Christine Monska was appointed to the MCSW by the Caucus of Women Legislators in 2020. She is originally from Easthampton, but has lived and worked all across the Commonwealth. Christine is the Executive Director of the Women’s Fund SouthCoast in New Bedford where she increases opportunities for women, girls and gender expansive people to become economically independent, access education, and advocate for solutions to issues in their community. Her publications, speaking engagements, and workshops center on youth empowerment and policy advocacy, women in leadership across sectors and other global gender justice issues. Prior to joining the Women’s Fund SouthCoast, Christine designed and led the Young Women’s Initiative, a policy advocacy and leadership development program for young women in Springfield which was a local implementation of a national program stemming from the White House Council on Women and Girls. Christine was also the District Director for former Senator Ben Downing where she also sat on the regional commission on the status of women and served as a Board Member for Berkshire County Action Council and Shout Out Loud, a small nonprofit addressing human trafficking. Most recently, Christine was Youth Leadership Programs Manager for The Clubhouse Network, a collaboration with the MIT Media Lab located in Roxbury, MA. In this role, she focused on leadership development and advocacy training in communities that lack representation. Before that, Christine was Continuing Education Advisor
at Bard Microcollege, the nation’s first college for low-income women who experienced disrupted education and Program Officer for The Women’s Fund of Western MA. Christine holds a B.A. in Government from Smith College, a M.S. in Global Affairs with a concentration in International Law and Human Rights from New York University. In 2023 she was named a “Woman to Watch” by the SouthCoast Almanac.