Maura Tracy Healey, born in Bethesda, Maryland, grew up in Hampton Falls, New Hampshire, with Irish ancestry through several grandparents and great-grandparents. Her father was a captain in the United States Public Health Service and an engineer; her mother was a nurse at Lincoln Akerman School; and her stepfather, Edward Beattie, taught history and coached girls' sports at Winnacunnet High School. She has four younger siblings. Healey earned a Bachelor of Arts in government, cum laude, from Harvard College in 1992 and a Juris Doctor from Northeastern University School of Law in 1998. Athletically, she co-captained the Harvard Crimson women's basketball team and played professionally as starting point guard for UBBC Wüstenrot Salzburg in Austria for two years post-graduation. Her legal career included clerking for Judge A. David Mazzone in the U.S. District Court for the District of Massachusetts; serving as an associate and junior partner at Wilmer Cutler Pickering Hale and Dorr LLP, focusing on commercial and securities litigation; acting as a special assistant district attorney in Middlesex County, prosecuting drug, assault, and domestic violence cases; and holding key roles in the Massachusetts Attorney General's Office as Chief of the Civil Rights Division (2007–), Chief of the Public Protection and Advocacy Bureau (2012–), and Chief of the Business and Labor Bureau. Politically, she served as Massachusetts Attorney General from 2015 to 2023, becoming the first openly lesbian woman elected to the position; she oversaw challenges to Trump's travel bans, advocacy in the Russia investigation, and secured a $4.3 billion settlement from Purdue Pharma, while filing numerous lawsuits against the Trump administration. Since 2023, she has been Governor of Massachusetts, the first woman and first openly LGBTQ+ person elected to the role; key actions include a $742 million tax relief package, MassReconnect free community college program, life sciences incentives, a migrant shelter emergency declaration, and establishment of a climate office. Personally, Healey is openly lesbian and Catholic, in a relationship with attorney Joanna Lydgate (announced 2023; Lydgate serves as First Partner), with no children mentioned; she resides in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Controversies include her gun control policies as AG contributing to Smith & Wesson's relocation from Massachusetts (2021–2023); nominating former romantic partner Gabrielle Wolohojian to the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court (2024), drawing nepotism accusations (nomination approved); firing deputy director LaMar Cook in 2025 after cocaine trafficking and gun charges; and criticisms over public records policy and housing-related lawsuits against her administration.