Home > Articles by: Maureen McInerney

Maureen McInerney Public Affairs Associate, MassINC

Maureen McInerney is the Public Affairs Associate for MassINC. In that role, Maureen is responsible for outreach to community and government organizations as well as elected officials. She also contributes heavily to MassINC’s event coordination, messaging, and visual content production. Maureen is a graduate of Northeastern University with a Bachelor of Arts degree in Political Science and Communication Studies.

Originally from Syracuse, New York, Maureen worked for Onondaga County’s Department of Water and Environment Protection in 2014 as a Public Information Specialist for their Save the Rain storm water management initiative. Maureen also held part-time positions in the Baker Administration’s press office and office of Cabinet Relations throughout her college career. Maureen previously served as a Program Assistant and later Development Associate at MassINC.

ARTICLES By Maureen McInerney

Community Benefit Districts on the table for FY18

New designation would promote collaboration in downtowns, Main Streets

Representative Brendan Crighton and Senator Eileen Donoghue have filed an outside section of the FY18 Budget, currently in Conference Committee, that would create Community Benefit Districts (CBDs) as an alternative to Business Improvement Districts (BIDs) for communities across the Commonwealth. CBDs are designed to support downtowns, cultural districts, historic areas, and Main Streets that require

Joint Committee on the Judiciary to hold second hearing

Several bills on criminal justice reform will be heard

Monday, June 19 at 1:00pm, the Joint Committee on the Judiciary will again hold a hearing at which dozens of bills concerning criminal justice reform will be heard. Earlier this year, Governor Baker filed a bill, An Act Implementing the Joint Recommendations of the Massachusetts Criminal Justice Review (H.74). This bill primarily addresses “back-end” reforms, or reforms

Fact-checking the district attorneys

MassINC researchers review mandatory minimum claims

AT MONDAY’S JUDICIARY COMMITTEE HEARING on criminal justice reform legislation, District Attorneys Joseph Early of Worcester County, Timothy Cruz of Plymouth County, and Michael Morrissey of Norfolk County testified in opposition to the elimination of mandatory minimum sentences for drug crimes. Their testimony drew heavily on talking points prepared by the Massachusetts District Attorney’s Association

Joint Committee on the Judiciary to hold hearing

Several bills on criminal justice reform will be heard

Monday, June 5 at 1:00pm, the Joint Committee on the Judiciary will hold a hearing at which several bills concerning criminal justice reform will be heard. Among them, An Act for justice reinvestment (S.791, H.2308), filed by Senator Sonia Chang-Diaz of Boston and Representative Mary Keefe of Worcester, offers comprehensive reform efforts as well as

Senate budget lacks funds for TDI

Other Gateway City priorities get a boost

Last week, the Senate released its fiscal year 2018 Ways and Means Budget recommendation. The Senate proved to be a leader on line items supported by the Gateway Cities Legislative Caucus, including Regional Transit Authorities, dual enrollment, Community College workforce grants, and adult basic education. However, there was one notable absences. The Senate budget proposal did

Gateway Cities Legislative Caucus

Talks TDI and other FY 2018 budget priorities

The Gateway Cities Legislative Caucus met today, led by co-chairs Rep. Antonio Cabral and Sen. Eric Lesser, to discuss budget priorities and proposed amendments. A small victory for Gateway Cities came with the return of the English Language Learner’s in Gateway Cities line item (7009-6400). The program, which began with $3.2 million is FY 2013,

City Councilor highlights reentry initiative

OTO’s collaboration, coordination of reentry services has proven success

Boston City Councilor Andrea Campbell held a hearing to review the Overcoming the Odds program (OTO), a reentry initiative from Community Resources for Justice. The goal of this initiative is to better engage individuals with existing programs and services and overcome barriers to success that individuals too often face following reentry. The program relies on

A plan for building social-emotional support systems

BC’s School of Education visits State House

As much as two-thirds of the variance in student achievement has been attributed to out-of-school factors such as health, neighborhood safety, and family instability. Studies have demonstrated that systemic and coordinated effort to promote social-emotional development can help address these barriers to learning. The Gateway Cities education vision called for establishing such a system. Our research

Gateway Cities Legislative Caucus renews its commitment to lead on urban education

Investing significant energy and political capital

The Gateway Cities Legislative Caucus met on March 22nd to reaffirm their commitment to work collaboratively this session on issues affecting urban school districts. Caucus members were joined by Superintendents Kathy Smith of Brockton, Mary Bourque of Chelsea, and Dianne Kelly of Revere. The superintendents expressed grave concern over the future of funding for urban

Gateway Cities take a big step forward on early college

Expanding access to early college programs

Education leaders from across the state gathered in Boston on March 23rd to launch an initiative to dramatically expand access to early college programs in Massachusetts. A model pioneered by Gateway Cities over the last decade, early college was a central strategy outlined in the 2013 Gateway Cities education vision. The new initiative seeks to scale
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