Juana Matias

Secretary Juana B. Matias was appointed by Massachusetts Governor Maura Healey in April 2026 to lead the Executive Office of Housing and Livable Communities.

A lifelong advocate for opportunity, Matias has built her career around expanding access to safe, stable homes and strengthening pathways to economic mobility for Massachusetts residents.

As the secretary of the Executive Office of Housing and Livable Communities, Matias leads the state’s mission to create more homes and lower housing costs across Massachusetts. The executive office also distributes funding for community development initiatives, oversees the state-aided public housing portfolio and operates homelessness prevention and housing stabilization programs.

Before joining the Healey-Driscoll Administration, Matias served as the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) Regional Administrator for New England, overseeing federal housing programs across all six New England states. Appointed in April 2022 by President Joe Biden, Matias served as HUD’s senior leader and chief liaison in the region, directing strategic planning and implementation for affordable housing, homeownership initiatives, community development and enforcement of the Fair Housing Act. In that role, she worked with elected officials, community leaders and the media to advance housing priorities, strengthen local capacity and forge public-private partnerships that expanded HUD’s impact across the region.

Prior to HUD, Matias served as chief operating officer of MassINC, a nonpartisan public policy think tank, where she oversaw operations and financial strategy and helped lead policy initiatives focused on equitable solutions in education, housing, transit-oriented development and workforce development.

Matias also served in the Massachusetts House of Representatives as state representative for the 16th Essex District, representing Lawrence and becoming one of the first Latina immigrants elected to the Massachusetts Legislature. She championed legislative and budget initiatives to revitalize local economies, improve educational outcomes and expand opportunities for working families.

A lifelong advocate for opportunity, Matias is an attorney and began her career advocating on behalf of low-income immigrant children and their families.

She holds a Juris Doctor from Suffolk University Law School and a bachelor’s degree from UMass Boston.