Senator Harriette L. Chandler (D-Worcester) was first elected to the Massachusetts State Senate in November of 2000 and was sworn into office on January 3, 2001.   She was re-elected to the State Senate 2002, 2004 and 2006.   She serves as Senate Chair of the Joint Committee on Community Development and Small Business.  Senator Chandler also serves as Vice-Chair of the Joint Committee on Transportation, and as a member of the Senate Committee on Ways and Means, the Joint Committee on Public Health, the Joint Committee on Housing and the Joint Committee on Telecommunications, Utilities and Energy.  
 

The first woman from Worcester ever to be elected to the Massachusetts State Senate, she served three terms in the Massachusetts House of Representatives from 1995-2001.  In her last two terms in the House she served as House Chair of the Joint Committee on Health Care.   She also served on the Worcester School Committee from 1991-1994. 
 

Senator Chandler earned degrees from Wellesley College (B.A.), Clark University (Ph.D.) and the Simmons College Graduate School of Management (M.B.A.).  She is married to Worcester attorney Burton Chandler and has three grown children and four grandchildren.  
 

Senator Chandler is Co-Chair of the Legislature’s Oral Health Caucus, and is a member of the Central Massachusetts Caucus, the Legislature’s Tobacco Control Caucus, Caucus of Women Legislators, the Worcester Economic Development Council, the City Task Force on Crisis Management, the Mayor’s Advisory Committee on At-Risk Youth, the United Way of Central Massachusetts, the Worcester Women’s History Project, the Worcester Democratic City Committee and the Massachusetts Democratic State Committee.