Devin M. Sheehan has served on the Holyoke School Committee since first being elected in 2009. As a member of the MASC Board of Directors, Devin previously served as a Division Chair, Secretary-Treasurer, Vice-President, and President-Elect, and President, and is currently serving as President Emeritus and as a member of the NSBA Board of Directors.
Mr. Sheehan has attended and presented at numerous MASC conferences, served as Holyoke’s representative in the delegate assembly and presented on Roles and Responsibilities for Charting the Course. In addition Sheehan has attended Day on the Hill, National School Board Association (NSBA) Annual Conferences, the NSBA Advocacy Institute and the NSBA Leadership Symposium. Sheehan also represented Massachusetts on the Regional Nominating Committee for the NSBA Board of Directors in October 2014, January 2015, August 2016 and August 2017. He also served the NSBA as a member of the Governance Review Committee, and this past April, Sheehan represented was elected as a Northeast Region representative on the NSBA Board of Directors.
On the School Committee Mr. Sheehan has been elected by his peers for six consecutive years to serve as the Vice- Chair. In this role he develops meeting agendas, leads the committee and works with the Receiver to set the mission and goals of the Holyoke Public Schools. Prior to being elected the School Committee never approved a balanced budget but due to Mr. Sheehan’s leadership they have had a balanced budget for the past five years. A major goal of Sheehan’s is to have the graduation rate of the Holyoke Public School improve during his tenure. With the administration he worked to set goals and create a plan that would encompass the entire community to increase the graduation rate in a four year period.
Aside from serving on the Holyoke School Committee Sheehan works in an urban school district in the Office of Instruction as an Analyst where he works with the Chief Instructional Officer and multiple academic directors in managing budgets, working with vendors and procuring supplies and curriculum for the district.
Mr. Sheehan is deeply involved in his community where he served as a member of the Board of Directors for the Children’s Museum at Holyoke and is currently the President of the St. Patrick’s Committee of Holyoke. He is also a member of the Friends of the Holyoke Public Schools, the Holyoke Democratic Committee, and the Holyoke Lodge of Elks #902. In January 2013, Mr. Sheehan was recognized by The Republican/MassLive as Best Local Politician. He is a member of the Association for Supervision and Curriculum Development (ASCD) and the American Society for Public Administration. In February of 2017 Mr. Sheehan was honored to be named a 40 Under 40 by the Irish Echo Magazine.
Mr. Sheehan is a graduate of Franklin Pierce University; he has a graduate certificate in Educational Policy and a Master’s in Public Policy from the University of Massachusetts Dartmouth. He resides in Holyoke with his partner, Dr. Michael Dodge.