Kirwan, who graduated from the Harvard Kennedy School in 1984, is not unfamiliar with the terrain of fiscal management, as evinced by her years of service to the state. Prior to her role on the governor’s cabinet, Kirwan spent seven years as director of administration and finance at the Massachusetts Port Authority.
She also served as deputy commissioner at the Massachusetts Department of Revenue, which required her to manage the activities of over 2,500 state employees.
Though Kirwan has often had to lay off staffers because of budget constraints, she said that she always chooses to break the news herself, and confessed to tearing up at a meeting after having to personally lay off more than a dozen workers in Mass. Port Authority after Sept. 11 to push Logan airport back onto solid financial ground.
“It’s impossible to approach it without some emotion on behalf of the people whose lives are turned upside down,” Kirwan said. “If I ever get to a state in my life when I’m not troubled by the fact that economic challenges and budget reductions lead to personnel impacts, then maybe I should go into another field.”
But after years of experience in the throes of fiscal maelstroms, Kirwan said she understands that she often needs a light-hearted approach to the challenges of cost-cutting—namely, in the form of a stuffed Grinch doll that she sometimes brings to her office.
“I don’t have to make a heavy-handed statement about the constraints facing us. I can just show people the Grinch, and that’s a good way to just remind them that there are some hard choices to be made,” Kirwan said. “But if we approach them together in a spirit of shared responsibility, then we can often come up with a solution.”
As for whether she plans to relocate the Grinch to University Hall, Kirwan said, “That might be a little bit over the top for the first week.”
“I might bring him at Christmastime,” she added.
—Staff writer Bonnie J. Kavoussi can be reached at kavoussi@fas.harvard.edu.
—Staff writer Esther I. Yi can be reached at estheryi@fas.harvard.edu.