This featured guest piece is an excerpt of our March 2025 newsletter.

Dear MCSW Community:

It is an honor to be writing to you during Women’s History Month of March 2025.  Hailing from Marblehead Essex County, I was first appointed by Governor Charlie Baker in 2018 and proudly reappointed in 2022 to serve as a State Commissioner on the Massachusetts Commission on the Status of Women (MCSW). I serve on and learn about the work of each standing committee, contributing ideas and strategies that weave vital civic and educational programs to engage and support women and girls across our great state, the sixth to ratify the U.S. Constitution in 1788. Our history is our future.

During my service, I have become a strong advocate for personal finance – educating women and girls about the essential basics of when, why, and how financial planning and literacy impacts our lives. Money impacts every aspect of our lives, and I fundamentally believe in giving everyone the tools they’ll need to not only understand their finances, but to feel confident in their future no matter the field.

In Massachusetts, we are incredibly fortunate that our State Treasurer Deborah Goldberg (no relation) is a bold advocate for financial education:

• In April 2024 as Treasurer and Receiver General, Goldberg co-sponsored Bill S. 2665, an act relative to student financial literacy.  
• In 2015, the Treasurer created the Office of Economic Empowerment (OEE) and developed free personal financial education and wealth building information and pathways accessible to all residents of our Commonwealth, a first in the nation. They regularly host events and programs that offer information, trainings, and tools related to financial literacy efforts. 
• The OEE makes available basic and advanced ideas and guidelines that help Massachusetts residents learn how to confidently manage their money and plan for their family’s future.  

As a local business owner, I am honored to share my knowledge and experience as a session leader to MSCW’s Girls Empowerment Leadership Initiative (GELI). Explaining the importance of budgeting and saving to GELI participants since 2022, it became clear to me that this foundational knowledge illuminates the true power of money: financial self-reliance and independence for the long term. As any woman knows, this status represents freedom, autonomy, independence, flexibility, safety, peace of mind, and more. Registration is now open for the groundbreaking 2025 GELI Summit, this year with a unique STEM twist. Mark your calendars and register to join us on Thursday, April 24, 2025 at the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution (WHOI).

This month, the MCSW is also proud to host our 2025 Advocacy Day at the Massachusetts Statehouse. I hope you register to join us and advocate for an issue that matters deeply to you and your families.

The 2025 campaign theme for International Women’s Day 3/8 is ‘Accelerate Action’ and in step with that idea, I urge each one of us to accelerate action and take hold of our financial futures. The wheels of gender parity move forward, if slowly. So, let’s advocate for ourselves and our futures: personal finance education in school is a good place to begin.

Together, let’s Accelerate Action to speed up the rate of progress worldwide – starting right here in Massachusetts.

In Solidarity,
Allison Goldberg
MCSW State Commissioner

Allison Goldberg was appointed by Governor Charlie Baker in Fall 2018 and reappointed in 2022. She serves on and contributes to the Legislative, Finance, and Program & Planning standing committees as well as MCSW’s COVID Task Force with Staff & Commissioners to bring vital civic, educational and outreach programming to women and girls across the Commonwealth. A food and beverage entrepreneur and business owner, Commissioner Goldberg is passionate about educating women and girls about money: understanding finances, savings, and building a long-term path to self-reliance and independence. Commissioner Goldberg lives in Marblehead with her husband and two children.

March 2025 Regional Spotlight