A life-long resident of Peabody, Beverley Griffin Dunne is now in her 20th year as an elected member of the Peabody School Committee. Her service and interest in working for the improvement and protection of public education began long before that, when she served during her high school years as a member of the first Student Advisory Board in Massachusetts.
Beverley takes the words of her City’s namesake, George Peabody, to heart: “Education – A debt due from present to future generations”. Her commitment to education has also been demonstrated through her representation for the past six years as the Peabody representative on the Essex North Shore Agricultural & Technical School Committee, where she presently serves as Vice-Chair. She also serves as the Chair of the Admissions Subcommittee.
Beverley’s involvement with MASC began as soon as she became a school committee member. She has served every year as the Peabody delegate to the MASC Delegate Assembly. The advocacy work of MASC has been a particular interest of Beverley’s, and during her tenure she has attended 19 of the past Day on the Hill events. Seven years ago, Beverley became a member of the MASC Board of Directors serving as Chair of Division I until her election in November 2023 to the MASC Executive Committee as the Association’s Secretary-Treasurer. She has served as a member of the Policy Subcommittee, Investment Subcommittee, Regional Schools Subcommittee, Nominating Committee, and has served as a facilitator at the Annual Conference. Beverley has attended the NSBA Equity and Advocacy Symposium and NSBA Conferences and Con- ventions. Beverley has never forgotten her roots and continues to advocate strongly for strengthening student leadership in addition to always advocating for public schools. She continues to advocate for increased opportunities for students to obtain vocation education in vocational schools as well as comprehensive high schools.
Beverley is a graduate of Peabody Veterans Memorial High School, Northeastern University, and Vermont Law School. A practicing attorney, Beverley is a solo practitioner concentrating in general practice, mental health law, probate and estates law, education law, military issues and government and policy issues.
Beverley is very active in her community and serves on several Boards of Directors and City committees as well as Military organizations and boards. She is presently the Chair of the Welch School Building Committee and is responsible for the completion of this $32M MSBA project, and served as Chair of the Higgins School Building Committee–a $92M MSBA project now completed. Beverley was awarded the MASC Lifetime Achievement Award, the Pride of Peabody Award, is the recipient of a Navy Letter of Appreciation for her service as a Navy Ombudsman, and she and her family were Navy Family of the Year Finalists for the National Military Family Association. She was recently awarded Peabody’s Mary Upton Ferrin Award.
Beverley is a proud military spouse. During the course of three decades, she has served her community and served and ran for office during her husband’s combat deployments while keeping everything on track at home. Married to Robert Dunne, a retired Federal Agent and a recently retired US Navy Mustang, Beverley and Bob are the parents of four wonderful children – a son and three daughters and now two sons-in-law. Each of their children have carried forth their family dedication to service with their career choices, a fact of which Bev and Bob are especially proud.