Senator Sonia Chang-Diaz Served 2009 - 2022 Democrat - Second Suffolk

Sonia Chang-Díaz is the first Latina elected to the Massachusetts State Senate. She is serving her fourth term on behalf of the Second Suffolk District, which is comprised of all or part of the Boston neighborhoods of Dorchester, Jamaica Plain, Hyde Park, Mattapan, Mission Hill, Roslindale, Roxbury, and the South End.

Senator Chang-Díaz is a thoughtful, honest, and tenacious champion for the voiceless. She is widely recognized as a strong advocate for public education, CORI reform, access and opportunities for low-income and immigrant communities, and for those affected by foreclosures, hate crimes, and youth violence. She has also been a strong voice for sound fiscal reform and good stewardship of taxpayer dollars.

Senator Chang-Díaz serves as the Senate Chair of the Joint Committee on Education and Vice Chair of the Senate Committee on Bonding, Capital Expenditures, and State Assets. She also serves as a member of the Joint Committees on Children, Families & Persons with Disabilities, Public Safety and Homeland Security, Ways and Means, and the Senate Committees on Redistricting, Steering and Policy, and Ways and Means.

Prior to attaining elected office, Senator Chang-Díaz served as a public school teacher in the Lynn and Boston school systems, where she learned first-hand the challenges facing our public school students, teachers, and parents and the role our state government can play in improving our educational system. Senator Chang-Díaz has also worked in public service as a Senior Legislative Aide to former state Senator Cheryl Jacques, as a key political adviser at the Barbara Lee Family Foundation, and as the Director of Outreach at the Massachusetts Budget and Policy Center, a non-partisan fiscal policy think tank.

Senator Chang-Díaz was raised on the idea that leadership, at its heart, is about service. It is a value deeply rooted in her family’s long tradition of public service. Chang-Díaz's mother raised her and her sister while dedicating her career to those most forgotten in our society: from adults with mental illness, to foster children in need of loving families, to at-risk toddlers and infants in Dorchester. Her father, an immigrant to the United States from Costa Rica, was our country’s first Latin American astronaut. Her sister is a teacher. And her grandfather has been recognized as one of the country’s most committed rural doctors. Senator Chang-Díaz currently resides in Jamaica Plain and is a parishioner at St. Mary of the Angels church in Roxbury.