Geoffrey Beckwith

Geoff Beckwith is the Executive Director of the Massachusetts Municipal Association (MMA). In this post, Beckwith is the MMA’s CEO as well as the President/CEO of the Massachusetts Interlocal Insurance Association (MIIA), the MMA’s municipal insurance program. He has been working with CURP on the Revenue Sharing and the Future of our Massachusetts Economy project.

Prior to assuming his position as Executive Director of the MMA in February 1992, Beckwith held a number of posts: Director of Work Environment, Environment, and Technology Policy at UMass-Lowell (1991-1992); Member of the Massachusetts House of Representatives (1985-1991), where he served as Vice Chair of the Government Regulations Committee, and as a member of the Committees on Taxation, Natural Resources & Agriculture, and Housing & Urban Development; Campaign Manager of the Campaign for Massachusetts’ Future (1990); Lecturer in Political Science at Emmanuel College (1990); Assistant to the Massachusetts Commissioner of Commerce and Development (1983-1984); Administrative Assistant to the Reading Board of Selectmen (1982-1983); and Legislative Assistant in the Massachusetts House of Representatives (1979-1982).

Beckwith served a three-year term as a member of the Advisory Council of the National League of Cities. He is a former member of the Board of Directors of the NLC, having been elected to a two-year term for 1996 and 1997, was Vice Chair of the State Municipal League Directors Steering Committee, and is a past Board Member and Chair of NLC-RISC, the NLC-sponsored consortium of municipal insurance programs in over 30 states.

Beckwith is a magna cum laude graduate of Boston College, and a former Visiting Scholar at the Harvard School of Public Health.

David Begelfer

David Begelfer is Chief Executive Officer of the Massachusetts Chapter of NAIOP (National Association of Industrial and Office Properties), a trade organization that represents the commercial real estate industry. He is working with David Soule on the Urban Initiative Project at CURP. David established and co-chairs a state-wide business coalition, is the co-chairman of the 495/MetroWest Corridor Partneship Board of Directors, a Board member of the Massachusetts Alliance for Economic Development, a member of NAIOP’s National Growth Committee, and serves on numerous state and local advisory committees, including the Superfund Advisory Committee and the Governor’s Central Mass. Competitive Council. He is a registered lobbyist in Massachusetts. Previously, David was president of The Iver Company, a commercial development company building office and R&D properties in eastern Massachusetts. He has written numerous articles and OpEds and has appeared on numerous panels speaking about development, growth, Brownfields, and environmental issues.

Cynthia Jackson

Cynthia Jackson is an associate professor of accounting in the College of Business Administration at Northeastern. She is working at the Center as a visiting research associate with Russell Williams on the Small Minority Business Asset Development Project.

The project, which is being done in conjunction with CURP, the Urban League of Eastern Massachusetts, and Roxbury Community College, is a part of the Community Enterprise Technical Assistance Collaborative (CETAC). Jackson has worked as a member of the collaborative in the past. She is an expert on accounting methods for small businesses and previously used her expertise to help with the CETAC survey of small minority businesses, which measured their expertise with accounting systems, e-commerce, and business-to-business capabilities.

Doris Bunte

Doris Bunte is the Director of Community Relations at the Center for the Study of Sport in Society at Northeastern University and a member of the Urban Outreach Council at Northeastern, chaired by former Governor Michael S. Dukakis. At CURP, she is a founding member of the World Class Housing Collaborative. A former state representative and head of the Boston Housing Authority, Bunte has worked on housing and community development issues for more than 25 years. Bunte began her involvement on housing issues as a tenant leaders at the Orchard Park housing development in Boston. In 1973 she was elected to the first of seven terms to the Massachusetts House of Representatives, where she served on the leadership as chairwoman of the Committee on Federal Financial Assistance. She served as board Commissioner and then Administrator of the Boston Housing Authority. Today she serves as a consultant and mediator on a wide range of housing and community development issues. In 1998 and 1999, Bunte served as the meditor of the successful effort to return control of the Bromley-Heath public housing development from the Boston Housing Authority back to a tenant-run council.

Michael S. Dukakis

Michael S. Dukakis is Distinguished Professor of Political Science at Northeastern University, where he also chairs the Urban Outreach Council for President Richard N. Freeland. Dukakis served three terms as Governor of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts and was the Democratic Party's 1988 nominee for President of the United States. Dukakis' terms as Governor were distinguished by major initiatives in community planning and development, public transportation improvements, progressive welfare reform, workforce development, environmental issues, and historic preservation. He was regularly voted one of the most effective governors by colleagues from both parties. Dukakis teaches at the University of California at Los Angeles each Winter term. He is author of several articles on public policy issues and is collaborating with former Senator Paul Simon on a book about political participation. Since 1998 the vice chairman of the board of Amtrak, Dukakis is also actively involved in a wide variety of economic development and environmental issues in the neighborhoods near Northeastern University and beyond. He is the founder of the Muddy River Action Group, which has been instrumental in developing consensus for environmental and other improvements to the river that borders Boston and Brookline. Dukakis is a graduate of Swarthmore College and Harvard Law School.

Peter Enrich

Peter Enrich is a professor at Northeastern University's School of Law and a member of CURP's World Class Housing Collaborative. Professor Enrich specializes in issues of local government law and state and local tax policy, and also co-teaches the Law School's first-year course on Law, Culture and Difference, which has provided legal research for several WCHC projects. Before coming to Northeastern in 1991, Prof. Enrich served as general counsel to the Massachusetts Executive Office for Administration and Finance. Professor Enrich frequently serves as an advisor to the state legislature and advocacy groups interested in Massachusetts fiscal policy, and has served two terms as an elected selectman in Lexington, Massachusetts.

Francis Olschafskie

Francis Olschafskie is an expert on website development and was formerly the Chief Technology Officer for Bridgeline, a multimedia development firm. At CURP, Olschafskie is the designer of the "analytic engine" for the Boston Renaissance Resource Kit.

James V. Rowan

James V. Rowan is a Professor at Northeastern University School of Law and Director of Clinical Education. He is a founding member of CURP's World Class Housing Collaborative. Rowan has participated in the design and delivery of a series of innovative clinical programs, including a long-term collaboration with Harvard Law School and the Legal Services Corporation. He was formerly Director of Training for the Massachusetts Law Reform Institute. His practice in poverty law includes economic development of worker cooperatives, legislative lobbying on welfare reform, and community legal education for working women.

Marvin M. Siflinger

Marvin M. Siflinger is the Chairman of Housing Partners, Inc., a Boston-based national housing consulting and asset management firm, and a lecturer in the Department of Political Science at Northeastern University. He is also a founding member of CURP's World Class Housing Collaborative. Prior to the founding of Housing Partners, Siflinger served as executive director and chief operating officer of the Massachusetts Housing Finance Agency from 1983 to 1995. He has also held a number of positions with the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development in Boston and New York, including area manager of HUD's Boston office. He has won many prestigious awards, including the national public service award from the American Society for Public Administration in 1991.

Joseph Warren

Joseph D. Warren serves as Director and Principal Investigator for Northeastern's Community Outreach Center. In this role, he is responsible for facilitating a relationship between community activists and university faculty and staff to increase the potential for greater income and wealth of low-income residents of Lower Roxbury. These projects include the creation of an inner-city industrial park as well as the Merchant Academy that provides assistant to fledgling businesses. He has worked at the University for the past 16 years, previously having taught as a member of the African-American Studies Department and Director of Community Affairs. Warren chairs Northeastern's Public Housing Scholarship Advisory Committee and the University Contributions Committee, and has served as the New England Regional Chair for TRIO Programs for the U.S. Department of Education. Warren retired as a Commander for the U.S. Naval Reserves in 1994. As Chair of the Boston Mayor's Minority and Women Business Advisory Council, he provided input lending to the creation of Boston's Minority Business Ordinance and oversaw the implementation of the Ordinance for the first two years. He also organized and coordinated activities with several leading activists and scholars as Chair of the Economic Issues Committee of the Caucus of Minority Democrats from 1985 to 1990. He received his B.S. in Economics from North Carolina A & T State University and both his M.A. and Ph.D. from the Florence Heller School for Advanced Studies in Social Research at Brandeis University. He can be reached at (617) 373 8557.

Peter Wiederspahn

Peter Wiederspahn is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Art and Architecture at Northeastern University and a member of CURP's World Class Housing Collaborative. He began his career with the internationally-recognized New York architecture firms of Richard Meier and Partners, and Gwathmey Siegel Associates. Upon receiving his Master of Architecture from Harvard University in 1989, he began his own firm, Wiederspahn Architects, where his current professional practices focuses on wood frame housing.

Shiawee Yang

Shiawee X. Yang is an Associate Professor and Joseph Riesman Research Professor in the College of Business Administration at Northeastern University as well as a member of CURP's World Class Housing Collaborative. She holds a bachelor's degree in architecture and an MS from Tsinghua University, Beijing, and MS and PhD degrees from Penn State University. Her teaching and research interests in real estate and financial economics concern strategic bargaining and investment in real estate markets.