Francisco Urena is a Dominican-born American government official and former Marine who served as the Massachusetts Secretary of Veterans' Affairs and previously served as the Veterans' Services Officer for the cities of

Boston Boston (), officially the City of Boston, is the state capital and most populous city of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, as well as the cultural and financial center of the New England region of the United States. It is the 24th- mo ...

and Lawrence, Massachusetts.

Early life

Urena was born in the

Dominican Republic The Dominican Republic ( ; es, República Dominicana, ) is a country located on the island of Hispaniola in the Greater Antilles archipelago of the Caribbean region. It occupies the eastern five-eighths of the island, which it shares wit ...

. When he was four years old his family moved to Lawrence, Massachusetts. However, increasing violence in the city caused them to relocate to South Florida. Urena graduated from South Broward High School in 1998.

Military career

After graduating from high school 1998, Urena joined the United States Marine Corps. In 2001 he was accepted into the Marine Embassy Guard Program. Following the

September 11 attacks The September 11 attacks, commonly known as 9/11, were four coordinated suicide terrorist attacks carried out by al-Qaeda against the United States on Tuesday, September 11, 2001. That morning, nineteen terrorists hijacked four commercia ...

, Urena requested a more active assignment, but instead was ordered to report to security school immediately. After graduating from the program, he worked as a security guard at the United States embassies in

Syria Syria ( ar, سُورِيَا or سُورِيَة, translit=Sūriyā), officially the Syrian Arab Republic ( ar, الجمهورية العربية السورية, al-Jumhūrīyah al-ʻArabīyah as-Sūrīyah), is a Western Asian country loc ...

and

Kyrgyzstan Kyrgyzstan,, pronounced or the Kyrgyz Republic, is a landlocked country in Central Asia. Kyrgyzstan is bordered by Kazakhstan to the north, Uzbekistan to the west, Tajikistan to the south, and the People's Republic of China to the east. ...

. Urena was later moved to

Iraq Iraq,; ku, عێراق, translit=Êraq officially the Republic of Iraq, '; ku, کۆماری عێراق, translit=Komarî Êraq is a country in Western Asia. It is bordered by Turkey to Iraq–Turkey border, the north, Iran to Iran–Iraq ...

's Al Anbar Governorate, where he served as a tank commander during Operation Iraqi Freedom. During a fight with insurgents, he was struck by flying glass and debris, including a piece of scrap metal that became stuck in his left cheek. Because surgery to remove the piece could leave a permanent scar, Urena has opted not to take it out. He was awarded the

Purple Heart The Purple Heart (PH) is a United States military decoration awarded in the name of the President to those wounded or killed while serving, on or after 5 April 1917, with the U.S. military. With its forerunner, the Badge of Military Merit, ...

for his injury. Urena was honorably discharged in November 2005.

Lawrence Director of Veterans' Services

After receiving his discharge, Urena returned to Lawrence. He worked as a security guard, attended

Northern Essex Community College Northern Essex Community College (NECC) is a public community college in Essex County, Massachusetts. The college serves residents of the Merrimack Valley and Southern New Hampshire. It has campuses in Haverhill and Lawrence. The college is par ...

, and volunteered in Lawrence's Veterans' Services office and at the local

public-access television Public-access television is traditionally a form of non-commercial mass media where the general public can create content television programming which is narrowcast through cable television specialty channels. Public-access television was creat ...

station. In January 2007, Mayor Michael J. Sullivan chose Urena to serve as Lawrence's Director of Veterans Services. Following the May 2007 abduction of U.S. soldiers in Iraq, Urena assisted the family of captured U.S. Army Specialist Alex Jimenez. In 2008, Urena was named Massachusetts' Veterans Services Director of the Year in part for his work with the Jimenez family.

Boston Commissioner of Veterans' Services

On September 8, 2011, Urena was named Commissioner of Veterans' Services for the City of Boston by Mayor

Thomas Menino Thomas Michael Menino (December 27, 1942 – October 30, 2014) was an American politician who served as the 53rd mayor of Boston, from 1993 to 2014. He was the city's longest-serving mayor. He was elected mayor in 1993 after first serving three ...

. In this position he oversaw this distribution of over $3.8 million a year in benefits to the city's 700-plus veterans.

Massachusetts Secretary of Veterans' Services

On January 5, 2015, Governor-elect

Charlie Baker Charles Duane Baker Jr. (born November 13, 1956) is an American politician and businessman serving as the 72nd governor of Massachusetts since 2015. A member of the Republican Party, Baker was a cabinet official under two governors of Massach ...

announced that Urena would serve as his Secretary of Veterans' Services. He was sworn in by Baker on January 8, 2015, shortly after the Governor's own inauguration. Urena resigned on June 24, 2020, the day of release of a report into the deaths of veterans from

COVID-19 Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) is a contagious disease caused by a virus, the severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2). The first known case was COVID-19 pandemic in Hubei, identified in Wuhan, China, in December ...

at the

Soldiers' Home in Holyoke The Soldiers' Home in Holyoke is a full-service veterans center and hospital located in Holyoke, Massachusetts, which maintains 247 beds in its main nursing facility, and a separate domiciliary care building with 30 full-time residents. The facil ...

Personal life

Urena resides in

East Boston East Boston, nicknamed Eastie, is a neighborhood of Boston, Massachusetts annexed by the city of Boston in 1637. Neighboring communities include Winthrop, Revere, and Chelsea. It is separated from the Boston neighborhood of Charlestown and d ...

and owns property in Lawrence. In August 2014 he married Jennifer Siegler. He has degrees from Northern Essex Community College,

University of Massachusetts Lowell The University of Massachusetts Lowell (UMass Lowell and UML) is a public research university in Lowell, Massachusetts, with a satellite campus in Haverhill, Massachusetts. It is the northernmost member of the University of Massachusetts public ...

, and

University of Massachusetts Boston The University of Massachusetts Boston (stylized as UMass Boston) is a public research university in Boston, Massachusetts. It is the only public research university in Boston and the third-largest campus in the five-campus University of Massa ...

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Urena, Francisco American politicians of Dominican Republic descent United States Marine Corps personnel of the Iraq War Dominican Republic emigrants to the United States Politicians from Boston People from Lawrence, Massachusetts Massachusetts Secretaries of Veterans' Services United States Marines University of Massachusetts Lowell alumni University of Massachusetts Boston alumni Year of birth missing (living people) Living people