Former Massachusetts official claims anti-Asian racism led to her ouster

A former Massachusetts official tasked with senior welfare has filed a lawsuit alleging that anti-Asian bias drove her out of a job in Gov. Maura Healey’s administration.

About Chen and her leadership tenure: Elizabeth Chen, who immigrated from Taiwan in 1971, was appointed by former Gov. Charlie Baker to run the Executive Office of Elder Affairs, now called the Executive Office of Aging and Independence, in 2019. Over five years, she led an agency that serves roughly 1.7 million seniors including through the COVID-19 pandemic, coordinating the first vaccine doses for 170,000 people across 2,300 residential care settings and expanding the home care workforce with a no-cost, seven-language online certification program.

Days before her tenure ended on June 1, 2024, she publicly supported a Healey bill to rename her office via a prewritten statement, with nothing suggesting her exit was imminent.

What she’s claiming: Chen’s suit, which was filed last Tuesday in Suffolk Superior Court, names former Health Secretary Kate Walsh, who departed HHS in July 2025, as well as HHS Chief of Staff Christopher Harding and HR Director Sonia Bryan, alleging racial discrimination, retaliation, coercion and intimidation, as per the Boston Globe.

In a November 2023 meeting, Walsh allegedly told Chen she had excellent academic credentials but that the role was “too big” for her, language the suit contends reflects stereotypes about Asian people. The meeting came shortly after Chen and Walsh visited a Chinatown senior center in Boston, where Chen addressed attendees in Cantonese and Mandarin. In the months that followed, Chen was reportedly subjected to a comprehensive performance review that no other HHS department head faced. In April 2024, she finished a professional coaching program but never had the opportunity to meet improvement targets as she was fired weeks later.

The dismissal prompted her to push back. According to the suit, she wrote in a letter to Walsh: “When we talked in November, you should have been direct about your plan. Instead, you were vague and presented mixed messages and questioned my competence and leadership.” The suit also points out that the only other agency head HHS removed around that same period, Mary Truong of the Office for Refugees and Immigrants, was also Asian, a pattern Chen’s suit characterizes as discriminatory.

What’s next: Chen has since joined UMass Amherst last June as inaugural program director of the School of Public Health and Health Sciences’ new online Master of Health Administration program. She has also filed a separate suit over HHS’ handling of her requests for public records pertaining to her defense. Both cases remain pending.