Panelists

Marty Meehan is the second chancellor of the University of Massachusetts Lowell and the 14th leader of the institution and its predecessor schools, founded in the 1890s. A UMass Lowell alumnus, Meehan graduated cum laude in 1978, having studied education and political science. He received a master’s degree in public administration from Suffolk University in 1981 and a juris doctor from Suffolk University Law School in 1986. He holds honorary degrees from Green Mountain College in Vermont and UMass Lowell. Meehan served as an adjunct faculty member in political science at the University in the late 1980s. A resident of Lowell, Meehan represented the 5th Congressional District of Massachusetts in the U.S. House of Representatives from 1993 to 2007. He served on the House Armed Services and Judiciary committees. Widely respected as a reformer, he established a national reputation for his legislative leadership in reforming campaign finance laws and protecting people against the health risks in tobacco use. Among his priorities were maintaining a balanced federal budget, preserving Medicare and Social Security, supporting and strengthening the military, and supporting economic growth that is worker- and environment-friendly. Meehan is married to Ellen T. Murphy, a health-care consultant and former vice president at Lawrence General Hospital. Ellen received a Bachelor of Arts degree in 1986 from Simmons College, where she majored in international relations and French. She received a master’s in business administration in 1992 from the Darden Graduate School of Business Administration at the University of Virginia. Marty and Ellen are the parents of Robert Francis Meehan, born in 1999, and Daniel Martin Meehan, born in 2002.

Award-winning journalist Gary LaPierre is retired co-anchor of The WBZ Morning News on WBZ NewsRadio 1030.  After joining the radio station as a general assignment reporter in 1964, LaPierre has anchored the morning news each weekday on WBZ NewsRadio 1030 since 1966.  He has handled television anchor duties for various newscasts at WBZ-TV 4 since the early 1960s including anchoring the Channel 4 Noon Newscasts for several years. During his tenure with WBZ NewsRadio, LaPierre spent 15 years as the radio station’s chief investigative reporter. Throughout his distinguished career LaPierre has received numerous local and national awards for his reporting, documentary and investigative work, including on several occasions in recent years, the Edward R. Murrow Award for Best Radio Newscast presented by the Radio-Television News Directors Association, and the lifetime Achievement Award from the March of Dimes Achievement in Radio Organization.  A native of New England, LaPierre was born in Shelburne Falls, Mass.  He is a graduate of Graham Junior College and attended the University of New Hampshire and Boston University. He lives with his wife in the Greater Boston area. The couple has two sons.

Carl Stevens is an award-winning general assignment reporter for WBZ NewsRadio 1030. During his career at WBZ, Stevens received the first-ever Edward R. Murrow National Award for Writing, presented in 1999.  Stevens and the station received the prestigious 1996 Edward R. Murrow Award for Feature Reporting on a story entitled “Blue M&M’s.” Prior to joining the station in 1990, Stevens worked at WEEI Radio in Boston, WENH-TV Channel 11, the public television station in Durham, N.H., and WOKQ Radio in Dover, N.H. Born in Goshen, Ind., Stevens received a bachelor of arts degree in English from Goshen College and a master’s degree in English from the University of New Hampshire.  He currently lives in Swampscott.

Matt Murphy is an award-winning staff writer at the The Sun, covering state politics from the newspaper’s State House bureau in Boston. Murphy joined the The Sun in 2003, assigned to cover the suburban communities of Groton, Dunstable and Pepperell. He has gone on to do local and investigative reporting in Billerica and Lowell, along with covering education for the newspaper. In 2006, he was part of a team of reporters recognized with an award by the New England Press Association for their coverage of the spring flooding in the Merrimack Valley. He was honored this year by the New England Associated Press News Executives Association with the Morley S. Piper First Amendment Award for his contributions to the The Sun’s efforts to uphold the first amendment. Murphy’s writing has also appeared in the New York Daily News and Newsday. A Dracut native, Murphy graduated from St. John’s Preparatory High School in Danvers. He earned his bachelor’s degree in journalism and sociology from New York University.

Latoyia Edwards of New England Cable News
Panelist

Latoyia Edwards is the morning reporter at NECN, working with the Good Morning Live team.  Before joining the station, Edwards anchored weekday programming for the NBC affiliate WWLP-22 in Springfield.  A Dorchester native, Edwards graduated magna cum laude from Emerson College with a degree in broadcast journalism.  She began her career as a news writer for WBZ-1030AM radio, and later reported for the Fox affiliate WICZ-TV 40 in Binghamton, NY. She first anchored television for MediaOne cable news network, while also reporting as the morning drive news anchor for WILD 1090AM.  Additionally, Edwards has been an instructor at the Connecticut School of Broadcasting.  In 2002, Edwards was crowned Miss Massachusetts and competed in the Miss USA pageant.  She greatly enjoys volunteering with youth groups, and resides in Greater Boston with her husband and daughter.