Gov. Maura Healey on Tuesday, Nov. 10, appointed Aladdine Joroff as Massachusetts climate chief, effective the same day, the governor’s office said in a state press release. Joroff, who had been serving as deputy climate chief and director of mitigation and community resilience, succeeds Melissa Hoffer, the state’s first climate chief, who left the post on Monday, Nov. 9, and is set to become president of Vermont Law and Graduate School on Dec. 1.
The appointment keeps the cabinet-level post inside the Governor’s Office of Climate Innovation and Resilience, an office Healey created by executive order on her first full day in office in January 2023. Massachusetts was the first state in the country to establish a cabinet-level climate chief, the official announcement said.
Who Aladdine Joroff is, and what the job covers
As climate chief, Joroff “will continue to lead the administration’s efforts to coordinate climate policy across state government, strengthen the resilience of Massachusetts communities, advance clean energy solutions and support the state’s climate goals,” the governor’s office said. The Boston Globe reported that the governor’s office declined a request for an interview with Joroff.
In a statement released by the administration, Joroff said: “I’m excited to continue the transformative work Chief Hoffer has led to implement the Healey-Driscoll administration’s vision of a government wide approach to climate change. I look forward to continued collaboration with our partners across the Commonwealth.”
Healey said Joroff “has been a key member of our climate team, and she knows what it takes to make real progress for Massachusetts residents and businesses.” She added, “From helping communities prepare for severe weather to advancing clean energy solutions that lower costs and create jobs, Aladdine brings the experience, expertise and leadership we need to keep moving Massachusetts forward.” Healey also said she was “deeply grateful to Melissa Hoffer for her incredible leadership in establishing this office and helping make Massachusetts a national leader on climate.”
Lt. Gov. Kim Driscoll, in the same announcement, said, “Cities and towns are on the front lines of climate change, and Aladdine understands how important it is that they have the resources and support they need.” Driscoll said Joroff “has spent her career working with local leaders to develop practical solutions, and she knows that strong partnerships are essential to building more resilient communities.”
Joroff joined the Healey-Driscoll administration in August 2024 after serving as director of climate policy for the city of Boston, the official biography states. Before that, she spent a decade teaching and practicing at Harvard Law School’s Emmett Environmental Law and Policy Clinic, working with Massachusetts municipalities, nonprofit organizations and advocacy groups. She also taught a Climate Solutions Living Lab, serves as a visiting lecturer on environmental science and public policy at Harvard University, and earlier practiced environmental, energy and land use law at Goodwin and at Beveridge & Diamond. She holds a law degree from the University of Pennsylvania and bachelor’s and master’s degrees from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, the release said. CommonWealth Beacon reported that she has been deputy climate chief since 2024.
Hoffer’s tenure and a farewell warning on costs
Hoffer, a former official in the Biden administration’s Environmental Protection Agency, served as climate chief from January 2023 until Nov. 9, the governor’s office said. The Globe reported that her work included helping establish the Massachusetts Community Climate Bank, described as the nation’s first green bank dedicated to affordable housing, and launching the state’s Youth Climate Council. In a wide-ranging interview with CommonWealth Beacon earlier this year, she also pointed to efforts such as compelling hospitals to track their emissions and setting biodiversity goals, while acknowledging the limits of a post that has no regulatory authority and a modest budget. “We are asking people to do things differently, and that can be quite threatening sometimes,” she said in June, according to CommonWealth Beacon.
In a farewell address to environmental advocates on Monday, Hoffer argued that climate action has been unfairly framed as unaffordable. “We must do everything we can to avoid running into a situation where people see it as a competition between it’s either going to be affordable or it’s going to be green because that’s malarkey,” she said, according to the Globe. “What is affordable is green.”
CommonWealth Beacon reported a sharper note in the same farewell session. Asked what her “magic wand” change would be, Hoffer said, “We should be putting in place a hard stop on natural gas infrastructure. It should be phased out by 2050. That is the rational thing to do.” That position sits beside Healey’s recent public support for natural gas as part of an effort to add energy supply and slow the growth of utility bills, CommonWealth Beacon reported, including comments in a debate last month with Republican challenger Mike Minogue during the campaign for a second term.
The policy fights waiting for the new chief
Joroff takes the job as Healey begins a second term and as the state faces a legal requirement to cut greenhouse gas emissions in half by 2030 from 1990 levels, CommonWealth Beacon reported. The same account said Massachusetts has been hit by the Trump administration’s cancellation of new offshore wind projects. Vineyard Wind 1, the large project already built south of Martha’s Vineyard, recently reached full commercial operation, but other projects that would have added more power have been delayed or blocked.
Climate advocates who work with the office generally praised the appointment. Rishi Reddi, vice president for Massachusetts at the Conservation Law Foundation, said in a foundation statement that Joroff brings “valuable and crucial experience” from roles in the city of Boston, at Harvard and in state government. In comments to the Globe, Reddi said Joroff brings “knowledge and decisiveness,” adding, “We are dealing with affordability issues and insurance issues. Communities are struggling from impact from stronger storms and really challenged by coastal resiliency efforts. Aladdine has the type of expertise to be able to deal with those.”
Steve Long, director of policy and partnerships for The Nature Conservancy in Massachusetts, told the Globe that Joroff was instrumental in organizing listening sessions Hoffer held on climate adaptation, resilience and mitigation, and that the administration had tried to reach “people who are actually experiencing how climate change impacts their way of life and how they make their living.” He said it was “really heartening to know that Aladdine is going to continue the tradition in the climate chief’s office of relying on science-based expertise, but also the expertise from people’s lived experiences.”
Paul Craney, executive director of the Massachusetts Fiscal Alliance, struck a different note. He told the Globe he hopes Joroff will release an analysis of the total cost of achieving the state’s 2050 net-zero emissions target, a recommendation Hoffer set out in an 87-page report prepared for the administration in 2023. “That’s the question we’ve been asking for years,” Craney said. “What is the price tag that they have in mind, and who do they think is going to pay for it?”
How Joroff answers that question, and how she works across a state government she does not directly control, will shape climate policy in Massachusetts through Healey’s second term. The official charge is coordination, resilience and clean energy. The political fight, already underway on Beacon Hill and in city halls, is whether those goals can be met while residents face high energy bills and a tighter federal landscape.
Sources
- Massachusetts governor’s office: Governor Healey Appoints Aladdine Joroff as Massachusetts Climate Chief
- Boston Globe: Healey administration appoints Aladdine Joroff as climate chief
- CommonWealth Beacon: Healey names new climate chief after Hoffer’s departure
- Conservation Law Foundation: Governor Healey Names New Climate Chief
- WBUR: Mass. officials propose pilot program to help former military medics find careers in healthcare (includes the Joroff appointment)
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