About MassGAP

Who We Are

MassGAP 2006 Steering Committee

MassGAP 2006 Task Force Co-Chairs and Members

Who We Are.
The Massachusetts Government Appointments Project (MassGAP 2006) is a bi-partisan collaboration of women’s groups whose purpose is to increase the number of women appointed by the new governor to senior-level cabinet positions, agency heads and selected authorities and commissions in the Commonwealth. The Massachusetts Women’s Political Caucus (MWPC) is the Lead Sponsor of this collaboration.

Our History.
In 2002 women held approximately 30% of the top high-level appointed positions in the Commonwealth, even though they compose 52% of the population. To rectify this inequity, more than 25 women’s organizations banded together to form the bi-partisan MassGAP Project for the purpose of increasing the number of women in high-ranking appointed positions in Massachusetts and achieving fairer representation of women. MassGAP sought to eliminate the difficulty that state executives say they experienced whenever they tried to find qualified women for high-ranking positions.. MassGAP did this through providing names and resumes of qualified women for top appointments.

Between January 2002 and July 2004, 42% of the new gubernatorial appointments made by Governor Mitt Romney were women. Massachusetts was widely recognized for that achievement and MassGAP was given credit for it. In a survey by the State University of New York (SUNY), Massachusetts was ranked first in the nation in the percentage of women holding top state positions. As the Boston Globe noted at that time, “Women fill 10 of 20 top positions in Governor Mitt Romney’s administration, making the Commonwealth one of five states that come close to matching the percentage of top women appointees to the proportion of women in the overall population.”

This accomplishment is significant. Nowhere else in Massachusetts government—not in the legislature, not in statewide offices, and not in municipal offices—are the numbers for women anywhere near as good. This fact was acknowledged by the Women’s National Republican Club, which presented Governor Romney with its 2005 Exemplary Leadership Award for his work in recruiting and promoting women to cabinet and senior-level positions in his administration. At the dinner in Manhattan at which the governor was feted, he attributed his success in attracting “top-level women to serve in [my] Administration to the MassGAP program spearheaded by the Massachusetts Women’s Political Caucus shortly after the 2002 gubernatorial election.”

The Need.
MassGAP 2006 seeks to have an even greater impact. According to the analysis of the 2002-2004 data by the UMass Boston’s Center for Women and Politics and Public Policy, the top level appointments in Massachusetts state government remain at approximately 31% including new, holdover and non-gubernatorial appointments. Thus, we need to secure more appointed positions for women in the new administration .

MassGAP 2006 Steering Committee

Beth I.Z. Boland, The Boston Club; Partner, Bingham McCutchen, LLP

Amy Branger, Project Director, MassGAP

Linda Brantley, Executive Director, Massachusetts Commission on the Status of Women

Samantha Overton Bussell, former President, MWPC

Sarah Cardozo Duncan, Career Strategist; Former President, Alliance of Women's Business and Professional Organizations

Cheryl M. Cronin, Partner, Brown Rudnick

Dr. Beverly Edgehill, President and CEO, The Partnership, Inc.

Carol Hardy-Fanta, Director, Center for Women in Politics & Public Policy, UMass Boston

Mary Fifield, President, Mary Fifield Associates; President, MWPC

Carol Fulp, Vice President, Community Relations

Katherine A. Hesse, Partner, Murphy, Hesse, Toomey & Lehane, LLP; Former President, Alliance of Women's Business and Professional Organizations

Bethany Kendall, President and CEO, Executive Service Corps of New England

Gloria Larson, Foley Hoag

Lois L. Lindauer, Director, Lois L. Lindauer Searches

Liz Levin, Chair, MassGAP 2002 and 2006; President Liz Levin & Company; Past National President Women's Transportation Seminar (WTS) and Past Chair Women's Network, Greater Boston Chamber of Commerce.

Jamy B. Madeja, Esq., Buchanan & Associates; Former President, Alliance of Women's Business and Professional Organizations

Sarah Magazine, Office of Barbara Lee

Jesse Mermell, Executive Director, Massachusetts Women’s Political Caucus (MWPC)

Beth Andrix Monaghan, Principal, Andrix Public Relations

Ann Murphy, Vice President, O’Neill and Associates; President-elect, MWPC

Margaret O’Meara, Vice President, Parsons Brinckerhoff

Teresa Patten, Public Strategies Committee Co-Chair,  New England Women in Real Estate (NEWIRE) 

Rebecca G. Pontikes, Board of Directors, Women’s Bar Association

Jana Reed, Director of Talent, Commongood Careers

Donna Stewartson, Assistant Director, Graduate Program for Women in Politics & Public Policy, UMass Boston

Roni Thaler, President, Center for Information & Study on Clinical Research Participation; Former Executive Director, MWPC

Susan Webber, Vice President of Institutional Advancement, Pine Manor College; Former President, MWPC

Jacquelyn Wilkins, President, WTS Boston

MassGAP 2006 Task Force Co-Chairs and Members

Administration and Finance Contact this task force

Steering Committee Liaison-
Ann Murphy

Co-chairs-
Marianne Fleckner
Karen Grant
Lynn Lyford

Members-
Anne Carbone
Linnea Walsh
Shannon O'Brien
Aurora Cammarata
Hyun-A Park
Libby Blank
Carol Carlson
Matt Keswick
Nicole St. Peter
Sian McAlpin
Susan Anderson
Susan Moulton
Travis McCready

Economic Development Contact this task force
Steering Committee Liaisons-
Beverly Edgehill
Mary Fifield


Co-chairs-
Monica Cost
Fredi Shonkoff
Martha Slaight

Members-
Maureen Alphonse-Charles
Andrea Astrachan
Nancy Cremins
Sonja Darai
Michelle Demars
Catlin Donnelly
Christine Duvivier
Kate Fitzpatrick
Donna Good
Mary Jeka
Trish Lohmar
Brent Maracle
Michelle McGee
Brenda Rodgriguez
Jackie Rogers
Julie Rose
Michelle Shell
Erika Soto Lamb
Marie Usumanu
Sabrina Williams

Education Contact this task force
Steering Committee Liaisons-
Linda Brantley
Carol Hardy-Fanta
Donna Stewartson

Co-chairs-
Lily Hsu
Irma Mann
Sherry Penny
Jane Swift

Members-
Dana Ansel
Elizabeth Brodbine Ghoniem
Nadia Chamblin-Foster
Tricia Farley-Bouvier
Sonia Higginbottom
Deborah Hirsch
Ernia Hughes
Marion Kilson
Andrea Kramer
Keesha LaTulippe
Kecia Lopes
Beth Roland
Kimberly Sansoucy
Renne Smith

Environmental Affairs Contact this task force
Steering Committee Liaison-
Jamy Madeja

Co-chairs-
Nancy Farrell
Claudia Smith Reid

Members-
Erin Boles
Thelma Cromwell-Ross
Christine Duvivier
Marianne MacDonald
Shelly McPhee
Tara O ’Donnell
Judith Pederson
DB Reiff
Julie Rose
Ruth Silman
Toni Whitmore

Health and Human Services and Elder Affairs Contact this task force
Steering Committee Liaisons-
Kathy Hesse
Jana Reed

Co-chairs-
Elizabeth Gonzales Suarez
Nancy Leaming
Lora Pellegrini

Members-
Abalos , Alona
Auguston, Claudia
Beasley, Carol
Doherty, Colleen
Egmont, Susan
Getto Young, Christie
Hamilton, Paula
Hynes, Brooke
McEttrick, Linda
Means, Roseanna
Meschino, Joan
Nemzoff, Ruth
Offner, Ellen
Patterson Durant, Leigh-Ann
Porche, Denise
Stubblefield, Beau
Winter, Kimberly

Housing and Commonwealth Development Contact this task force
Steering Committee Liaison-
Teresa Patten

Co-chairs-
Beverley Johnson
Joanne Sullivan

Members-
Martha Abrams-Bell
Sonia Alleyne Matthews
Francena Brooks
Stephanie Brown
Karen Kepler
Patricia Lynch
Linda Morley
Kathleen O'Donnell
Jeanne Pinardo
Mickie Simpson
Christine Sullivan

Public Safety Contact this task force
Steering Committee Liaisons-
Margaret O'Meara
Roni Thaler

Co-chairs-
Elizabeth Keeley
Luisa Paiewonsky
Kateri Walsh

Members-
Sarah Briggs
Katherine Clark
Joan Garnder
Cynthia Iris
Genevieve King
Carol Mallory-Causey
Linda McCaul
Gary Murad
Kimberly O'Hara
DB Reiff
Julie White

Transportation Contact this task force
Steering Committee Liaison-
Jacki Wilkins

Co-chairs-
Lisa Brothers
Stella Hourd Benamaisia
Janice Martin

Members-
Maryanne Cataldo
Linda Champion
Astrid Glynn
Abbie Goodman
Karla Karash
Marcella Lancome
Wendy Landman
Linda Sharpe
Kim Sousa