Senator Patricia Jehlen is currently serving her second term in the Massachusetts Senate.

She is Senate Chair of the Committee on Elder Affairs and Vice-Chair of the Committee on Municipalities and Regional Government. She also serves on the Committee on Children and Families, the Committee on Healthcare Financing, and the Committee on Steering and Policy.  She is Co-Chair of the Caucus of Women Legislators.  She represents the Senate on the Long Term Care Advisory Committee to the Secretary of Health and Human Services.  She also serves on the Expert Panel on End of Life Care at the Department of Public Health.

In 2006, Sen. Jehlen passed the first reform of child labor laws since the 1930s. With new enforcement powers, the Attorney General has taken action in the cases of over 100 minors working in violation of child labor laws, after decades of inability to enforce the laws.   (Herald and Journal reports on new enforcement)

In the FY 2008 budget, Jehlen, as chair of Elder Affairs, increased the Personal Needs Allowance for people in rest homes and nursing homes for the first time since it was cut in 1990 (more info), and preserved that increase in FY2009.

Her top legislative priorities are paid sick days, equitable and excellent education, universal and affordable health care, and jobs with decent wages and benefits.

In the area of elder services, her priority is "making equal choice real," so that seniors of all income levels can choose needed services that meet their needs, whether in the community or in institutions. This means making sure everyone receives counseling before entering long-term care, funding home care and all levels of care adequately, and training and maintaining a skilled workforce.

Education and Experience

Jehlen, a former history teacher and VISTA volunteer, graduated from Swarthmore College, received a Masters degree in teaching from Harvard University, and completed Master's course work in history at University of Massachusetts Boston.

From 1976 to 1991, she served on the Somerville School Committee, as chairman in 1980 and 1988. She was among the founders of the CHOICE program, a public school alternative elementary program. On the state level, she helped found the Council for Fair School Finance, which brought the successful lawsuit which led to the education reform of 1993, and brought hundreds of millions of dollars in new state aid to communities.

Jehlen served from 1991 to 2005 in the Massachusetts House of Representatives, where she served as Co-Chairman of the Progressive Legislator's Group (PLG), Co-Chairman of the Elder Caucus, and Vice-Chairman of the Committee on Elder Affairs. Among her successful legislation were bills to increase literacy for blind people, ensure the rights of people living with mental illness, and provide compensation for the wrongfully convicted.

As chair of the Progressive Legislators Group and member of the Working Families Agenda in the House, Jehlen helped raise the minimum wage and won tax cuts for working families like increasing the earned income tax credit and adopting the senior circuit breaker.

Awards in 2007

  • The Mass. Department of Mental Health for “compassionate leadership on behalf of children, adults and families living with mental illness”
  • Teens Lead @ Work, Mass. Coalition for Occupational Safety and Health for her work on child labor reform
  • The Peggy Munroe Home Care Advocacy Award from the Mass. Council of Home Care Aide Services
  • The John Philip Sousa Award from Somerville Cambridge Elder Services for “outstanding advocacy efforts on behalf of Cambridge and Somerville Elders”
  • The Heart in Hand Award from CASPAR for helping obtain funding to continue their shelter program

Awards in 2008

  • Ben Gill award from Mass-Care for activism for Single-Payer Health Care
  • Legislator of the Year award from Friends of the Fells
  • Senator of the Year award from Silver-Haired Legislature
  • Award for "years of tireless work on behalf of indigent MA prisoners" from Mass. Correctional Legal Services
  • Legislator of the Year from the Mass. Chapter, National Association of Elder Law Attorneys

Awards in 2009

  • IMPACT award from Animal Control Officers Association of Massachusetts

    • Family

    Pat Jehlen lives in Somerville with her husband, Alain, a writer for the National Education Association. The Jehlens have three children, who all graduated from Somerville High School. Nick, a graphic designer, lives in Madison and Davis Square. Peter, a program manager for medical trials, also lives in Davis Square. Wendy, a dancer/choreographer and ASL interpreter, lives with the Jehlens, her husband Nandlal Nayak, and their daughters Anika and Kayala.  

    Pat’s favorite extracurricular activity is teaching stilting and tumbling-for-two with the OPENAIR Circus, which she helped start 22 years ago.

    Pat was born in Austin Texas, and moved to Massachusetts at the age of 6. Her father, Paul Deats, was a Methodist minister and professor of social ethics at the Boston University School of Theology. Her mother, Ruth, was a community activist, Girl Scout leader, and Sunday School teacher/trainer. Together they formed one of the first Parkinsons’ Support  Groups. Jehlen had two sisters, Carolyn and Fran, and a brother Randy. She has a niece and nephew, Kathleen and Chris Poe.

    PAUL DEATS 1918-2009

    Pat's father, Paul Deats, died on July 12.  Pat had been his caregiver for 2 1/2 years while he lived in an assisted living apartment in Newton.  He had planned to move to the VNA Assisted Living in Somerville in August 2009.  Here are some notes on his life:

    Paul Deats was born in the small, segregated and conservative town of Graham Texas in 1918 and attended John Tarleton Military Academy. 

    But when he continued his studies at Southern Methodist University and joined the Methodist Student Movement, he became committed to pacifism, civil rights, and the ministry.  While his father had been recruited to run for Congress in Texas by the Dixiecrat party, Paul was asked to run for Congress in Massachusetts by anti-war activists.  (both declined)

    He and his wife, Ruth Zumbrunnen, moved to New York to study at Union Seminary, and returned to Texas to lead the Wesley Foundation at the University of Texas.  There they led integrated workcamps, invited speakers like James Farmer, founder of the Congress of Racial Equality, and inspired many students to pursue the ministry and other commitments to justice and peace.  One former student wrote last week, “I came from a small Methodist Church in a small town in Texas, and I didn't realize the amount of racial discrimination that was all around me.  This and many other social issues were brought to my consciousness by Paul and others at Wesley Foundation.  The outside speakers we had made a lasting impact on me.”

    At the height of the McCarthy era in 1951, Paul was fired because of these activities, and moved to Massachusetts to pursue a PhD at Boston University School of Theology.  The family settled in Newton, where Paul lived for the rest of his life.

    Deats joined the faculty of the School of Theology, teaching social ethics for over three decades, becoming the first Walter Muelder Professor of Social Ethics.  He required students in some courses to leave academia to visit prisons, areas of poverty, and funeral homes.  Until his death, many of his students continued to stay in touch, sending him their books, some of which credited him. 

    He continued his activism in the civil rights movement, traveling to St. Augustine, Florida at the invitation of Martin Luther King, and in the peace movement, serving as the chairman of the national Fellowship of Reconciliation.

    In the late 1950’s, Paul was one of three founders of the Newton Fair Housing Committee, formed after the Turnpike construction took many homes in the black community of West Newton.

    Paul and Ruth enjoyed inviting international students into their home, especially for holidays.  For their sabbatical in 1961, they took their four children to visit missions and universities in West Africa, the Middle East and Europe, hoping to introduce them to people and societies with different experiences. They spent later sabbaticals in South and Central America, and in England.  Later they  led tours of South and Central America and the Caribbean, focusing on social justice and missions.

    When Ruth developed Parkinsons’ Disease at the age of 50, the couple organized the Newton-Wellesley Parkinsons’ Support Group, which is still meeting after over 30 years.  As her disease progressed, Deats became more and more her full-time loving caretaker, and he continued leading exercise groups for the Support Group after her death in 1994.

    After Ruth’s death, Paul continued his active involvement in the United Parish of Auburndale, where he worked on issues of socially responsible investment.  He chaired a committee of the Mass. Council of Churches, attempting to come to consensus on physician assisted suicide.  He joined a group of retired Methodist ministers who were willing to perform same-sex marriages, against the policy of their denomination.  At the age of 80, he traveled alone to Zimbabwe and South Africa, visiting friends and former students, and learning about the church and the reconciliation movement.

    Paul was devoted to his family.  They traveled to Texas every summer, camping along the way.  He loved to make things, including a dollhouse for his children, which now being used by the third generation.  For years, he and Ruth invited the children and grandchildren to spend a week at Craigville Beach, nourishing life-long bonds with and among children and grandchildren.  Grandchildren especially remember bird-watching, playing the Texas game of 42, canoeing, flying kites, and swimming.

    Paul was the father of Patricia Jehlen and her husband Alain of Somerville; Carolyn Wheeler and her husband Loren Wheeler of Craryville, NY; Randy Deats and his wife Kathy St. Jean of Warwick, RI; and the late Frances Ann Deats and her husband Paul Redstone of  Sunderland, MA.  He is also survived by his brother Robert W. Deats of Pacific Palisades, CA and his sister Elizabeth Deats Harris of Austin, TX as well as  five grandchildren and two granddaughters. 

    Remarkably, Paul was able to be with both his parents and with his wife when they died. 

    His journey took him from Texas to Massachusetts, from a small town to an international perspective, from segregation to civil rights.  He was delighted at the election of Barack Obama, which signified how far the country had come as well.

    He died July 12 at the assisted living which had been his home for the past two and a half years.  Despite his increasing disabilities, residents there described him as kind and gracious. 

    A memorial service will be held on Saturday, September 26 at 2 pm at United Parish of Auburndale, 64 Hancock Street, Auburndale.  Friends are invited to send letters with their memories to 67 Dane Street, Somerville MA 02143.