{"id":54528,"date":"2021-09-06T08:06:50","date_gmt":"2021-09-06T12:06:50","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.bu.edu\/ssw\/?p=54528"},"modified":"2026-04-10T10:38:30","modified_gmt":"2026-04-10T14:38:30","slug":"tami-gouveia-runs-lt-governor-massachusetts","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/ssw\/tami-gouveia-runs-lt-governor-massachusetts\/","title":{"rendered":"Tami Gouveia (SSW’01) Runs for Lt. Governor of Massachusetts"},"content":{"rendered":"

According to Tami Gouveia (SSW \u201801), social workers make ideal public servants — meaning they are perfectly suited for a career in politics. \u201cWe need to do much better by the people of the commonwealth,\u201d Gouveia says. \u201cWe need a public health champion. Who better than a social worker?\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

An alumna of BU School of Social Work Class of 2001, Gouveia is running for Lieutenant Governor of Massachusetts in the upcoming election. She says her reasons for running are the same reasons she pursued a social work degree in the first place. \u201cGrowing up in Lowell, I always wanted everyone to thrive,\u201d Gouveia explains. That sense of social justice was regularly put to the test. \u201cI saw first hand the xenophobia and discrimination against traumatized Cambodian refugees who had fled from unbelievable circumstances to the United States. I had friends in grade school who didn\u2019t have enough heat in winter, or who suffered from domestic violence, or whose parent had a substance use disorder.\u201d\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cThese problems aren\u2019t new.\u201d Gouveia points out. \u201cWe still struggle with all of them today. But experiencing these problems first hand was what made me pursue an undergraduate degree in political science and women\u2019s studies. After that, I worked in residential treatment and was exposed to the need for clinical intervention. I was a counselor for these young girls who suffered from extreme cases of abuse and neglect. Working with them inspired me to find a graduate school that focused on policy change in urban populations, but also clinical work. I was attracted to <\/span>BU School of Social Work<\/span><\/a>\u2019s solid reputation in <\/span>clinical work, systems change, and policy change<\/span><\/a>. I wanted to put my effort into ensuring families have what they need to thrive.\u201d\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Gouveia decided to pursue a dual degree in social work and public health. \u201cI wanted to ground my social work experience in public health. The rigor of the science work in public health — biostats and epidemiology — those were the things that compelled me to get a dual degree.\u201d She goes on to emphasize that both social work and public health would always have been her path. \u201cIf I had started my graduate work at <\/span>BU School of Public Health<\/span><\/a>, I would have then gone on to the School of Social Work. The fields have such similar roots in how they started. I fully identify as a public health social worker.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Choosing to pursue a career in government was a natural next step for Gouveia. \u201cA lot of people ask me why I chose to work in government <\/span>instead<\/span><\/i> of in public health or social work, but in my opinion, I do my public health and social work practice at the government level. Government impacts our health and wellbeing. When constituents or labor leaders learn that I\u2019m a social worker, they know that I will understand their issues, needs, and the way they intersect with government policy. We need human-driven policies, and social workers understand how to put people at the center of policy. I was once a single parent trying to manage a $60 a month grocery bill for several years. I know that people who are going through the same thing need reliable public transit, clean air and water, and affordable homes.\u201d\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

While understanding the systems on a factual level is important, Gouveia also stresses that her time spent in social work has given her a real super power: good listening skills. \u201cPeople want to feel respected; they want to be heard. Social work\u2019s training in capacity building and education puts us in a really strong position when working to improve government systems. Consider how the current state administration handled the COVID-19 pandemic. Public health experts pushed for a process that centered elder citizens\u2019 needs long before the vaccine rolled out: provide a 1-800 number in addition to a website, and make vaccinations available at locations that were already part of their routine instead of making them drive to mass vaccination sites. These are the people we need to listen to if we want to avoid inhumane systems. The administration blew them off. Some think the pandemic is behind us, but it\u2019s not. We need to do much better by the people of the commonwealth and it shouldn\u2019t stop with the pandemic. Time after time, so many decisions are being made by the current administration that are not helping us through <\/span>the next big challenges<\/span>: climate change, the opioid crisis, and racial and social justice.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

However, Gouveia\u2019s social work influence goes beyond exceptional people skills. Her education also continues to ground and directly influence her decisions as a state representative: \u201cYour ethics course never really leaves you,\u201d says Gouveia. \u201cI took my ethics course with Betty Ruth for dual degree students. It taught me that leadership is about leading with your values. I don\u2019t abandon my principles and I care deeply about justice and equity. As a social work student in Betty\u2019s class and as a legislator now, I tie those together in how I\u2019ve taken stands as a politician. For example, I\u2019ve never voted for a Speaker of the House because the very nature of an internal election maintains the status quo of white male supremacy.\u201d Her choice to not participate in anti-democratic systems extends to a larger plan for a more equitable commonwealth government. \u201cMassachusetts is infamous for entrenched incumbents,\u201d says Gouveia. \u201cI moved back to Lowell 14 years ago, and it wasn\u2019t until 4 years ago that a seat opened up.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

She adds that the first step to a more equitable government is civic health. \u201cPrior to getting elected into state legislature, I worked at <\/span>Rethink Health<\/span><\/a>. We know that all the vital conditions in the work we\u2019re doing — humane housing, safe and clean environment, access to health care and preventative services — are determined by civic engagement. The more people are able to engage, the more you have individual agency and community agency — and the better public health becomes. Even something like autonomy over your body and the kinds of changes you\u2019re able to make affect your mental and physical health. Without participating in your state and local government, you don\u2019t have the opportunity to influence decisions that influence everything else. Participation means town meetings, city council meetings, zoning regulations, being on boards. It is critical that we create opportunities to make participation easier and reduce barriers for people to participate in our democracy.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

After four years of serving as a Massachusetts state representative, Gouveia\u2019s move to run for lieutenant governor was the logical next step in her mission to improve the relationship between the state\u2019s government and its people. \u201cWe need people in the corner office who are going to put the health of all of our residents at the center of decision making, not just a few special interest people,\u201d says Gouveia. <\/span>You can follow her campaign on her website here.<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n

Learn More About BUSSW Votes<\/a><\/h4>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

According to Tami Gouveia (SSW \u201801), social workers make ideal public servants — meaning they are perfectly suited for a career in politics. \u201cWe need to do much better by the people of the commonwealth,\u201d Gouveia says. \u201cWe need a public health champion. Who better than a social worker?\u201d An alumna of BU School of […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":19132,"featured_media":54544,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[7428,7519,7451,4057],"tags":[8303,8287],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/ssw\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/54528"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/ssw\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/ssw\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/ssw\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/19132"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/ssw\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=54528"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/ssw\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/54528\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":80920,"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/ssw\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/54528\/revisions\/80920"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/ssw\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/54544"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/ssw\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=54528"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/ssw\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=54528"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/ssw\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=54528"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}