Kerry Murphy Healey (born April 30, 1960) is an American politician and educator serving as President Emerita of Babson College. She previously served as the 70th lieutenant governor of Massachusetts from 2003 to 2007 under Governor Mitt Romney. A former member of the Republican Party, she was the party's nominee for Governor of Massachusetts in the 2006 gubernatorial election, but was defeated by democrat Deval Patrick.
From 2001 to 2002 and 2012–2013, Healey served as the Republican National Committeewoman for the state of Massachusetts. Healey currently serves on the boards of public companies, universities, cultural organizations and the Forward Party. She was the inaugural president of the Milken Institute's Center for Advancing the American Dream in Washington, D.C., 2019–2022. She served as a special advisor for Mitt Romney's Presidential Campaign in 2012. She then served as the president of Babson College for six years, retiring in 2019. She left the Republican Party on January 7, 2021, and joined the Forward Party in June 2023.
Murphy was born on April 30, 1960, in Omaha, Nebraska. She grew up in Ormond Beach, Florida and is the only child of Shirley and Edward Murphy (1919–2005). Her father served during World War II and retired as a lieutenant colonel in the United States Army Reserve after 27 years of service. He also worked as a residential real estate developer. Her mother worked as a public elementary school teacher.
When Healey was 15, her father suffered a severe heart attack that rendered him unable to work for the rest of his life. This put a financial strain on the family and led Healey to work a number of part-time jobs. Healey also served as class president and student council president at Seabreeze High School.
When she was 16, Healey enrolled in Daytona Beach Community College and began to take classes in computer science. She was hired to help the Daytona Beach News-Journal become one of the first newspapers to transition from typewriters to computerized word processing.
After high school, Healey attended Harvard University with the help of a scholarship. There, she served as the membership secretary of the Harvard Republicans Club and was involved in theater. Healey graduated from Harvard in 1982 with an A.B. in government.
After graduating from Harvard, Healey was awarded a scholarship by Rotary International and received a Ph.D. in political science and law from Trinity College in Dublin, Ireland in 1991. While in Dublin, she met fellow Rotary Scholar and Harvard alum Sean Healey, whom she married in 1985.
Upon completing her studies at Trinity College, Healey spent 1985 as a visiting researcher in the International and Comparative Legal Studies Program at Harvard Law School.
In 1986, Healey joined Abt Associates, based in Cambridge, Massachusetts, where she performed policy research for the U.S. Department of Justice related to child abuse and neglect, domestic violence, gang violence, victim and witness intimidation and the prosecution of drug crimes. Following her time at Abt Associates, Healey served as an adjunct professor in criminal justice at the University of Massachusetts Lowell.
Her first foray into politics occurred in 1998, when she ran for state representative in the 6th Essex District – representing her hometown of Beverly, Massachusetts – challenging and losing to incumbent Democrat Michael P. Cahill. That same year, Healey was elected to the Republican State Committee. She ran against Cahill unsuccessfully again in 2000.
Despite losing her first two elections, Healey became popular among Republicans and was elected chairwoman of the Massachusetts Republican State Committee in 2001, the second woman to head the Massachusetts GOP. Soon after beginning her term as chairwoman, the Massachusetts GOP began courting Mitt Romney – then the president and CEO of the 2002 Winter Olympics – to take over acting-governor Jane Swift's position as the Republican candidate in the upcoming gubernatorial election.
After Swift exited the race, Romney endorsed Healey in her primary race for lieutenant governor against former U.S. Senate candidate and former party chairman Jim Rappaport, ultimately winning by a thirty-point margin. The Romney-Healey team was successful, and Healey was elected lieutenant governor on November 5, 2002.
Kerry Murphy Healey was sworn into office as the lieutenant governor of Massachusetts on January 2, 2003. She, along with Governor Mitt Romney, opted not to take a salary during their respective four-year terms.
Healey served as the governor's liaison to cities and the Republican party. Upon taking office, Romney and Healey focused on erasing an estimated $600 million budget gap for fiscal year 2003. The state also faced an estimated $2 billion to $3 billion shortfall for fiscal year 2004.
In mid-January 2003, the Massachusetts State Legislature approved expanded budget-cutting powers for the Romney administration. As Romney's second-in-command, Healey was the liaison between the local government and the state house, working to reduce the burden of cuts to state aid to municipal governments.
Healey was credited with creating a package of legislative proposals, called the Municipal Relief Act, that reduced expensive and burdensome state mandates, easing the pain of cuts to state aid by about $75 million. The administration closed the budget gap and ended fiscal year 2004 with a budget surplus of $700 million. Official state figures showed that Massachusetts ended fiscal year 2005 with a $594.4 million surplus. In 2006, the surplus was officially $720.9 million according to state statistics. Additionally, the administration left the state with a "rainy day" stabilization fund with a balance of $2.1 billion.
These surpluses were attained without breaking the Romney-Healey campaign promise that they would not raise taxes. On the heels of the Municipal Relief Act, Healey headed a bipartisan commission that "revised management practices for public construction projects designed to save money, increase accountability, improve safety, and give more control to local officials." In addition, Healey served as chair of the state's six Regional Competitiveness Councils (RCC), which coordinated and provided recommendations for economic development initiatives across the state.
As lieutenant governor, Healey was known for her hands-on approach to addressing the concerns of cities and towns and her responsiveness to the concerns of local officials. Even with the cuts to the state budget that were made to avoid a budget crisis, local aid increased by 17 percent, and school assistance increased by 7 percent under Healey's watch.