Women have had limited success as political candidates in New England: Massachusetts, Rhode Island, and Maine have never elected a woman governor; and Vermont and New Hampshire have never sent a woman to the US Congress. Kerry Healey, Lieutenant Governor of Massachusetts, introduced by Jo Ann Gora, Chancellor of the University of Massachusetts, Boston, discusses her personal experiences in politics.
Gora is Indiana's representative to the American Association of State Colleges and Universities board and is one of the 57 presidents and chancellors on The New York Times/Chronicle of Higher Education higher education cabinet. She chairs the Mid-American Conference Presidents' Council and co-chairs the Central Indiana Corporate Partnership, where she previously chaired the governance committee. She serves on the boards of First Merchants Bank, Ball Memorial Hospital, and the Indiana Chamber of Commerce, where she co-chairs the Business-Higher Education Forum. Gora was named one of 2007's most influential women in Indiana by the Indianapolis Business Journal and one of 15 Women of Wonder in the spring 2008 issue of Indiana Minority Business Magazine. In 2005, she received a Torchbearer Award from the Indiana Commission for Women for her commitment to higher education. The award is the highest honor given by the state of Indiana to Hoosier women who have overcome or removed barriers to equality or whose achievements have contributed to making the state a better place in which to live, work or raise a family. She also received a Sagamore of the Wabash, Indiana's highest civilian honor, in 2005. In 2008, she was awarded an honorary doctorate from Yeungnam University in South Korea. Gora came to Ball State from the University of Massachusetts Boston, where she had been chancellor since 2001. Previously, she served for nine years as provost and vice president for academic affairs at Old Dominion University in Virginia. She earned her bachelor
Healey's political career began in the late 1990s when she unsuccessfully challenged Democratic incumbent Michael Cahill to represent the 6th Essex District in the Massachusetts House of Representatives. She then served briefly as chairperson of the Massachusetts Republican State Committee. She was elected in 2002 as lieutenant governor on the Republican ticket with Mitt Romney. After Governor Mitt Romney's announcement that he would not seek re-election in the 2006 election Healey formally announced on February 8, 2006, that she would seek the Republican nomination for Governor. On November 7, Healey was defeated by Democrat Deval Patrick by 21 percentage points.