Kim Janey

The birthplaces of her ancestors include North Carolina on her mother's side, and Guyana, Virginia, Nova Scotia, and Massachusetts on her father's. One grandfather was born in Chelsea in 1915 and a great-grandfather in Medford in 1890.

She "has had family in the city of Boston for six generations".

Her family was well known in the Roxbury neighborhood.

Kim Michelle Janey (born May 16, 1965) is an American politician and community organizer who served as acting mayor of Boston for eight months in 2021.

Kim Michelle Janey was born on May 16, 1965, in Roxbury, Boston, to Clifford B. Janey and Phyllis Janey, who divorced when she was young.

Her father taught and worked as a school administrator in Boston, and would serve as superintendent of the Rochester City School District, District of Columbia Public Schools, and Newark Public Schools.

She also volunteered for Mel King's campaign in the 1983 Boston mayoral election.

After graduating from high school, Janey worked to raise her daughter and attended community college.

She entered Smith College but interrupted her studies to care for her ill grandfather after the death of her grandmother.

In 1994, she participated in the Ada Comstock Scholars Program designed for students who are older than the traditional age for college students.

She eventually graduated from Smith College in 1994.

She suffered from housing insecurity.

A member of the Democratic Party and regarded to be a political progressive, she entered politics when she successfully ran for the Boston City Council in 2017.

She entered the Boston City Council in January 2018, and was selected as president of the Council in January 2020.

On the city council, she represented the 7th district (which includes Roxbury, with parts of the South End, Dorchester, and Fenway).

Being the incumbent City Council president, she became the acting mayor of Boston upon Marty Walsh's departure from the post when he resigned after being confirmed as the United States secretary of labor.

She was a candidate in the nonpartisan primary of the 2021 Boston mayoral election, but had an unsuccessful fourth-place finish.

She later endorsed Michelle Wu for the general election.

Wu went on to win the general election, and became Janey's successor.

As acting mayor, Janey dealt with the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic.

She launched a Vaccine Equity Grant Initiative to increase awareness and access to the COVID-19 vaccine in communities that were disproportionately impacted by the pandemic.

She announced a municipal eviction moratorium in August, after the United States Supreme Court overturned a federal moratorium that had been in place.

She also dealt with the homelessness population in the Mass and Cass area, clearing the area's tent city towards the end of her acting mayoralty.

She signed into law an ordinance which restricted the Boston Police Department's use of tear gas, pepper spray and rubber bullets, a measure in the line of which had been vetoed earlier in the year by Mayor Walsh.

She launched a pilot program that made the MBTA Route 28 bus fare-free for three-months.

This laid groundwork that her successor, Michelle Wu, built upon to launch further fare-free bus service.

Since May 2022, Janey has served as the chief executive officer of Economic Mobility Pathways (EMPath), a Boston nonprofit which addresses poverty.

She has also held teaching fellowships at Harvard University and Salem State University and worked as an executive in residence at The Boston Foundation since leaving public office.

Janey has ancestors that escaped to Canada through the Underground Railroad before settling in Boston in the latter half of the 19th century.

When she was eleven years old, Janey attended school in Charlestown, Boston.

She, along with other students, was bused from Roxbury to Charlestown as part of Boston's controversial court-mandated school desegregation plan.

She later attended high school in Reading, Massachusetts, under METCO, a program that allowed city students to voluntary commute to nearby suburbs for high school.

She gave birth to a daughter at the age of sixteen.

While continuing to attend high school, she also held a job in order to pay for expenses related to raising her daughter.

Her father ejected her from his home, and she received assistance from the local nonprofit EMPath, who allowed her to use their shelter.

She was able to graduate high school, and did so with her 18-month-old daughter accompanying her at her graduation ceremony.

She served as president of the Boston City Council from 2020 to 2022, and as a member of the council from the 7th district from 2018 to 2022.

As a black woman, her tenure as acting mayor made her the first woman and the first person of color to lead the city.

Janey began her career as a community organizer and education advocate, working for groups such as Parents United for Child Care.

and Massachusetts Advocates for Children.