Massachusetts Is A Pipeline For Presidential Appointees

MASSACHUSETTS — The number of Bay Staters serving in high-ranking positions under President Joe Biden is growing. Just this week, MassDOT secretary Stephanie Pollack was nominated to serve as the Federal Highway Administration deputy, joining Boston Mayor Marty Walsh in D.C.

Patch looked back at the last five presidential administrations and looked at cabinet members and cabinet-level officers who have strong ties to Massachusetts. Here’s what we found:

Joe Biden (2021- present)

Brian Deese: Deese, who will serve as the director of the National Economic Council, is a Belmont native, according to NPR. He previously worked in the Obama administration.

Jen O’Malley Dillon: Biden’s Deputy Chief of Staff grew up in Jamaica Plain and Franklin, according to NBC Boston. She stayed in Massachusetts for college, attending Tufts University.

John Kerry: The former Massachusetts senator will join the Biden administration as the special presidential envoy for climate—a cabinet position Biden created. Kerry worked on issues of climate as former President Barack Obama’s secretary of state.

Gina McCarthy: Gina McCarthy grew up in Canton and served as Stoughton’s first environmental officer. She will be Biden’s White House climate coordinator, according to NPR. She previously worked as the assistant administrator for the EPA’s Office of Air and Radiation during Obama’s first term, before being selected as the EPA’s administrator during his second term.

Stephanie Pollack: The Massachusetts Department of Transportation Secretary is expected to be the Federal Highway Administration deputy administrator. Pollack has served in her current position since 2015. She grew up in Newton.

Neera Tanden: The Bedford native will serve as the director of the Office of Management and Budget, according to the Boston Globe. Her hometown paper, The Bedford Citizen, quoted her saying she would not have gotten to where she is now without the support of the Bedford community.

Annie Tomasini: Boston Latin graduate Annie Tomasini is Biden’s traveling chief of staff. The Boston Globe reported that Tomasini would surprise Biden nearly everyday by coordinating a friend or family member’s visit. Tomasini grew up in Boston and graduated from Boston University.

Rochelle Walensky: Biden tapped the former chief of the infectious disease division at Massachusetts General Hospital to head up the Center for Disease Control. Walensky teaches at Harvard Medical School.

Marty Walsh: Biden called Boston’s mayor to join him in D.C. as the Secretary of Labor. Walsh is serving his second term as mayor. He was born in Dorchester and is a Boston College graduate.

Donald Trump (2017-2021)

Kevin Hassett: Trump appointed Hassett, who grew up in Greenfield, Mass., as the senior advisor and chairman of the Council of Economic Advisors in 2017, where he served until 2019, according to MassLive.com.

John Kelly: The Brighton native served as Trump’s chief of staff from July 2017 to January 2019. Kelly recently said on CNN that he would support removing Trump from office via the 25th amendment if he were still a cabinet member. Kelly attended high school in Waltham.

Jeffrey Rosen: The acting Deputy Attorney General during Trump’s last office was a 1976 Brockton High School graduate, according to Wicked Local. Rosen earned his law degree from Harvard University.

Barack Obama (2009-2017)

Stephanie Cutter: The MetroWest Daily News touted Cutter’s role in the selection of Justice Merrick Garland in 2016—she’s a native of Raynham, Mass. She served as assistant to the president and deputy senior advisor, assistant to the president for special projects, and counselor to the treasury secretary.

Kristie Kenegallo: Kristie Kenegallo served as Obama’s special assistant and advisor to the Chief of Staff before becoming the Assistant to the President and the Deputy Chief of Staff for Implementation in 2014. She grew up in Springfield.

Ellen Moran: The White House Communications director from April 2009 to August 2011 was born in New York, but grew up in Amherst, Mass., according to the New York Times.

Karen Mills: The Wellesely native was the administrator of Obama’s Small Business Administration, according to the Worcester Business Journal.

Peter R. Orszag: Obama’s White House Budget director grew up in Lexington, Mass., according to the New York Times.

As seen in Biden’s cabinet:
Brian Deese
John Kerry
Gina McCarthy

George W. Bush (2001-2009)

Samuel W. Bodman: This Secretary of Energy had strong Massachusttes ties when he was tapped—after earning his Doctor of Science at MIT, Bodman worked as an associate professor of chemical engineering there. He also served as a trustee at the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum and the New England Aquarium.

Andrew Card: Card grew up in Holbrook, Mass. and joined the Bush administration as Chief of Staff. He previously worked for George H. Bush’s and Ronald Reagan’s administrations, and served in the Massachusetts House of Representatives from 1975 to 1983.

Joel Kaplan: The Massachusetts native stayed in the Commonwealth to attend college and law school at Harvard University before serving in three positions in the Bush administration: Special Assistant to the president in the Office of the Chief of Staff, Deputy Director of the Office of Management and Budget, and, finally, the Assistant to the President and the Deputy Chief of Staff.

Greg Mankiw: Mankiw took a leave from teaching economics at Harvard University to serve as the Chairman of the Council of Economics Advisors. He lived in Wellesley at the time of his appointment.

Bill Clinton (1993-2001)

Barry McCaffrey: This Director of National Drug Control Policy, appointed in 1996, was a Taunton, Mass., native, according to veterantributes.org. McCaffrey was the Commander in Chief of the United States Southern Command of the United States Army at the time, a position he had held for two years.

Robert Reich: Reich left his post as a lecturer on Public Policy at Harvard’s Kennedy School to assume his post as the Clinton’s Secretary of Labor, The Harvard Crimson reported on Dec. 12, 1992.

Bill Richardson: Though Richardson didn’t grow up in Massachusetts, he attended Middlesex School in Concord, Mass. for high school, where he was a baseball player. Clinton appointed him as the U.S. ambassador to the United Nations in 1997, then as the Secretary of Energy from 1998 to 2001. He then served as the governor of New Mexico from 2003 until 2011.

George Stephanopolous: Clinton’s deputy campaign manager, who eventually became a senior aide, was born in Fall River, Mass. and raised in Cleveland.

Material from the White House archives was used in this report.