About Tom: Biography and Experience

Roache was born in Marshfield, Massachusetts.  He moved to the Norfolk 9th (Medfield) as a child.  After graduating from Medfield Public High School with honors, Roache earned a Bachelor’s degree from Brown University in Providence, RI.  Later, Roache went on to earn his MA in Ethics from the University of London.

After receiving his BA, Tom began a career in public service and has since worked on a variety of economic and social development initiatives around the United States and the globe.  His first position was as Director of Programs and Operations at a not-for-profit organization in one of top-ten poorest counties in the United States (in Texas).  There, Tom worked in collaboration with local, county and state officials and groups to create and administer a variety of education programs for adults, young people and school children.  (These included GED, computer literacy and homework assistance programs.)  Additionally, Tom acted as a community liaison between local residents and local officials during the planning stages of infrastructure improvement projects (street paving, water and sewer).

Following his projects in Texas, Tom worked as a project manager at an international development firm in Washington D.C.  Tom’s department operated as a consultant team to not-for-profit organizations in over sixty countries around the world.   Tom’s work focused on assisting organizations to scale up their operations while lowering costs.  Client organizations were working to deploy innovative solutions to pressing problems in some of the worst-off regions of the world (problem areas included housing, waste and recycling, job creation and economic stimulus, job training and education).

Following this project in Washington, Tom elected to continue his education.  On an education grant, Tom trained as a dispute mediator in the Middle East in 2006.  When war broke in neighboring Lebanon, Tom gained entry into Beirut; during the war he worked to administer a psychological relief program for child refugees that had witnessed the destruction of their homes and/or the death of their loved ones. 

In the fall of 2006, Tom earned his MA in Ethics from the University of London. His dissertation examined the rights of prisoners held in detention facilities such as Guantanamo Bay.

Today, Tom continues to reside in Medfield, MA.  When he is not campaigning door-to-door throughout the 9th district, Tom works for Apple Inc. as a small business consultant and also as a contract laborer for a local manufacturing facility to fund this campaign.