Murphy was born on April 30, 1960 in Omaha, Nebraska. She grew up in Daytona Beach, Florida, the only child of Shirley and Edward Murphy (1919–2005). Her father served during World War II, and retired as a Lieutenant Colonel in the United States Army Reserve after 27 years. He also worked as a residential real estate developer. Her mother worked as a public elementary school teacher.

After high school, Healey attended Harvard University with the help of a substantial scholarship. There, she served as the membership secretary of the Harvard Republicans Club and produced six plays. Healey graduated from Harvard in 1982 with an A.B. in government.

Following the primaries, a TV ad by Healey criticized her gubernatorial rival Deval Patrick for serving as the lawyer for the killer of a Florida highway patrol officer gunned down on a rural road. In 1985, Patrick, then a lawyer for the NAACP Legal Defense Fund, worked to reverse the death sentence imposed on killer Carl Ray Songer. “Her approach is to protect the victims and Deval Patrick’s approach is always to protect convicted criminals,” said Healey’s campaign manager Tim O’Brien. Now, under Florida law, Songer is eligible for parole.

In 1986, Healey joined Abt Associates, based in Cambridge, Massachusetts, where she performed policy research for the U.S. Department of Justice related to child abuse and neglect, domestic violence, gang violence, victim and witness intimidation and the prosecution of drug crimes. Healey worked to support her husband’s education at Harvard Law School until 1987, and then remained a consultant at Abt Associates until 1997.

After graduating from Harvard, Healey was awarded a Rotary International Scholarship and received a Ph.D. in political science and law from Trinity College in Dublin, Ireland in 1991. While in Dublin, she met fellow Rotary Scholar and Harvard alum Sean Healey, whom she married in 1985.

Her first foray into politics occurred in 1998, when she ran for state representative in the 6th Essex District – representing her hometown of Beverly, Massachusetts – challenging incumbent Democrat Michael P. Cahill. After losing the heavily democratic district in 1998, Healey challenged Cahill again in 2000, but was met with the same result. After Healey’s loss in 1998, she was elected to the Republican State Committee. Next, Healey taught social policy as an adjunct professor at Endicott College in 2001.

Despite losing her first two elections, Healey became popular among Republicans and was elected to the post of chairwoman of the Massachusetts Republican State Committee in 2001; this made Healey only the second woman to head the Massachusetts GOP. Soon after beginning her term as Chairwoman, the Massachusetts GOP began courting Mitt Romney – then the President and CEO of the 2002 Winter Olympics – to take over acting-Governor Jane Swift’s position as the Republican candidate in the upcoming gubernatorial election. Healey discreetly flew to Salt Lake to meet with Romney and, soon after the Olympics, Romney expressed his intention to challenge Swift in a Republican primary.

After Swift exited the race, Romney endorsed Healey in her primary race for lieutenant governor against former U.S. Senate candidate and former party chairman Jim Rappaport, ultimately winning by a thirty-point margin. The Romney-Healey team was ultimately successful, and Healey was elected lieutenant governor on November 5, 2002.

Kerry Murphy Healey was sworn into office as the lieutenant governor of Massachusetts on January 2, 2003. She, along with Governor Mitt Romney, opted not to take a salary during her four-year term.

In mid-January 2003, the Massachusetts State Legislature approved expanded budget-cutting powers for the Romney administration. As Romney’s second-in-command, Healey was the liaison between the local government and the state house, working to reduce the burden of cuts to state aid to municipal governments.

Healey was credited with creating a package of legislative proposals, called the Municipal Relief Act, that reduced expensive and burdensome state mandates, easing the pain of cuts to state aid by about $75 million. The administration closed the budget gap, and ended fiscal year 2004 with a budget surplus of $700 million. Official state figures showed that Massachusetts ended fiscal year 2005 with a $594.4 million surplus. In 2006, the surplus was officially $720.9 million according to state statistics. Additionally, the administration left the state with a “rainy day” stabilization fund with a balance of $2.1 billion.

In an interview in 2007, Healey cited her greatest accomplishment as lieutenant governor as the work that she did to ensure the passage of Melanie’s Law, a 2005 law that strengthened penalties for drunk driving in order to keep repeat offenders off the road. The law was met with a 44% drop in repeat drunk-driving offenses in its first year. The number of fatalities as a result of drunk driving dropped 27% between 2005 and 2009.

In 2008, Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice appointed Healey to the Executive Committee of the Public-Private Partnership for Justice Reform in Afghanistan (PPP). The partnership aims to promote a democratic rule of law in Afghanistan by providing scholarships, training, and other educational resources to Afghan legal professionals. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton reappointed Healey in 2009. Healey chaired the PPP’s Afghan Women Lawyers’ Training Conference held in California and Washington, DC, and in 2010, she led the Afghan Defense Lawyer Training Program in Boston and Washington, DC. Healey currently serves as president of the Board of the Friends of the PPP, a 501(c)(3) non-profit that assists the PPP in achieving its goals in carrying out its work with Afghan judges and lawyers, as well as fundraising.

Healey was also a Special Advisor and the Foreign Policy Coordinator for Romney for President. In 2008, she was a Senior Advisor for Romney for President, coordinating teams of expert advisors on domestic and foreign policy issues. Healey also serves on the Advisory Boards of the Harvard Kennedy School’s Tubman Institute on State and Local Government and the MIT Collaborative’s Healthcare Visionary Council. She currently serves or has served on numerous non-profit boards including the Pioneer Institute, the National Center on Family Homelessness, Milton Academy, the American University of Afghanistan, National State Leadership Council, Caritas Cubana, and the Commonwealth Shakespeare Company. In April 2012, she was elected to the post of National Committeewoman by the Massachusetts Republican Party.

In 2009, Healey partnered with Ambassador Swanee Hunt to co-chair the Political Parity project. This nonpartisan initiative works to increase the number of women in high-level state and national political offices, through programs including the Media Accountability Project and the Women’s Appointment Project. Political Parity has stated that its goal is to “double the number of women at the highest levels of U.S. government by 2022.” To achieve this goal, Political Parity performs research for candidates, facilitates networking opportunities, assists in fundraising, and encourages female candidates to pursue office and coordinate and strategize with one another. The project is completely nonpartisan; Political Parity does not endorse, fund, or train potential candidates.

On August 28, 2009, The Boston Globe reported that Healey was considering running in the special election for the US Senate seat formerly held by Edward M. Kennedy. On September 6, 2009, Healey announced that she would not run for the vacant post.

In 2010, Healey was the creator and host of Shining City, which was featured on the New England Sports Network. The show featured and celebrated science, technology, and innovation in the New England area.

On March 24, 2013, Babson College announced that Healey has been named President of the college. She became the thirteenth President of Babson and the first woman to hold the position on July 1, 2013. Babson College is a private business school in Wellesley, Massachusetts, established in 1919. Its central focus is on entrepreneurship education, and it is often ranked the most prestigious entrepreneurship college in the United States. In 2017, U.S. News & World Report ranked Babson the number one undergraduate college for entrepreneurship for the 21st consecutive time and the number one MBA program for entrepreneurship for the 24th consecutive year. Babson has also been recognized for its return on investment and alumni earnings.

At Babson, Healey has also focused on improving the school’s financial standing. From June 30, 2013 to June 30, 2017, Babson’s endowment grew from $275 million to $391.5 million. Both Moody’s and S&P upgraded the school’s bond ratings in July 2015. In Healey’s first two years, Babson created three endowed chairs for professors; the college had not created a new endowed chair since 2008.

In her second year of being president, TIME’s Money Magazine rated Babson as the No. 1 college based on metrics of education quality, affordability, and alumni earnings. In 2015, Money Magazine ranked Babson second, behind Stanford. Applications at the college increased to a record 7,515 for the Class of 2019, an increase of 21%, and the class had the highest standardized test scores and lowest acceptance rate in Babson history. Diversity has also improved under Healey, and women comprise 54% of the Class of 2019, outnumbering men for the first time; this is up from 47% in 2014.

As president of Babson, Healey has worked to expand the college’s global reach. In 2017, 28% of incoming students were international, representing 43 countries. Babson has twice been recognized by Forbes as the number one U.S. college for international students. Healey established a Global Scholars program to provide need-based scholarships for international students and launched a Global Entrepreneur in Residence program. The college has also established new satellite locations in Boston, Massachusetts and Miami, Florida.