State Attorney General Maura Healey Speaks at Smith

Massachusetts Attorney General Maura Healey will deliver a Presidential Colloquium in observance of Constitution Day at 4:30 p.m. on Monday, Sept. 18, in Weinstein Auditorium. The event is open to the public at no charge.

Healey became the state’s attorney general in 2015, following an election campaign—her first—that was driven by strong grassroots support. At her swearing in, Healey vowed to address the issues that she said matter the most to Massachusetts residents, including health care, energy costs, consumer protection, safer communities and equality for all. Since taking office, Healey has tackled issues including the heroin and prescription drug abuse epidemic, escalating health care costs, workers’ rights and student loan costs. She has focused on strengthening consumer protections and on improving our criminal justice system.

“As the people’s lawyer, the Attorney General is here to take on those tough challenges,” Healey said in her inaugural remarks.

For seven years prior to her election, Healey helped lead the state Attorney General’s Office—first as as chief of the Civil Rights Division and then as director of two of the office’s most prominent divisions: the Public Protection & Advocacy Bureau and the Business & Labor Bureau.

Earlier in her career, Healey was a prosecutor in Middlesex County and a litigation partner at WilmerHale, one of Boston’s most prestigious law firms. She also spent two years as a 5’4” starting point guard on a professional basketball team.

The oldest of five children, Healey grew up in the small, coastal community of Hampton Falls, N.H., just north of Massachusetts. Her mother was a school nurse, her father an engineer and a captain in the U.S. Navy, and her stepfather taught history and coached high school sports.

After graduating from high school, Healey earned a B.A. degree from Harvard, where she majored in government and was the captain of the basketball team. After two years as a starting point guard for a professional basketball team in Austria, Healey returned to Massachusetts and earned her J.D. degree at Northeastern University.

A resident of Charlestown, Mass., where she lives with her partner, Gabrielle Wolohojian, Healey is the first openly gay Attorney General in the United States.