April 9, 2025 - BOSTON - Longtime Metropolitan Area Planning Council Executive Director and former Massachusetts State Representative Marc D. Draisen has announced his retirement from the Boston-based planning agency at the end of this fiscal year.

Draisen, 68, has served as Executive Director of MAPC since 2002, having previously served as President and CEO of the Massachusetts Association of Community Development Corporations (MACDC) and Executive Director of Citizens Housing & Planning Association (CHAPA). He also served two terms representing parts of Boston and Brookline in the Massachusetts House of Representatives and was a Democratic candidate for Lieutenant Governor in 1994.

During his tenure at MAPC, Draisen oversaw the development of two long-term regional plans for Greater Boston, MetroFuture, and its successor MetroCommon 2050. He restructured the agency to reflect the changing times, bringing new emphasis to inclusive community engagement, public health and safety, clean energy and climate, and arts and culture planning. Under his leadership, the agency expanded its size to more than 120 staff members and broadened its scope to ensure a long-term emphasis on undoing the legacy of segregation and inequality in land use and housing policy. An avid cyclist who still bikes to work most days, Draisen is particularly proud of MAPC’s central role in establishing the Bluebikes bike share system in Greater Boston.

Draisen notably increased the agency’s presence in the State House and on Capitol Hill in his time as Executive Director, working in coalition to pass history-making reforms to Massachusetts zoning laws designed to address the state’s affordable housing crisis, and bringing new federal dollars to the Greater Boston region for public safety, bicycle and bus infrastructure, electric vehicle charging, climate resilience, affordable housing, and other areas. His time at MAPC, though bookended by the Great Recession and the COVID-19 pandemic, was marked by financial stability, steady improvements in staff salaries and benefits, new partnerships with community-based organizations, and major growth in direct project funding for local priorities in cities and towns across Eastern Massachusetts. 

Draisen served as a founding board member of the Massachusetts Smart Growth Alliance and Transportation for Massachusetts, as well as an active member of the Massachusetts Association of Regional Planning Agencies (MARPA) and the National Association of Regional Councils (NARC). He also founded the Boston Fuel Consortium in 1982, which remains active in the energy and climate space as the Green Energy Consumers’ Alliance.

A graduate of Boston Latin School, Brandeis University, and MIT, Draisen lives in Roslindale with his wife Sara Barcan, who serves as Executive Director of Homeowners’ Rebab, Inc. (HRI), a non-profit developer and manager of affordable housing in Cambridge.

MAPC’s Officers have recommended that the Executive Committee name Deputy Executive Director Elizabeth Weyant to serve as Acting Executive Director following Draisen’s retirement, effective June 14, 2025. The Executive Committee is expected to confirm that decision at its next regularly scheduled meeting on April 16.

For more information on MAPC, visit ww.mapc.org.