Meredith Hurley is the Director of Public Health & Clinical Services for the Town of Winthrop, a small community of about 18,500 residents just north of Boston that sits on a peninsula in Boston Harbor. As a registered nurse, she has spent more than 12 years working at Boston Children’s Hospital as an inpatient neuroscience nurse. In 2014, Meredith transitioned to community health as the public health nurse in Winthrop before working also as the school nurse at Winthrop High School until taking over as Director in 2018.
During her tenure in public and community health, Meredith has worked diligently with first responders to develop a successful SUD program named CLEAR (Community and Law Enforcement Assisted Recovery) while also building out a Crisis Intervention Team to address mental health needs of residents. In addition to mental health disorders and SUD, the Winthrop Public Health Department is focused on emergency management/response, communicable disease prevention, and environmental health issues. As a small department of only 2 employees, working collaboratively with stakeholders and academia has been invaluable to increase capacity in these areas. Meredith is also enrolled in the MPH program at UMASS Amherst.