Jean Flatley McGuire
Jean Flatley McGuire, Ph.D.Assistant Secretary for Disability Policy and Programs
Commonwealth of Massachusetts
Executive Office of Health and Human Services
Dr. McGuire brings a 30-year history of work in disability across public and private sectors. In her current role, she is responsible for six disability agencies' operations, policies and budgets, including the Department of Mental Retardation, the Massachusetts Rehabilitation Commission, the Massachusetts Commission of the Deaf and Hard of Hearing, the Massachusetts Commission for the Blind and the Chelsea and Holyoke Soldiers Homes and for oversight of the MassHealth Office of Long Term Care; Responsible for guiding all disability policy development across the EOHHS Secretariat including within the Departments of Public Health and Mental Health, and for providing guidance on disability policy and program improvements in the Commonwealth to the EOHHS Secretary and the Governor.
Dr. McGuire came to EOHHS from Northeastern University, where she served as Senior Clinical Professor at the Bouve College of Health Sciences. Prior to Northeastern, she served as Assistant Commissioner for the Department of Public Health from 1997-2003.
Dr. McGuire's early work was in the field of mental retardation and developmental disabilities. She worked in special education in the mid-1970s and went on to develop adult rehabilitation, housing and social services for people with severe handicapping conditions. Later, Dr. McGuire's work included substance abuse treatment program management, mental health and elder community services development, and sheltered and other disability employment efforts. For the last decade, she has been a major state and national leader in HIV prevention and care.
Dr. McGuire received her Ph.D. from the Heller School, Brandeis University, Pew Foundation Doctoral Fellow. She received her MSPH from Harvard School of Public Health, and her BA from Trinity College in Washington DC.
Active in disability public policy efforts since 1975, Dr. McGuire was an advocate for deinstitutionalization and community-based education and residential service access. In the late-1980s, she led significant parts of the national disability policy development in the Civil Rights Restoration Act, the Fair Housing Act Amendments, the Americans with Disabilities Act and the Ryan White CARE Act.