Erin’s story sets her apart. Everyone’s story is different, but we all know what it’s like to struggle with unexpected hurdles, battle through adversity, and with a little luck and a lot of determination, conquer our fears and doubts. 

Erin comes from hardy Dorchester stock with a strong tradition of activism. Her grandfather Richard Murphy organized the various neighborhood groups under one umbrella, the Dorchester United Neighborhood Association, to turn a former landfill into a park and community buildings -- today, the Richard J. Murphy School and adjacent sports fields and playgrounds. Her Auntie Kay and mom started the first Teen Center in the City of Boston right there in the gym. 

After high school, she enrolled at UMass-Boston first in business management. When she was 19, she had her first son, Brian. She picked up more waitressing shifts and dropped her course load to juggle her new responsibilities. As a teenage mother she was scared and knew that she needed to stay in school to make a good life for her small family. By the time she graduated in 1999, eleven years after starting, her daughter Maisie was one, she was pregnant with Michael, her youngest, and had buried her son Colin. Her twenties were a struggle to say the least but she persevered and did what was necessary to become a Boston Public School teacher.

A lot of folks would have thrown in the towel on higher education at that point, but Erin was determined to push forward. She never gave up and she earned her degree in Business, History and Elementary Education. Later, she earned her M.A.Ed. from Fitchburg State University. Erin just finished paying off her student loans a few months ago, at the age 51 years old, so she knows a thing or two about how the system needs to change.

As a teacher in the Boston Public Schools for 22 years, she became even more familiar with the things families have to deal with: educational challenges, economic setbacks, substance use disorder and recovery. At the age of 45 she started running marathons to raise awareness and sorely needed funding for substance use disorder and mental health recovery services in Boston. To date, she has raised more than $50,000 for the Gavin Foundation. And gone through a lot of sneakers. 

Erin will be your city councilor -- a city councilor for every neighborhood -- she will understand your issues, already be familiar with your struggles. she’ll know how to make city government work to solve them for you and your families. In every neighborhood across this great city.

Erin will be your go-to call at City Hall not just because of the life I’ve lived, but because chances are pretty good that it’s not all that much different than the life you’ve lived.