Mayor Michelle Wu Appoints Clare Kelly as Chief of Staff

Mayor Michelle Wu today announced Clare Kelly as her next Chief of Staff starting November 17, 2025. Kelly currently serves as the Director of Intergovernmental Relations (IGR) for Mayor Michelle Wu. Kelly will be stepping into her new role replacing current Chief of Staff Tiffany Chu, who has served the City of Boston in this role since February 2022. Over the next month, Chu and Kelly will be working closely together as she begins transitioning into the role.

“I am so grateful to Chief Tiffany Chu for her leadership, hard work, and dedication over this term, helping to build a strong culture of collaboration and entrepreneurship in city government to address our most pressing issues,” said Mayor Michelle Wu. “I am delighted to welcome Clare Kelly as our new Chief of Staff for the City of Boston. Clare has been a key leader in our administration over the last four years, and her decades of service in government and community will help steer our continued work to make Boston a home for everyone.”

Kelly will work alongside Mayor Wu and lead the Mayor’s Cabinet in coordinating and delivering results. She will be responsible for overseeing daily operations and long-term initiatives of the Mayor’s Office, and building collaboration between City departments, community members and local organizations outside City Hall, and other levels of government. 

“I’m honored to step into the role of Chief of Staff to continue supporting Mayor Michelle Wu’s vision to make Boston a home for everyone,” said incoming Chief Clare Kelly. “Tiffany Chu has been an incredible leader over the past four years and I’m grateful for everything she has taught me and brought to our administration.” 

Kelly has served as the Wu administration’s Director of Intergovernmental Relations since January 2022 and brings a track record of twenty years of leadership and advocacy in Massachusetts. She worked for Governor Deval Patrick from 2005 until 2011, when she became the Executive Director of the Massachusetts Democratic Party. Before joining the Wu administration in January of 2022, Kelly served as Executive Director of the Environmental League of MA Action Fund. She lives in Jamaica Plain with her husband Zach and son Malcolm and twins, Eliza and Zoe.

“Serving as Chief of Staff has been the most rewarding challenge of my life – it’s been an honor and privilege to work alongside the Mayor, our team, and our residents to make city government more creative, connected, and compassionate,” said Chief Tiffany Chu. “I’m proud of all that we’ve accomplished together in this first term, and I couldn’t be more excited to hand the baton to Clare Kelly, whose leadership and experience will continue driving bold, meaningful progress for Boston.”

During her tenure as Chief of Staff, Chu focused on translating Mayor Wu’s vision into action – mobilizing teams across city government to deliver tangible results for Boston residents. She helped the Mayor build a strong leadership team, including hiring 15 Cabinet Chiefs, and operationalized the Mayor’s priorities, particularly across climate, planning, transportation, arts and culture, community safety, and more. Chu is most proud of bringing an entrepreneurial mindset and design expertise to City Hall – championing new ways to cut red tape and solve long-standing issues, from prioritizing new systems for 311 and basic city services to launching Boston’s multi-year zoning reform and permitting transformation efforts.

Inside City Hall, she built a powerful culture around people management and collaboration, introducing best practices such as creating the City’s first People Operations Cabinet, focusing on professional development, and driving stronger hiring and recruiting processes to reduce vacancies and sustain a high-performing workforce.

Before serving as Mayor Wu’s first Chief of Staff, Chu was the former CEO & Co-founder of Remix, a software platform for transportation planning used by over 500 cities worldwide. After transitioning this role to Kelly in November, Chu plans to take a sabbatical and spend more time with her family.