Jean G. McMurray

Chief Executive Officer, Worcester County Food Bank 

Since 1998, Jean has served as Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of Worcester County Food Bank (WCFB), providing leadership and a comprehensive vision to all areas of WCFB’s advocacy and operations. Prior to becoming CEO, she was the Agency Outreach Coordinator from 1995 to 1997. Since assuming the role as CEO, Jean has guided the organization and its network of food pantries, community meal programs, and shelters to tremendous successes. Under her leadership, WCFB has increased the scope of its anti-hunger work, deepened community partnerships, established the Fund to End Hunger at the Greater Worcester Community Foundation, and built an impressive advocacy program, including the Worcester Food Policy Council, all focused on WCFB’s goal of providing food for people today while working toward creating hunger-free and healthy communities for tomorrow.

Jean is a recognized leader in the anti-hunger arena and Worcester County and serves as a member of the board of directors of Project Bread, the state’s leading anti-hunger organization. She has a passion for social change and food justice in the United States and around the world. Previous to WCFB, she worked as a counselor at a shelter for homeless families in Worcester, as a consultant to the Central American Peace Scholarship Program at the United States Agency for International Development and as a social scientist in sustainable agriculture at the Center for Tropical Agriculture Research and Training in Costa Rica.

Jean was born and raised in the Blackstone Valley by parents who were public school educators and who instilled in their children a lifelong commitment to community service. Jean earned a bachelor’s degree in international relations from Eisenhower College, the liberal arts college of the Rochester Institute of Technology.

Upon her appointment to the UMass Memorial Medical Group Board of Trustees, Jean shared, “I am happy to support the mission of UMass Memorial Health in any way that I can.”