Joint Center Senior Researcher Quoted in The Boston Globe

Joint Center Senior Researcher Dr. LaShonda Brenson was quoted in an article in The Boston Globe on the lack of diversity among Massachusetts’ congressional staff.

“The perspectives and decisions of congressional staff help to shape, literally, the everyday lives of average Americans,” said Dr. Brenson in the article. “And so it’s especially important that there is not a lack of representation that exists within these key positions.”

Boston Globe found that the “Massachusetts congressional delegation, including a majority of its House lawmakers, have a whiter staff than the chamber’s average Democratic office, with some not meeting the diversity level of the state as a whole.”

According to Joint Center research (as of June 2), despite Massachusetts having a population that’s 35 percent people of color, only five out of six top staff (chief of staff, legislative director, and communications director) in the Senate are white. There is only one Latina/o top staffer, who serves in Senator Elizabeth Warren’s office. Out of 27 top staff positions among nine House members in Massachusetts, 21 are white, one is Black, three are Latina/o, and two positions have not been filled.

Read The Boston Globe article here.