Maureen has been a long time advocate for nationally recognized community policing programs in Dorchester, she helped to establish one of the city's first K-8 schools at the Murphy Community Center, she remains a tireless advocate for Carney Hospital, and, with colleagues at the State House, she fought for MBTA red line improvements and renovations.

Maureen serves as a trustee of Boston Medical Center and the Daniel Marr Boys' and Girls' Club. She serves on the Democratic State Committee for the First Suffolk District and on the Ward 16 Democratic Committee. Friends for Children, a charity that provides with mothers and children with funding and services, recognized Maureen as Woman of the Year for 2000. In 1998, her alma mater Notre Dame Academy named her a Woman of Distinction. Maureen has received honors from numerous associations and non-profits including Elizabeth Seaton Academy and the Notre Dame Montessori School.

Maureen was born and raised in Dorchester and grew up in the Franklin Field housing projects. She is the daughter of a union pipe-fitter (Local 537) and a homemaker and is the eldest of five brothers and one sister. She lives in Dorchester with her husband Larry and her two children, Matthew and Kaitlin.