WASHINGTON, D.C., March 27, 2023 – His Excellency Wendall Jones, Bahamas Ambassador to the United States, was among accredited envoys from around the world who participated yesterday in the Experience America Boston visit organized by the U.S State Department.
Greeting the Ambassadors, the Mayor of the city of Boston Michelle Wu said: “Our vision for Boston is to be the city where people come to do good/ a climate resilient community-powered, hub of creativity and connection. We’re refining our approach to public health and safety, addressing long-standing inequities like the racial wealth gap, and delivering critical constituent services to ensure Boston is a place where everyone can thrive,-from young people and families to artists and entrepreneurs from all over the world.”
Ambassador Jones participated in the Massachusetts Business Roundtable discussions with leaders of the public and private sectors; visited Pfizer, one of the world’s premier bio pharmaceutical companies; and held discussions with executives of BainCapital, one of the world’s leading private investment firms.
Michelle Wu made history when she was the first woman and first person of color elected mayor of Boston in November of 2021. She has been a voice “for accessibility, transparency, and community engagement in city leadership,” according to information gleaned from th Internet.
First elected to the Boston City Council in November 2013 at the age of 28, Wu is the first Asian-American woman to serve on the Council. In January 2016, she was elected President of the City Council by her colleagues in a unanimous vote, becoming the first woman of color to serve as Council President.
As a Councilor, Mayor Wu was the lead sponsor of Boston’s Paid Parental Leave ordinance and Healthcare Equity ordinance prohibiting discrimination based on gender identity — both of which passed unanimously through the Council and were signed into law by former Mayor Martin J. Walsh. She also authored Boston’s Communications Access ordinance, which guarantees translation, interpretation and assistive technology for access to City services regardless of English language proficiency or communications disability.
Wu got her start in City Hall working for Mayor Thomas M. Menino as a Rappaport Fellow in Law and Public Policy, where she created the city’s first guide to the restaurant permitting process from start to finish, and was also a driving force to launch Boston’s food truck program. She later served as statewide Constituency Director in the U.S. Senate campaign of her former law professor, Elizabeth Warren.
In 2016, Councilor Wu was honored as one of Ten Outstanding Young Leaders by the Greater Boston Chamber of Commerce and as part of Marie Claire magazine’s New Guard: The 50 Most Influential Women in America.
Mayor Wu graduated from Harvard College and Harvard Law School and is fluent in Mandarin and Spanish.
