Senator Patricia Jehlen was elected in 2005 to the Massachusetts Senate. She is Senate Chair of the Committee on Elder Affairs and Vice-Chair of the Committee on Education. She is Co-chair of the MBTA Caucus and chair of the Mystic River Caucus. She also serves on the Senate Committee on Ways and Means, and the Joint Committees on Children and Families, Healthcare Financing, Housing, and the Judiciary. She represents the Senate on the Long Term Care Advisory Committee to the Secretary of Health and Human Services. She also serves on the Expert Panel on End of Life Care at the Department of Public Health. In January 2011, Gov. Patrick signed Jehlen's bill preventing abusive debt collection practices which had been revealed by 2006 Globe Spotlight reports. In 2010, Gov. Patrick signed her bill banning the use of lacquer sealers in floor finishing.

Jehlen filed the bill after a 2004 fire in Somerville killed two workers and destroyed the home. Marcy Goldstein Gelb, Somerville resident and director of MassCOSH, convened a coalition of workers, business owners, and safety experts, who found that the use of lacquer sealer was both unnecessary and extremely dangerous, having caused other deaths and many other fires. In 2007, Sen. Jehlen passed the first reform of child labor laws since the 1930s. With new enforcement powers, the Attorney General has taken action in the cases of hundreds of minors working in violation of child labor laws, after decades of inability to enforce the laws. Her top legislative priorities are equitable and excellent education, universal and affordable health care, and jobs with decent wages and benefits, including paid sick days. In the area of elder services, her priority making sure that seniors of all income levels can find housing and services that meet their needs, whether in the community or in institutions.

She supported the VNA affordable assisted living facilities, the new Capen Court housing complex for Somerville and Medford seniors, and proposed additional housing on the Alewife Brook Parkway site. In 2010, she worked to pass the Silver Alert bill to help find people with dementia who wander and the Commission on Falls Prevention to educate people to prevent the most common cause of injury for seniors and a frequent cause of their hospitalization and death. In the fall of 2010 she helped pass the supplemental budget, which meant that the waiting list for home care was eliminated. Education and Experience Jehlen, a former history teacher and VISTA volunteer, graduated from Swarthmore College, received a Masters degree in teaching from Harvard University, and completed Master's course work in history at University of Massachusetts Boston. From 1976 to 1991, she served on the Somerville School Committee, as chairman in 1980 and 1988. She was among the founders of the CHOICE program, a public school alternative elementary program, which is has continued and expanded for almost 30 years. She now works on a committee to unify the Healey School where CHOICE has been located, using CHOICE principles as a basis. On the state level, she helped found the Council for Fair School Finance, which brought the successful lawsuit which led to the education reform of 1993, and brought hundreds of millions of dollars in new state aid to communities.

Jehlen served from 1991 to 2005 in the Massachusetts House of Representatives, where she served as Co-Chair of the Women's Caucus, Co-Chairman of the Progressive Legislator's Group (PLG), Co-Chairman of the Elder Caucus, and Vice-Chairman of the Committee on Elder Affairs. Among her successful legislation were bills to increase literacy for blind people, ensure the rights of people living with mental illness, and provide compensation for the wrongfully convicted. She helped lead the fight to increase the minimum wage, and to target tax cuts to working families by increasing the earned income tax credit and child care credit, and increasing the senior circuit breaker.

Recognitions

Family

Pat Jehlen lives in Somerville with her husband, Alain, a writer for the National Education Association. The Jehlens have three children, who all graduated from Somerville High School and all live in Somerville. Nick, a graphic designer and consultant with The Action Mill, lives in Davis Square. Peter, a program manager for medical trials, lives near Magoun Square with his fiancee Sarah Shugars. Wendy, a dancer/choreographer and ASL interpreter, lives with the Jehlens, her husband Nandlal Nayak, and their daughters Anika and Kayala.

Pat’s favorite extracurricular activity is teaching stilting and tumbling-for-two with the OPENAIR Circus, which she helped start 25 years ago.

Pat was born in Austin Texas, and moved to Massachusetts at the age of 6. Her father, Paul Deats, was a Methodist minister and professor of social ethics at the Boston University School of Theology. Her mother, Ruth, was a community activist, Girl Scout leader, and Sunday School teacher/trainer. Together they formed one of the first Parkinsons’ Support Groups. Jehlen had two sisters, Carolyn and Fran, and a brother Randy. She has a niece and nephew, Kathleen and Chris Poe.
 

2010 Endorsements