Meet Joan
Joan Meschino (D-Hull) is the State Representative for the 3rd Plymouth district (Cohasset, Hingham, and Hull).
Joan serves on the Joint Committee on Telecommunications, Utilities and Energy; the Joint Committee on Consumer Protection and Professional Licensure; the House Committee on Intergovernmental Affairs; and the Joint Committee on Advanced Information Technology, the Internet and Cybersecurity.
She is the appointed House Vice-Chair of the Metropolitan Beaches Commission and serves on the Ocean Advisory Commission. She chairs the Roadmap Coalition, a group of nonprofits and advocates working to advance the goals of Representative Meschino’s 2050 Roadmap bill, which passed in January 2021.
She serves as a Board Member of the Massachusetts Caucus of Women Legislators, where she works alongside her fellow legislators to encourage and support women in government and pursue women’s economic advancement.
She is also the House Co-Chair of the Caucus to End and Prevent Homelessness, which is a bipartisan coalition of Massachusetts legislators which engages and informs other policymakers throughout the state about best practices for reducing and ending homelessness.
Service
Joan’s desire to serve comes naturally. In her career and in her community, she always finds a way to contribute. Her legal career began in criminal defense and civil rights law, and she spent most of her legal career as a health law attorney. She later transitioned to non-profit management and public service. Before joining the Massachusetts State Legislature, Joan was Executive Director for the Massachusetts Appleseed Center for Law and Justice, Inc., a public interest law center that promotes equal rights and opportunities for Massachusetts residents.
Community
Joan was raised in a close-knit and caring community on the South Shore, in the Town of Hull. Her father is a retired teacher and lobsterman; her mother is a retired school nurse. Summers spent on the family lobster boat taught her to work hard, and that work ethic saw her through undergraduate study at Harvard and a law degree at the University of New Hampshire, Franklin Pierce School of Law. Joan moved back to Hull with her husband in 1999.
Joan and her husband John Harre at home in Hull
The Meschino Family aboard the FV Triple J-BE
circa 1975
Leadership
Joan is a seasoned public servant. She was elected to two terms as a Selectman in Hull and served on many town committees, as well as regional boards and statewide commissions. She served as Hull’s representative to the Metropolitan Area Planning Council and was elected by her peers to its Executive Committee for ten years. She is a leader in the legal community as well as in her local community. Joan was honored with a “2014 Top Women in Law” award by Massachusetts Lawyers Weekly. Joan is a long-time, active member of the Women’s Bar Association, and is a member of its Emeritus Board. While serving as a state representative, Joan was selected in 2019 to participate in the Council of State Governments (CSG) Henry Toll Fellowship program, one of the nation’s premier leadership development programs for state government officials.
Priorities
