Senator Joan Lovely is in her fifth term as State Senator for the Second Essex District, comprised of Beverly, Danvers, Peabody, Salem and Topsfield. Senator Lovely has been serving in the Massachusetts Senate since January 2013. After raising a family in Salem with her husband, Senator Lovely went back to school to earn degrees from Salem State University and the Massachusetts School of Law. She began her activism at the local level when she collaborated with neighbors and volunteers to rebuild a local playground for children and families in Salem.
Increasing access to health care has long been a priority of the Senate. This session, we reaffirmed that commitment by passing comprehensive legislation addressing barriers to mental and behavioral health care, lowering the cost of prescription medications, and increasing access to postpartum care for new parents. In addition, the Legislature enacted a bill to better support our local and regional public health system, upon which we greatly depended during the COVID-19 pandemic.