About Kenzie Bok
Kenzie Bok is a lifelong Bostonian who grew up in the small downtown neighborhood of Bay Village. She cares passionately about making Boston a great city for people from all walks of life and all stages of life to flourish and put down roots. With a background in affordable housing, budget analysis, and civic engagement, Councilor Bok was elected to represent District 8 on the Boston City Council on November 5, 2019. Her district includes Mission Hill, Longwood, Audubon Circle, Fenway, Kenmore, Back Bay, Beacon Hill, and the West End.
Councilor Bok currently serves as the Chair of Boston’s Covid-19 Recovery Committee and the Chair of the City Services and Innovation Technology Committee.
In her first term as Chair of the Ways and Means Committee, Councilor Bok led the Boston City Council in their successful passage of the City budget, securing a reallocation of police overtime funds to vital city resources and programming. She worked with the Mayor's administration and Councilor Lydia Edwards to pass an amendment to the Boston Zoning Code to Affirmatively Further Fair Housing in Boston. She also organized and led a Veteran's Day rally which successfully prevented the MBTA's proposed service reduction of the Green Line's E Branch. Additionally, she secured a commitment from the City's assessing department to reevaluate the value of tax-exempt property held by Boston's universities, hospitals, and cultural institutions.
Prior to her election, Councilor Bok was the Senior Advisor for Policy and Planning at the Boston Housing Authority. She also previously served as Budget Director for another city council office. As a citizen, Bok helped lead the successful 2016 ballot initiative campaign to enact the Community Preservation Act (CPA) in Boston. She serves on the board of the Massachusetts Affordable Housing Alliance (MAHA) and on the vestry of Trinity Church in Copley Square. Bok also formerly held community leadership roles as part of the Greater Boston Interfaith Organization (GBIO), the Bay Village Neighborhood Association, the Back Bay Gateway CAC, the Spark Boston Council, the Boston Ward 5 Democratic Committee, and the Democratic State Committee. She lives on Beacon Hill, where her family has been deeply involved in neighborhood life for more than 65 years.
After graduating from Harvard College, Bok earned an M.Phil and a Ph.D. in History from the University of Cambridge in England as a Marshall Scholar. She holds a lectureship at Harvard University, where she has taught courses on “Justice in Housing” and the philosopher John Rawls.