NEWS RELEASE

Dorchester native Joyce Linehan has been appointed by Governor Maura Healey to serve on the nine-member Massachusetts Board of Library Commissioners (MBLC). The MBLC was established in 1890 and is responsible for library services across the Commonwealth including the Massachusetts Public Library Construction Program, federal Library Services and Technology Act grants, regional library services, and online statewide resources.

“I am honored and excited to be appointed by Governor Healey and Lieutenant Governor Driscoll to serve the Commonwealth and the MBLC. Libraries have been an intrinsic part of my life for as long as I can remember, and I am grateful to play a small role in stewarding these amazing resources,” said Linehan.

Ms. Linehan brings a wealth of experience in government, non-profits, community organizing and the private sector. She currently serves as Assistant to the President for Special Projects at the Massachusetts College of Art and Design, the only publicly funded free-standing art college in the country, and she is an adjunct lecturer in the Public Administration program at UMass Boston. She served as the Chief of Policy and Planning for the City of Boston, in the office of Mayor Martin J. Walsh, where she advised on all aspects of the administration’s work, including the biannual state legislative package, federal advocacy, and dozens of policy, planning, operations and staffing issues.

Before joining the Walsh administration in 2014, she was the director of Ashmont Media, a public relations company that served Boston arts organizations. She co-owns, with performer/songwriter Joe Pernice, Ashmont Records, an independent record label that has been releasing records since 2000. She was previously the Vice President of A & R for Sub Pop Records and has managed several bands and musicians.

As an educator devoted to community change and an advocate of the arts, Ms. Linehan serves on the boards of the Fuller Craft Museum in Brockton, Interim House in Dorchester, Trustees of Charitable Donations for Inhabitants of Boston and on the advisory boards of the Max Warburg Courage Curriculum and the Rappaport Institute. She formerly served as a Trustee of the Boston Public Library.

Ms. Linehan holds a B.A. and an M.A. in American Studies from the University of Massachusetts Boston, where she received the Dr. Robert W. Spayne Research Grant for study at the Country Music Hall of Fame. She has received an Unsung Heroine of Massachusetts award from the Massachusetts Commission on the Status of Women and the Robert H. Quinn Award for Outstanding Community Service from University of Massachusetts Boston, among other awards.