Jared Nicholson | |
---|---|
58th Mayor of Lynn, Massachusetts | |
Assumed office January 4, 2022 | |
Preceded by | Thomas M. McGee |
Personal details | |
Born | Framingham, Massachusetts | December 3, 1985
Nationality | American |
Political party | Democratic |
Residence | Lynn, Massachusetts |
Alma mater | Princeton University Harvard University |
Profession | Attorney |
Jared C. Nicholson (born December 3, 1985) is the 58th Mayor of Lynn, Massachusetts.
Nicholson was born on December 3, 1985, in Framingham, Massachusetts to Stephen and Lindsay Nicholson.[1] He attended Lincoln-Sudbury Regional High School, graduating in 2004.[2] He went on to graduate from Princeton University summa cum laude in the Princeton School of Public and International Affairs in 2008.[3] He earned his Juris Doctor cum laude from Harvard Law School in 2014,[3] where he was Executive Director of the Harvard Legal Aid Bureau.[4] Nicholson is bilingual in English and Spanish.[5]
Nicholson received the Skadden Fellowship out of Harvard Law School, and designed, launched, and led a new community economic development practice in Lynn, Massachusetts.[3] Here he represented underserved communities in entrepreneurial and small business legal matters.[6] He also helped make recommendations adopted by the Lynn City Council to support economic development in the city.[7] In 2016 he was elected to the Lynn School Committee, serving three two-year terms.[8] During that time he helped develop a new initiative for students across the district to learn job skills after school,[9] and founded the city's wrestling team.[10] Since 2016, Nicholson, who wrestled at Princeton, has hosted a beach wrestling tournament every summer to support Lynn wrestling.[11] Prior to being elected Mayor, Nicholson worked as a business lawyer for startups at Latham & Watkins[12] and later as a law professor at Northeastern University, where he worked with and researched small businesses.[13]
In 2021 Nicholson was elected mayor of Lynn defeating City Council President Darren Cyr in all 28 precincts of the city.[14] The Mayor also serves as the Chairperson for the School Committee for Lynn Public Schools.[15]
One of Nicholson’s first accomplishments in office was to reform the City’s development process, working with the City Council, to allow for a more coherent and coordinated review by City officials.[16] The streamlined process soon yielded a historic contribution by a developer on a major project to affordable housing.[17] To implement his Administration’s goals for affordable housing, Nicholson created an affordable housing trust fund with the City Council.[18] Property tax relief programs for senior citizens were also increased early in Nicholson’s administration.[19] In his first year in office, Nicholson delivered on a campaign commitment to deliver inclusionary zoning, working with the City Council, that was calibrated to encourage continued growth while also creating affordable housing for Lynn residents.[20]
Nicholson has made the conditions of Lynn’s schools a top priority.[2] To alleviate overcrowding, Nicholson is leading a multi-year process to build a new middle school.[21] He has also focused expanding access to quality pre-K education, with Lynn Public Schools adding a significant number of seats for the 2023 school year.[22] The schools also opened the Frederick Douglass Collegiate Academy on North Shore Community College’s campus, a pioneering partnership between the Lynn Public Schools and North Shore Community college that gives high school students the opportunity to attend college-level courses at no cost to them while still enrolled in high school.[23]
Nicholson has pushed to bring good-paying jobs to Lynn and connect Lynn to the region’s innovation economy, achieving an upgrade in MassBIO’s designation of Lynn’s readiness for life sciences growth from bronze to platinum,[24] bringing a high-tech manufacturer with over one hundred jobs to Lynn’s downtown,[25] and working with the City Council to rezone key parcels to facilitate job growth.[26]
Nicholson has led an effort to improve language access to city services for multilingual residents, hiring a team of interpreters.[27]He has announced plans for the City to launch an independent, unarmed crisis response team to address mental health needs and further racial justice.[28] The schools have dramatically increased their mental health support for students through the hiring of social workers and clinicians.[29] Nicholson has also sought to increase the availability and utilization of lifesaving Nalaxone as part of the efforts to combat the opioid crisis[30] as the City has experienced a promising downward trend in opioid overdose deaths.[31]
Nicholson has also focused on improving the City’s infrastructure, including streets,[32] parks,[33] litter,[34] and a new senior center,[35] as well as financial stability, attaining a credit rating upgrade from Standard & Poor’s from A to A+.[36] Nicholson also led the creation of the City’s first comprehensive plan, “Vision Lynn.”[37]
Nicholson lives in Lynn with his wife, Katherine, and their sons, Henry and Benjamin.[38]