MaryRose Mazzola is an attorney, public policy expert, and political professional with over a decade of legal, legislative, research and campaign experience. She currently serves as the Chief External Affairs Officer at Planned Parenthood League of Massachusetts and the Planned Parenthood Advocacy Fund of Massachusetts, where she leads Planned Parenthood's strategic external-facing work, including managing the policy research, advocacy, elections and organizing, education, and marketing and communications teams. Prior to this role, MaryRose spent two years as the inaugural Director of the PPLM ASPIRE Center for Sexual and Reproductive Health, bringing together Planned Parenthood’s nationally recognized research, clinical training, and professional education programs. She launched ASPIRE’s legal and policy research program in January 2023, which spent its first year focused on expanding abortion access for marginalized populations and tackling anti-abortion crisis pregnancy centers.
In addition to her role at Planned Parenthood, MaryRose serves as an Adjunct Lecturer in Public Policy at the Harvard Kennedy School, where she teaches Reproductive Rights, Politics and Policy and Speechwriting. She was previously an Adjunct Professor in the Merrimack College Women's and Gender Studies Department and has also guest lectured at Harvard Law School, the Harvard School of Public Health, Boston College Law School, Northeastern University School of Law, and Tufts University. MaryRose is also the Executive Director of the 617 Rocks Foundation, which runs an annual nonprofit music festival benefitting cancer research and treatment.
MaryRose spent the first decade of her career in state and local politics and government, most recently as Senior Advisor to Mayor Michelle Wu’s successful 2021 campaign, Chief of Staff to State Senator Barry Finegold, and as Senator Finegold’s Chief Strategist and Campaign Manager. From 2016-2018, she was the Executive Director of the Boston Women’s Workforce Council, the City of Boston’s public-private initiative dedicated to closing gender and racial wage gaps. As ED, MaryRose quadrupled the number of partner companies and oversaw the data collection and analysis of more than 200,000 employees’ salaries, making Boston the first city in the nation to use real compensation data to analyze the gender pay gap.
MaryRose received a Master in Public Policy degree from the Harvard Kennedy School, a law degree from Northeastern University School of Law, and a Bachelor’s degree in political science from the Merrimack College Honors Program.