Alum legislators join Lynk on the Road

By Kevin McCaffrey

Massachusetts political leaders discussed careers in public service with Mount Holyoke students at a March 12 Lynk on the Road event in Boston, where donors who are leaders in providing student scholarships also were honored.

Keynote speakers for the daylong event for 25 students and alums were Judith Kurland '67, Massachusetts Senator Kathleen O'Connor Ives '99, and Mount Holyoke College President Lynn Pasquerella. Kurland is the founder and executive director of the Center for Community Democracy and Democratic Literacy at the McCormack Graduate School of Policy and Global Studies at the University of Massachusetts Boston.

Delivering the keynote address at a lunch in Nurses Hall at the State House along with Pasquerella, Kurland described a career in public service that started with a life-changing internship in Washington, D.C., with House Speaker Thomas “Tip” O’Neill, a legendary Massachusetts statesman, during the summer leading up to a critical primary race in 1966.

“Tip O’Neill taught me about not taking anything for granted,” said Kurland. “He knew how to get things done because he knew how to build coalitions, how to figure out what people believed in, how to count votes.”

Kurland attributes her success to O’Neill’s careful mentorship of her.

“Tip O’Neill was my first mentor after my parents,” she continued. “He talked to me about everything. It was glorious, and at the end of the summer, he invited me to come to Boston to see how a Democratic primary race ended.”

O’Neill crushed his opponents by a three-to-one margin.

Kurland’s subsequent career includes many notable achievements; she recently served as chief of staff to former Boston Mayor Thomas M. Menino and she was regional director for the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services during the Clinton administration.

Also inspiring participants was Senator Ives, who spoke both to welcome students and alumnae to the State House and at an end-of-day reception for Boston-based alumnae and students at the Liberty Hotel, once the historic Charles Street Jail.

“Tonight I want to talk to you about the importance of listening to your gut, and why it’s so important to make that little voice bigger every day,” said Ives, describing how she came to run for office.

“I had a gut feeling I wanted to serve in the public realm,” she continued. “I knew I didn’t like some things I saw that were happening in my environment. I wanted to get to the table and be a part of the decision-making process.”

Ives (D-Newburyport) is now in her second term of office and represents the First Essex District in the Merrimack Valley. The senator earned a law degree from Pace University Law School and served on the Newburyport City Council. She was a member of MHC’s Weissman Center for Leadership’s Student Advisory Committee when the Center was in its formative stage in the late 1990s.

Joining Ives in the State House welcome was State Representative John Scibak (D-South Hadley). Scibak is the parent of a Frances Perkins Scholar and a longtime supporter of the College’s efforts to increase access for students of modest means. The office of Senate President Stanley Rosenberg (D-Amherst) was instrumental in helping to arrange the day.

Pasquerella also spoke at the luncheon bringing together students and alumnae supporters of student scholarships.

Afternoon panel discussions at the State House’s Gardener Auditorium featured alumnae who are prominent in government and public service, including Luisa Paiewonsky ’86, director of the U.S. Department of Transportation’s Center for Infrastructure Systems and Technology; Susannah Sirkin ’76, director of international policy for Physicians for Human Rights; and Demet Duran ’ll, executive assistant at the Turkish Consulate in Boston.