Biography

Elissa Wright is serving her third term as state representative from Groton’s 41st District. She serves as Assistant Majority Leader, vice chair of the Finance, Revenue and Bonding Committee, and as a member of the Environment and Judiciary Committees.

Elissa co-chaired the Tax Policy Subcommittee of the Smart Growth Task Force and the Revenue Streams and Economic Development Subcommittee of the Municipal Opportunities & Regional Efficiencies (MORE) Commission.

Elissa has been active in government and the community for many years. She previously served the citizens of Groton as a member of the Town Council, Board of Education, and Representative Town Meeting, and as a member and secretary of the oversight committee of the town’s historic Jabez Smith House museum.

Involved in local civic matters from an early age, Elissa was active in establishing Haley Farm as a state park and Bluff Point as a coastal reserve; in securing Groton’s successful $8 million bond referendum for significant open space land acquisitions; and in preserving and protecting the Branford House, a Gilded Age mansion at UConn’s Avery Point campus, and a significant portion of the campus from privatization.

Elissa lives in the village of Noank where she grew up in a family with a long tradition of dedicated public service. Her father, the late Mortimer Wright, was elected state representative in 1970, and for many years served as chairman of the Groton Democratic Town Committee.

An attorney, Elissa was previously a law clerk to Connecticut Supreme Court Justice Ellen Ash Peters, and an editor of the Connecticut Law Review. She served as a legislative aide in the House Majority Office for then Speaker James Kennelly and Majority Leader William A. O’Neill, later Governor of Connecticut.

A graduate of UConn Law School, Elissa holds a master of laws degree (LL.M) in taxation from New York University Law School, and B.A. and M.A. degrees from Connecticut College.

Her son, Matthew Hemond, is an Assistant District Attorney for the Commonwealth of Massachusetts. Her daughter, Elizabeth Hemond, is a doctoral candidate in biology at Northeastern University.

Updated January 31, 2012