Today, Micho Spring is without a doubt one of Boston’s most accomplished and unique political and corporate trailblazers. As Chair of Weber Shandwick’s Global Corporate Practice and President of the firm’s New England region, Spring is an innovator and expert in the field of media and public relations, strategic and corporate communications and reputation management.

 

Her accomplishments at a young age are incredibly noteworthy. However, what defines Micho Spring as a multi-faceted trailblazer is the fact that she acquired, and superbly excelled, at these positions of political influence at a time when someone like her had never before reached such heights in Boston city government.

 

Born in Cuba, Spring fled the Castro regime as a child in 1960 with her parents, settling in New York city and eventually landing in Boston; a city that is culturally and racially much different than today. It was a time that posed certain challenges to someone like her amid the city’s atmosphere in those days.

 

“I had the trifecta: I was young, a woman and Hispanic," said Spring,

 

“When I became Chief of Staff at City Hall, there had been a lot of young people before me that had the job, but not women and certainly not Hispanics. I was keenly aware of that. I remember arriving at City Hall and at that time it was a white Irish male bastion; and a young woman in her 20’s who was Hispanic and whose name they couldn’t pronounce was really quite a cultural affront to the establishment. (Mayor) Kevin White was way ahead of his time and very much a part of the generation of politicians that started empowering minorities.”

 

Spring’s ability and strength to navigate those politically turbulent waters was learned early on, when her family traversed across more dangerous waters in a search for freedom not found in her native Cuba.

 

“I was 10-years old when we left Cuba,” she said.

 

“It was traumatic leaving [my homeland] because we left in a hurry. All the schools were being closed and children my age were being sent to the countryside to pioneer schools to be 'retrained' by the new Castro government. My parents decided overnight that we were not going to start the school year and we left at the end of August in 1960; thinking we were leaving for six months because we believed the government in Cuba would not last."

 

“We left with nothing and started a whole new life,” Spring continued.

 

“For me, I barely spoke English and everything that was familiar to me changed overnight. We experienced the fear of not being able to say goodbye to anyone and not being able to tell people you were leaving because there was such fear all around at that point.”

 

According to Spring, she and her family came to an America that was in some ways contradictory in its welcome. On one hand, she describes those who seemed wary of immigrants from a country culturally unknown to some in the U.S. On the other hand, the political climate of the early 1960’s between the U.S. and the Castro regime afforded the family, and those like them, some degree of understanding.

 

“I remember being asked in school at age 10, if Cubans lived in trees,” Spring said.

 

“They just had no concept of my background or of my country. It was just, ‘Who are these people who are invading our lives here?’ because there were a lot of Cubans who arrived at the same time.”

“On the other hand, you have to take into account that we were victims of the Cold War,” Spring continued.

 

“We were welcomed as victims of a revolution that the U.S. was very much in opposition to. I’ve got to say I shudder when I think of immigrants’ experiences today because, at that time [due to] the Cold War, we were welcomed in a way that I don’t think a lot of refugees and immigrants who come here today are welcomed. I do think there was a certain status we had which made it a little easier.”

 

As a young girl in a new land, learning a new language, Spring credits her strong parents with providing her with the inner tools they themselves possessed. They helped strengthen and develop the resolve and character that Spring needed then and later carried into her adult life and career.

 

“My father was a doctor and I think from the way he practiced medicine, I learned my devotion to public service,” she said proudly.

 

“My mother was an incredibly tenacious and courageous woman,” Spring continued, “and she was a natural public relations person, so I certainly inherited a lot from her.

 

Equipped with this strong upbringing and an ambitious spirit, Spring grew up in New York and began working within then Mayor John Lindsay’s administration in that city.

 

It was during this time that Spring began to sense her calling to become active in assisting those dedicated to reinvigorating America's cities which had, in many cases, fallen into decline.

 

“American cities were dying in the 70’s. There were cities where we had all sorts of turbulence, particularly in New York. Large scale public protests broke out from anti-Vietnam war demonstrators to riots in the streets after Martin Luther King and Bobby Kennedy were killed. It was in that context that I became incredibly attracted to the whole movement to save cities.

 

It was amid that tumultuous climate of unrest and change that Spring came to Boston to attend Harvard University’s Kennedy School of Government. 

 

Upon graduation and still in her twenties, she began working within the Kevin White administration and on the ground floor of helping to affect significant change in Boston

 

“I came in working at City Hall right after busing,” said Spring, “which was like a civil war had just taken place. I was able to see where government could be effective, especially if you look at the Boston of today and so much of it has to do with very wise measures.  This city has been opened by very smart public policy.”

 

Spring’s commitment to help improve Boston did not go unnoticed by her boss, Mayor Kevin White. Her drive helped her to not only advance her professional career but also, by extension, opened doors for later generations of women, minorities and Latinos to follow to this very day.

 

"(Mayor) Kevin White was known for giving opportunities to young people,” said Spring.