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  • Jeffrey Sánchez is a Democratic member of the Massachusetts House of Representatives. Sánchez represents the Fifteenth Suffolk/Norfolk district, which is made up of the Boston communities Mission Hill, Jamaica Plain, and Roslindale, as well as the Precinct 5 of the Town of Brookline, MA. Sánchez was born in the Washington Heights area of New York City and raised in the Boston neighborhood of Mission Hill. He went to the University of Massachusetts Boston where he earned a Bachelor of Arts Degree in Legal Education. Later, Sánchez attended the John F. Kennedy School of Government at Harvard University where he received a Master in Public Administration (MPA) in 2011 and was a Rappaport Institute for Greater Boston Rappaport Urban Scholar. Rep. Sánchez became Chair of the MA House Ways and Means Committee in July 2017.
  • Helen Lemoine has served as the executive director of Leadership MetroWest since 2000. Helen is a 1993 alumna of the organization's highly acclaimed flagship program, The Leadership Academy, to which she credits her involvement in community and civic affairs. Helen serves the community in many volunteer capacities and is on the Board of Directors of the MetroWest YMCA, the Framingham History Center, and the Massachusetts Citizens Housing and Planning Association. She is on the steering committee of the MetroWest Nonprofit Network, The START Partnership and the SuAsCo Watershed Community Council. She is a recipient of the Athena Award, a national award, given regionally through the MetroWest Chamber, honoring women leaders who achieve excellence in their profession, inspire women to achieve their full potential, and give back to the community in a meaningful way.
  • U.S Senator Edward J. Markey, a national leader on energy and the environment, chairs the Select Committee on Energy Independence and Global Warming and the Energy and Environment Subcommittee of the Energy and Commerce Committee. Since Speaker Pelosi appointed Sen. Markey chairman in 2007 to 2010, the Select Committee has held more than 50 hearings and contributed to the advancement of smarter energy and climate policies, including the first increase in fuel economy standards in three decades, which Sen. Markey authored, which will increase fuel economy standards to 54.5 miles per gallon by 2025. Sen. Markey's career of activism and effectiveness spans three decades, since he was first elected to represent Massachusetts' seventh Congressional district in 1976. He is the principal House author of the 2007 fuel economy law, In addition to chairing key energy and environment panels, Sen. Markey is a senior member of the Natural Resources Committee. He also served for 20 years as Chair or Ranking Member of the Subcommittee on Telecommunications and the Internet and was a senior Democratic member of the House Homeland Security Committee. In addition, he is the co chair of bipartisan Caucuses on Nonproliferation, on Privacy, on Alzheimer's disease, and on Cystic Fibrosis. He is a fighter for the welfare of his constituents in the blue-collar and high-tech communities of his district north and west of downtown Boston and, as a previous dean of the Massachusetts delegation in the House, he also worked to harness the energy and influence of his colleagues on behalf of the entire Commonwealth. Ed Markey was born in Malden, Massachusetts, on July 11, 1946. He attended Boston College (B.A., 1968) and Boston College Law School (J.D., 1972). He served in the U.S. Army Reserve and was elected to the Massachusetts State House where he served two terms representing Malden and Melrose. He is married to Dr. Susan Blumenthal.
  • Lane Allen Evans, a Representative from Illinois was born in Rock Island, Rock Island County, Illinois on August 4, 1951. He received his B.A. from Augustana College, Rock Island, IL in 1974 and received his J.D. from Georgetown University Law Center, Washington, D.C. in 1977. He was elected as a Democrat to Congresses (January 3, 1983-January 3, 2007).
  • US Congressman John F. Tierney is the Chairman of the National Security and Foreign Affairs Subcommittee. He is in his seventh term representing the 6th District of Massachusetts. Mr. Tierney had played critical role in the promulgation of Education Assistance Amendment. The amendment serves long-term US national security interests by helping to give Pakistani children an educational alternative by directing an additional $75 million of US aid. Currently serving on the Education and Labor Committee, the Oversight and Government Reform Committee and the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence, Tierney deftly handles a broad cross-section of national and local interests, working to ensure wise government spending. Congressman is a graduate of Salem State and Suffolk University, and a former partner in the law firm of Tierney Kalis and Lucas.
  • Edward M. Kennedy was the third longest-serving member of the United States Senate in American history. Voters of Massachusetts elected him to the Senate nine times: a record matched by only one other Senator. The scholar Thomas Mann said his time in the Senate was "an amazing and endurable presence. You want to go back to the 19th century to find parallels, but you won't find parallels." President Barak Obama has described his breathtaking span of accomplishment: "For five decades, virtually every major piece of legislation to advance the civil rights, health, and economic well being of the American people bore his name and resulted from his efforts." He fought for and won battles on voting rights, education, immigration reform, the minimum wage, national service, the nation's first major legislation to combat AIDS, and equality for minorities, women, the disabled and gay Americans. He called health care "the cause of my life", and succeeded in bringing quality and affordable health care for countless Americans, including children, seniors and Americans with disabilities. Until the end he was working tirelessly to achieve historic national health reform. He was an opponent of the Vietnam War and an early champion of the war's refugees. He was a powerful yet lonely voice from the beginning against the invasion of Iraq. He stood for human rights abroad (from Chile to the former Soviet Union) and was a leader in the cause of poverty relief for the poorest nations of Africa and the world. He believed in a strong national defense and he also unceasingly pursued and advanced the work of nuclear arms control. He was considered the conscience of his party, and also the Senate's master of forging compromise with the other party. Known as the 'Lion of the Senate', Senator Kennedy was widely respected on both sides of the aisle for his commitment to progress and his ability to legislate. Senator Kennedy was Chairman of the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee. Previously he was Chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee, and served on that committee for many years. He also served on the Senate Armed Services Committee and the Congressional Joint Economic Committee. He was a leader of the Congressional Friends of Ireland and helped lead the way toward peace on that island. He was a graduate of Harvard University and the University of Virginia Law School. He lived in Hyannis Port, Massachusetts, with his wife Vicki. He is survived by her and their five children Kara, Edward Jr., and Patrick Kennedy, and Curran and Caroline Raclin, and his sister Jean Kennedy Smith
  • Chris Dodd was born May 27, 1944, in Willimantic, Connecticut, to the late Senator Thomas J. Dodd and Grace Murphy Dodd. From his childhood, he was taught the virtue of public service, of service to country; Chris' father was one of the lead prosecutors during the Nuremberg Nazi war crimes tribunals that set the standard for America's moral authority. In 1958, Thomas Dodd was elected from Connecticut to the United States Senate. Three of Chris Dodds aunts were well-known public school teachers in small communities. Forty-six years ago, Chris stood on the East Front of the Capitol and heard John Kennedy's inaugural address which called upon all Americans to become a part of something greater than themselves, which famously challenged us to ask what we could do for our nation. After graduating from Providence College, Chris joined the United States Peace Corps in 1966 and moved to the Dominican Republic where he built a school and a maternity clinic in rural communities, became fluent in Spanish, and saw what the world could achieve when America leads. Upon fulfilling his two-year commitment to the Peace Corps, Chris returned home to enlist in the Army National Guard, later serving in the US Army Reserves. In 1972, earning his law degree from the University of Louisville School of Law, Chris returned to Connecticut, building a law practice in New London. Soon, however, like his father before him, he was called to public service. Elected to Congress in 1974, Chris served three terms in the House of Representatives on behalf of Connecticut's Second District. He was elected to the US Senate in 1980.
  • Jan Schakowsky is a Democrat member of Congress who represents the Ninth District of Illinois. Born in Chicago in 1944, Schakowsky grew up in that city's Rogers Park section. After graduating from the University of Illinois in 1965, she worked briefly as a schoolteacher. In 1969 she established National Consumers Unite, a consumer-advocacy group that led a campaign to imprint freshness dates on food packaging in stores. From 1976-1985 she worked as a director of the Illinois Public Action Council, another consumer-advocacy organization. In 1985 she became Executive Director of the Illinois State Council of Senior Citizens, where she was employed until 1990. In 1990 she was elected to the state legislature. Schakowsky today is a member of the Democratic Progressive Caucus in the House of Representatives. The Almanac of American Politics describes her as "an outspoken progressive, one of the leftmost members of the Democratic Caucus." Schakowsky is a close political ally of fellow Progressive Caucus member Nancy Pelosi and was an early backer of the latter's successful bid to become House Minority Leader in 2002. Pelosi rewarded Schakowsky with an appointment to the powerful position of Chief Deputy Minority Whip and a seat on the Democratic Steering Committee (which allocates committee assignments to House Democrats). In 2003 Schakowsky condemned the influence that "private power" had gained over the media. She joined Global Exchange founder Medea Benjamin at a "Take Back America" conference to propose tight government limits on the consolidation of broadcasters such as Rupert Murdoch, owner of Fox News Channel, and other enterprises. In 2004 Schakowsky co-sponsored a bill to ease restrictions on U.S. trade with the Communist dictatorship in Cuba.