Attendees may pick up their name badge and materials at the main registration desk.
Attendees may pick up their name badge and materials at the main registration desk.
For those who are attending the MMA Annual Meeting & Trade Show for the first time — as well as those who’d like some new tips — the MMA holds a first-time attendee session on the opening morning, from 8 to 9 a.m.
Fellow members who have attended Annual Meeting regularly share their insights and advice in an informal setting.
Attendees will learn how to find networking opportunities, what to expect in the educational workshops, and how to best navigate the Trade Show floor. They’ll also hear where to find complimentary coffee, which sessions are a must and why, the best places for lunch without having to go outside, and tips and tricks the panelists have learned over the years.
Overall, the session helps attendees make the most of their first MMA Annual Meeting.
• Welcoming remarks from MMA leadership & Boston Mayor Michelle Wu
• Opening Remarks: Gov. Maura Healey
• Keynote address by Eddie Glaude Jr.
Gov. Maura Healey will address local officials from across the state just a couple days after her first annual State of the Commonwealth address and a few days before her state budget plan is due to be filed with the Legislature — and while municipal leaders await details about her local aid proposals for fiscal 2025.
Healey is also expected to address some of her stated priorities, such as housing creation and addressing climate change, as well as the state-local partnership and current fiscal conditions.
In its eventful first year, the Healey-Driscoll administration has been working to address housing and economic development needs, climate change, an influx of migrants and an emergency shelter crisis, infrastructure concerns, and the need for operational and safety upgrades at the MBTA, to name a few.
Accomplishments include separating the Executive Office of Housing and Economic Development into two distinct offices and creating a housing secretariat; naming the state’s first-ever climate chief; launching the first “green bank” in the country dedicated to affordable housing; unveiling a $4.1 billion housing bond bill to increase housing production and promote housing affordability; launching the ResilientCoasts initiative to address impacts of climate change; and unveiling an economic development plan in early December.
During her MMA Annual Meeting address last January, just days into her tenure as governor, Healey outlined her priorities and pledged that she and Lt. Gov. Kim Driscoll, the former mayor of Salem, would work closely with cities and towns.
“We do want to do great things,” she said. “I just want to begin with a recognition that I know things are challenging out there right now. Our job in government is to be great partners with all of you, as we work through those challenges.”
Healey emphasized the critical need to address the state’s housing shortage and urged local leaders to work with her on that priority.
“We need your partnership. We need your best ideas. And frankly, we need your courage, too,” she said. “We’ve got to be aggressive.”
In November 2022, Healey became the state’s first woman and first openly gay candidate to be elected governor, after serving two four-year terms as the state’s attorney general. She has been a frequent speaker at MMA Annual Meetings since her time as attorney general.
Raised in Hampton Falls, New Hampshire, Healey came to Massachusetts to attend Harvard College, where she majored in government, was co-captain of the women’s basketball team, and graduated with honors in 1992. After graduation, she spent two years playing professional basketball as a starting point guard in Europe before returning to earn her law degree at Northeastern University School of Law.
Healey began her legal career as a clerk in the U.S. District Court for the District of Massachusetts, followed by more than seven years in private practice at Wilmer Cutler Pickering Hale and Dorr. She also served as a special assistant district attorney in Middlesex County.
In 2007, she was hired by her predecessor as attorney general, Martha Coakley, as chief of the Civil Rights Division, where she spearheaded the state’s challenge to the federal Defense of Marriage Act. Under Coakley, she also served as chief of the Public Protection and Advocacy Bureau and chief of the Business and Labor Bureau. She resigned in 2013 to run for attorney general in 2014, winning her first campaign for elected office. She was reelected in 2018.
While Healey was the first woman elected to serve as governor of Massachusetts, Jane Swift served as acting governor from 2001 to 2003 after Paul Cellucci resigned to become the U.S. ambassador to Canada.
Eddie Glaude Jr. is a New York Times bestselling author, Princeton University professor, and political commentator whose work has helped college students, readers and viewers better understand the dynamics of race, democracy and religion in America.
Since 2002, Glaude has been teaching at Princeton, where he served more than 14 years as the inaugural chair of the Department of African American Studies. He is currently the James McDonnell Distinguished University Professor at Princeton, and serves on the board of trustees at Morehouse College, his undergraduate alma mater. He previously taught at Bowdoin College in Maine.
A high school graduate at age 16, Glaude has a bachelor’s degree in political science from Morehouse, a master’s degree in African American Studies from Temple University, and a doctorate in religion from Princeton.
Glaude’s numerous books include “Democracy in Black: How Race Still Enslaves the American Soul,” “In a Shade of Blue: Pragmatism and the Politics of Black America,” and the New York Times bestseller “Begin Again: James Baldwin’s America and Its Urgent Lessons for our Own.”
A former president of the American Academy of Religion, Glaude has also written books on religion and philosophy, including “An Uncommon Faith: A Pragmatic Approach to the Study of African American Religion,” “African American Religion: A Very Short Introduction,” and “Exodus! Religion, Race and Nation in Early 19th Century Black America,” which earned the Modern Language Association’s William Sanders Scarborough Book Prize.
Glaude appears regularly as a commentator on TV shows including MSNBC’s “Morning Joe” and “Deadline: White House,” and NBC’s “Meet the Press.”
These 30-minute sessions provide opportunities to hear from experts on a variety of topics.
The following are the six Learning Labs for 2024:
11:30 a.m.-Noon
• Sustainability Advisory Services for Municipalities — Presented by Constellation
• The 5 Keys to Creating Strategic Plans That Work — Presented by ClearGov
12:10-12:40 p.m.
• Working with Your Local Cultural Council — Presented by Mass Cultural Council
• Internet for All in Your Community — Presented by Massachusetts Broadband Institute
12:50-1:20 p.m.
• Managing Pension and OPEB Costs: The Dual Nature of Section 115 Trusts — Presented by Public Agency Retirement Services
• How to Navigate Animal Issues in your City or Town — Presented by MSPCA – Angell
Visit the MMA Annual Meeting & Trade Show website for complete information about the Learning Labs.
Melissa Hoffer is the Commonwealth’s first-ever climate chief — and the first person to hold such a state-level position anywhere in the nation.
Before joining the Healey-Driscoll administration in January, Hoffer served as the acting general counsel and principal deputy general counsel for the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency.
Previously, she worked for the Massachusetts Attorney General’s Office as chief of the Environmental Protection Division, starting in 2012, and was named chief of the attorney general’s newly formed Energy and Environment Bureau in 2015. At the bureau, Hoffer oversaw matters involving the civil and criminal enforcement of environmental laws, proceedings before the Department of Public Utilities, energy policy, and defensive cases. She led the office’s litigation against ExxonMobil for deceiving Massachusetts investors and consumers about the risks posed by climate change and the impacts of its fossil fuel products on the climate.
Hoffer has also worked extensively in the private sector, having held senior roles at the Conservation Law Foundation and as a litigator and environmental lawyer at WilmerHale. She also served as a law clerk for Magistrate Judge Joyce London Alexander in the U.S. District Court in Boston.
She has a law degree from Northeastern University, a certificate in environmental management from Tufts University, a master’s degree in education from the University of Massachusetts, and a bachelor’s degree from Hampshire College. In her spare time, she raises a small herd of Nigerian dwarf dairy goats at her farm in Barre.
Friday, First Session, 2-3:15 p.m.
• Briefs on Briefs: Updates on Municipal Laws*
• Climate’s Impact on the Municipal Property Market*
• Crash Course in Responding to Grievances and Navigating Arbitration
• Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI): The Significance for Municipalities*
• Equitable Engagement: Best Practices and Blind Spots
• Fiscal and Economic Outlook
• Municipal Cybersecurity Update*
Friday, Second Session, 3:30-4:45 p.m.
• Are You Paying Too Much for Trash and Recycling Services?
• Beacon Hill Basics: How to be Your Municipality’s Best Advocate
• Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI): The Significance for Municipalities*
• Housing Converts
• The Latest in Labor Law*
• Unemployment: What Your Municipality Needs to Know*
• What To Expect When You’re Not Expecting Weather!*
• Legislator of the Year awards
Members can network over breakfast.
Attendees may pick up their name badge and materials at the main registration desk.
All mayors are invited to the Annual Business Meeting of the Massachusetts Mayors’ Association, provided they are registered for the MMA Annual Meeting.
All town managers and town administrators are invited to the Annual Business Meeting of the Massachusetts Municipal Management Association, provided they are registered for the MMA Annual Meeting.
All members of select boards in Massachusetts are invited to attend the MSA Annual Business Meeting, provided they are registered for the MMA Annual Meeting. Attendance at the MSA Annual Business Meeting is limited to MSA members.
All members of city and town councils in Massachusetts are invited to attend the MMCA Annual Business Meeting, provided they are registered for the MMA Annual Meeting. Attendance at the MMCA Annual Business Meeting is limited to MMCA members.
During the MMA Annual Meeting & Trade Show, the MMA will offer a special session on Saturday, Jan. 20, titled “Polishing Your Interview Skills.”
A panel of executive recruiters will offer tips to improve your interview skills. Panelists will include:
• Mary Aicardi, human resources practice leader at the Collins Center for Public Management at UMass Boston
• Joellen Cademartori, CEO of GovHR USA
• Bernard Lynch, managing principal of Community Paradigm Associates
• Weston Town Manager Leon Gaumond
A mock interview will highlight the do’s and don’ts of interviewing, and attendees will have the opportunity to ask questions.
The session will be held from 8:15 to 9:15 a.m. All Annual Meeting attendees are welcome.
As the White House’s first-ever climate advisor in the Biden administration and a former administrator of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, Massachusetts native Gina McCarthy is one of the country’s most prominent voices on climate change, the environment and public health.
McCarthy led the Climate Policy Office under President Joe Biden from January 2021 to September 2022. She served as the EPA’s administrator from 2013 to 2017, after serving as the agency’s assistant administrator in the Office of Air and Radiation.
At the state level, she served as commissioner of the Connecticut Department of Environmental Protection and in senior positions in the administration of five Massachusetts governors, including deputy secretary of the Office of Commonwealth Development and undersecretary for policy for the Executive Office of Environmental Affairs.
McCarthy has also served as president and CEO of the Natural Resources Defense Council, and was a professor in the Department of Environmental Health at Harvard’s T.H. Chan School of Public Health, where she served as director of the Center for Climate, Health and the Global Environment. She was also a fellow at the Harvard Kennedy School.
Since leaving the Biden administration, McCarthy has taken on a number of roles, including becoming a climate fellow for her alma mater, Tufts University, advising private equity firms on climate and sustainability-focused investments, and working with former New York City Mayor Mike Bloomberg on climate issues. She is also co-chairing a group coordinating climate policies between the United States and India, and she recently joined the climate initiative America Is All In as managing co-chair.
Through her work with the America Is All In coalition, McCarthy emphasizes that historic funding levels for local incentives and benefits are available through the Inflation Reduction Act to support the transition to clean energy and improve the health and well-being of families, workers, and local economies, as well as our planet. The All In coalition is focused on getting all sectors of society, especially health care organizations and higher education institutions in Massachusetts, to work with municipalities in developing climate action plans and reducing our reliance on fossil fuels. McCarthy says new clean energy technologies and leaders in Massachusetts can serve as models for the rest of the country and the world on climate action.
A year into her tenure as lieutenant governor — following 17 years as mayor of Salem — Kim Driscoll will address local leaders during the MMA’s Annual Business Meeting on Saturday morning, Jan. 20, in Boston.
Driscoll is expected to discuss the importance of the state-local partnership, how her experience as mayor informs her current work, the administration’s focus on housing and climate issues, and the fiscal constraints facing cities and towns, among other timely topics.
The business meeting is held during the MMA Annual Meeting & Trade Show at the Hynes Convention Center.
In January, Driscoll and Gov. Maura Healey became the state’s first all-women administration, and Massachusetts is one of the two first states in the country, along with Arkansas, to have women occupying the two top executive roles. Driscoll was also the first woman to serve as mayor in Salem when she was elected in 2005 as the city’s 50th mayor.
Driscoll had previous experience as chief legal counsel and then deputy city manager in Chelsea, as community development director in Beverly, as a councillor in Salem, and as an intern in Salem’s Planning Department.
Driscoll majored in political science and played basketball at Salem State University before earning a law degree at the Massachusetts School of Law.
As mayor, Driscoll was credited with helping to improve Salem’s finances, overseeing infrastructure upgrades, investing in public school improvements, championing climate initiatives, prioritizing downtown and waterfront revitalization, and promoting equality, among other accomplishments.
She had been actively involved in the MMA and served as president of the Massachusetts Mayors’ Association in 2012. She had also served as chair of the North Shore Coalition of the Metropolitan Area Planning Council, and served on the Massachusetts Workforce Development Board, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s Local Government Advisory Committee, the Massachusetts Seaport Economic Council, and the Massachusetts Economic Development Planning Council, among other activities.
Saturday Session, 1:45-3 p.m.
• AI in Local Government: Enhancing Services and Empowering Communities
• Cleaning and Greening Up Municipal Buildings and Fleets*
• Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI): The Significance for Municipalities*
• From 9-5 to 24/7: Building Thriving Business Districts
• Practice Resilience: Be Happier at Work*
• Unlocking Federal Funds
• Using Data to Tell Your Story