Politics

Boston’s equity chief resigns amid rumored interest in mayor’s race

Karilyn Crockett's last day as the city's first equity chief is Friday.

By Nik DeCosta-Klipa

March 4, 2021

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A fifth candidate entered the 2021 race Thursday to replace Boston Mayor Marty Walsh.

Could a sixth soon be on the way?

Karilyn Crockett, the city’s first equity chief, is resigning from her post on Friday after just over eight months on the job. And according to GBH, which first reported Crockett’s resignation, sources close to the 47-year-old Dorchester native say that she is weighing a run to be Boston mayor.

Crocket, who was on leave from her assistant professor position at MIT to lead the city’s Office of Equity, did not immediately respond to a request for comment. An automatic reply from her city email Thursday said that she had “completed my service as Chief of Equity for the City of Boston but our work steadily continues.”

In her cabinet-level position, Crocket was tasked with leading the Walsh administration’s efforts to “embed equity into all city work.” In a recent interview with Boston.com, Crockett said the job consisted of meeting internally with city departments and agencies and building partnerships with groups on work to deliberately address systemic racial inequalities.

According to GBH, she wrote in her resignation letter that she was “grateful to have played even a small part in leading this work” and highlighted the city’s newly created Office of Police Accountability and Transparency, the city’s Racial Equity Fund, and the work on a “Health Equity Now Plan” following racial justice protests last year.

After taking the job last June, Crockett noted that the racial wealth gap — particularly glaring in Boston — is “a global and a national issue.”

“So the question is, what can you do at the local level? And what can the mayor do?” she said at the time.