Dr. Eric Goralnick has gone from sprinting toward the smoke on Boylston Street to walking the halls of Beacon Hill, and he says those two worlds are tightly linked. The newly sworn-in Massachusetts Veterans Services secretary points to his years in emergency medicine, including the frantic moments after the Boston Marathon bombings, as the lens through which he plans to run the agency.
He was inside the Prudential Center when the bombs exploded and took off on foot toward Boylston Street to treat the wounded, a scene he says still shapes how he thinks about service and sacrifice. That day, he says, will stay with him as he works on behalf of veterans across the commonwealth.
Goralnick, who officially took over the job at the end of February, revisited those memories in an interview with NBC Boston, recalling, "I just ran towards Boylston Street." He told the outlet that he returned the following year to run the Marathon himself, a personal tribute to those who were killed and injured.
From Emergency Medicine To State Office
Before stepping into the veterans cabinet, Goralnick built a long career in emergency medicine at Brigham and Women’s Hospital, where he serves as medical director for emergency preparedness and the Brigham Health Access Center. His hospital profile notes that he graduated from the U.S. Naval Academy, served as a Surface Warfare Officer and was among those who responded in the immediate aftermath of the Marathon bombings, giving him both clinical and large-scale disaster-response experience. Brigham and Women's Hospital outlines his background in detail.
Taking Over During A Rebuild
Goralnick is walking into the job at a moment when the Executive Office of Veterans Services is in the middle of a substantial rebuild following the pandemic, with state leaders focused on care, staffing and infrastructure upgrades. The Healey administration has flagged major projects such as a new Holyoke veterans home, a federally supported effort backed by roughly $263 million in federal funding and scheduled to open in 2026, as part of a broader push to modernize veterans care across Massachusetts. Recent initiatives and the scope of that overhaul are laid out by Mass.gov.
Marathon Ties And Local Faces
The NBC Boston interview also spotlighted another Marathon fixture, Dr. Howard Weinstein, a 79-year-old Mass. General pediatric oncologist who plans to run his 33rd Boston Marathon and has raised nearly $2 million for charity over the years. Those familiar faces and long-running traditions underline how tightly the Marathon is woven into Boston’s civic identity and how it overlaps with the city’s sense of duty to veterans. For a veterans secretary who has both clinical credentials and hands-on disaster experience from Marathon Day, that history carries particular weight.
What He Says He'll Prioritize
Goralnick says he intends to lean on his emergency-preparedness skill set to widen access to care, bolster staffing at veterans homes and intensify work on veteran housing and outreach statewide. The Executive Office of Veterans Services has already pointed to efforts such as new facilities, expanded access to benefits and an "End Veteran Homelessness" campaign that officials expect to continue under the new secretary, according to Mass.gov.
For many veterans and families who remember exactly where they were on Marathon Day, Goralnick’s trajectory from treating victims on Boylston Street to shaping policy for veterans can feel like a product of both trauma and resilience. His challenge now is to turn those lived experiences into concrete improvements, with the new Holyoke facility and statewide reforms serving as the first big tests of how he plans to deliver for the commonwealth’s veterans.
