Michael Curry

Michael Curry, Esq. serves as President & CEO of the Massachusetts League of Community Health Centers, which represents 52 health centers, serving over one million patients out of over 300 practice sites. He was named a Bostonian of the Year in 2021 (along with his member health centers) by The Boston Globe and Boston Magazine, one of the Boston Business Journal’s Power 50 Movement Makers for 2022, one of Boston’s Most Influential Men of Color by Get Konnected! for 2023, and one of this year’s Boston Magazine 150 Most Influential Bostonians.
During the early battle with the COVID-19 pandemic, Michael was appointed by the Massachusetts Senate to the legislatively created Health Equity Task Force, which he co-chaired, aimed at addressing the health disparities that have been realized and magnified by COVID-19. He was also appointed by then Governor Charlie Baker to the COVID-19 Vaccine Working Group, and served on the Department of Public Health’s Health Equity Advisory Group, the City of Boston’s Health Inequity Task Force, and the City of Brockton’s Social Justice Task Force. He gained a reputation for always being the equity voice in the room. Over the past two years, Michael helped to convene close to 70 leaders of color in health, business and philanthropy to advocate for health equity reform in Massachusetts. The Health Equity Compact (HEC), working in collaboration with the Blue Cross Blue Shield of Massachusetts Foundation, will release a report this June focused on the economic costs of racial inequities.
In 2022, Michael was asked by the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health to co-lead the newly created Community Coalition for Equity in Research (CCER), a program of Harvard Catalyst Community Engagement, comprised of a panel of about 14 community members from across the Commonwealth that meet monthly and provide feedback to investigators on ways to improve the equity impacts of specific research projects. The overarching goals of the coalition are to build community voice and considerations for health equity into clinical research, to strengthen community-academic relationships throughout Massachusetts, and to create mechanisms for meaningful two-way engagement. That same year, Michael also launched the first of its kind “Institute for Health Equity Research, Evaluation & Policy” at a primary care association, funded by $1.5 million in grant support from Mass General Brigham and $5 million from the Massachusetts Legislature out of the American Rescue Plan Act (ARPA) funding. The Institute will lead to greater participatory (and what he now calls “emancipatory”) research in communities of color, and produce a pipeline of diverse researchers and evaluators with experience in community health.
He brings over 30 years of experience and results in civil rights advocacy, health reform and health equity. He is also the Immediate Past President of the Boston Branch of the NAACP (2011-2016), and has over 25 years of dedicated service to the NAACP on the city, state-area conference and national levels. He was elected to the NAACP Board of Directors in 2014, 2017, 2020, and was recently reelected in 2023 by members from across the country. He serves on the National NAACP’s Executive Committee, and as the appointed Chair of the National Board’s Advocacy & Policy Committee since 2019, Chair of the Constitution and Bylaws Sub-Committee, and Vice-Chair the Political Action and Legislation Committee. On May 15, 2021, the National Board appointed him as Administrator for the New England Area Conference of the NAACP, overseeing the state-area conference and all branches in Maine, Vermont, New Hampshire, Massachusetts and Vermont. He is leading the reorganization and strengthening of the NAACP throughout the region.
Attorney Curry is also an Adjunct Professor at both New England Law Boston teaching Diversity and Inclusion in the Legal Profession and Suffolk University’s Moakley Center and Sawyer School of Management teaching a health care management and policy course.
Mr. Curry is a regular commentator on the local Public Radio Broadcast/WBUR Boston, WGBH Radio, as well as on television with WHDH, WGBH, WBZ and New England Cable News/NBC Boston, on a wide range of political, cultural and social issues. He earned a Bachelor’s of Arts from Macalester College in St. Paul, Minnesota and a Doctorate of Jurisprudence from New England School of Law, and later graduated from the inaugural class of the Executive Leadership Council’s Pipeline to Leadership Program. In the spring of 2022 Michael delivered three college commencement speeches and received two honorary degrees: a Doctorate in Business Administration from Curry College and Healthcare Administration from Labouré College. In June, he will receive his third honorary degree from William James College.