LYNN ― In less than a week, the city will have a new first lady, Katherine Rushfirth, after Mayor-elect Jared Nicholson is inaugurated on Jan. 3.
Although the mayor’s wife usually does not have official responsibilities like presidential spouses do, Rushfirth is ready to jump in.
Rushfirth, 37, said she had not thought about her possible role as a mayor’s wife during the election campaign. However, she has been practicing midwifery at Massachusetts General Hospital for the last 10 years, has worked at the community health center and has spent the last two years on the COVID-19 frontlines.
“I suppose if any of that experience or expertise is of use to the city, to the health center, to the public-health department, I obviously would be happy to be of service in that way,” said Rushfirth.
Rushfirth has been doing prenatal care, labor and delivery care, postpartum care, family planning, and gynecology at Mass-General’s Chelsea HealthCare Center. Moving to Lynn with Nicholson in 2014 meant that Rushfirth would be living in a community where a lot of her patients are located.
“A decent number of my patients at Chelsea were from Lynn,” said Rushfirth. “I also liked the idea of living in the community that I was working in.”
To engage with her new community in Lynn, Rushfirth leaned on her area of expertise and gave presentations on nutrition and self-care after giving birth to mom groups at the Family and Children’s Services.
Rushfirth is very passionate about her profession, which dates back hundreds of years, and puts her on the forefront of the political discussions about women’s health — including access to birth control, food and housing.
“I always joke to people it’s like where feminism meets health care,” said Rushfirth. “These are the things that play out in terms of people’s health and of people’s pregnancies.”
In addition to her clinical work, Rushfirth chairs the Legislation Committee of the Massachusetts Affiliate of the American College of Nurse Midwives, where she does legislative work around midwifery care and women’s health care. She and her colleagues are working on getting equal reimbursement for midwives compared to physicians for the same service.
“Midwives are usually the ones who are staffing the state’s community health centers. So when we are not reimbursed equitably, it means those community health centers have less funds for their women’s health services,” she said.
Community health and health-policy work is where Rushfirth sees herself transitioning in the near future.
Although Rushfirth had a full-time job and a toddler, she took an active part in Nicholson’s campaign.
“I would have been like a sounding board and it goes both ways; Jared has also heard a lot of birth stories which I think makes him a better man,” said Rushfirth.
While knocking on doors, she learned that residents of Lynn really loved living in this unique, diverse city, and had similar concerns about the systems that needed to be improved. A lot of people, regardless of whether they were parents, wanted Lynn’s children to go to world-class schools, Rushfirth said.
“I always felt very optimistic after a day of knocking, that actually most people have the same goals for the city,” said Rushfirth.
Campaigning turned into a family affair, with Rushfirth’s parents and brother knocking on doors for Nicholson. Rushfirth said she is very close with her family.
She was born in the United Kingdom to English parents, and was 6 years old when they moved to the U.S. Growing up, she, her parents and two younger siblings were very close because they didn’t have any other family in America.
Their grandmother would visit for Christmas, which made the holiday really special. Their “very English” Christmas, although small and intimate, would be filled with mince pies, sausage rolls and Christmas pudding, Rushfirth said.
Rushfirth grew up in Sudbury — the same town as Nicholson.
“We were kind of in each other’s sphere,” said Rushfirth.
Although Nicholson was in the same grade as Rushfirth’s sister, they hadn’t met until the summer of 2006, when they both came home from college and were doing summer internships in Boston.
She and Nicholson ran into each other at the Commuter Rail platform on an early summer morning and struck up a conversation. They got married almost a decade later in 2017.
What stuck out to her about 20-year-old Nicholson was his kindness and thoughtfulness. She also noted his passion for work, his engagement and his incredible work ethic.
“We’ve been together for 15 years and I love that about him,” said Rushfirth. “He is also incredibly funny, he is very witty in a way that you wouldn’t necessarily expect.”
Despite their busy professional lives, she and Nicholson make a point to carve out time to take a weekend or a night off, reconnect, and spend time together with their now two-year-old son, Henry.
“That joy he gets from being a dad has been just a really wonderful thing to watch over the last couple years,” said Rushfirth.
She understands that Nicholson is about to take up a big and important job, which still feels a little surreal to her.
“I think Jared’s work ethic and his intelligence and his openness for feedback are setting him up well,” said Rushfirth. “I’m sure that there are going to be pretty major challenges, but I really trust that he’s the right person for it.”
Alena Kuzub can be reached at [email protected].