Chairman Jeffrey Sánchez serves as Massachusetts State Representative for the 15th Suffolk/Norfolk District, which includes the Boston communities of Mission Hill, Jamaica Plain, and Roslindale, along with Precinct 5 of the Town of Brookline, MA.
Chairman Sánchez was appointed House Chairman of the Joint Committee on Public Health by Speaker Robert DeLeo in February 2009. His work is concentrated on improving quality in health through systematic reforms in the public health and health care systems. He is committed to seeking the nexus of health care in the traditional setting and the promotion of public health in the community setting, and in our daily lives.
In addition to his committee duties and responsibilities, Chairman Sánchez’s overall legislative agenda emphasizes initiatives that address access and retention in education, public infrastructure development, workforce development, public health and affordable housing.
Prior to his appointment to the Committee on Public Health, Chairman Sánchez served as the Vice-Chair of the Joint Committee on Economic Development where he helped usher through the Commonwealth’s life sciences commitment. He also sponsored and promoted an Act Relative to Biomedical Research that clarifies the type of research permissible under state law in respect to neonates.
Representative Sánchez serves as a legislative appointee to the Commonwealth’s Health Disparities Council, as Vice Chair of the National Conference of State Legislatures’ Health Committee, as a member of the NCSL Task Force on Federal Health Reform Implementation, a board member of the MA Health Policy Forum, and a member of the Regional Health Equity Council, he also serves on the Rappaport Scholar Advisory Board, the Community Advisory Committee for the research study CRUZA, and as a member of the National Association of Latino Elected and Appointed Officials, along with the Massachusetts Committee on the American Reinvestment and Recovery Act and as a board member for Action for Boston Community Development Inc.
He earned his Bachelor of Arts Degree in Legal Education from the University of Massachusetts, Boston, and a Masters of Public Administration from John F. Kennedy School of Government at Harvard University, where he is honored to have been Rappaport Urban Scholar.
Sánchez was recently honored with the Legislative Champion Award from the Massachusetts Association of Community Health Workers and the Public Health Champion Award from the Massachusetts Public Health Association. He has also been recognized by the Asian-American community for his leadership and support of “An Act Relative to the Preparation of certain Ballots in the City of Boston”
Jeffrey Sánchez was raised in the Boston neighborhood of Mission Hill where, as in every neighborhood in his district, he remains deeply involved with concerns and issues relating to health, safety, jobs, and community development. He and his wife Brenda now live in the Boston neighborhood of Jamaica Plain while raising two young daughters, Luna Isabella and Amina Xochitl.