Marc Draisen

Department: Executive
Email: [email protected]
Phone: 617-933-0701

Biography:

Marc Draisen has served as the Executive Director at MAPC since 2002. Mr. Draisen leads the agency’s staff in their work to provide technical and professional services that improve physical, social, and economic health for the people who live and work in the Metro Boston region. MAPC’s work covers a wide range of areas related to smart growth and regional collaboration, including transportation, land use, water resources, clean energy, public safety, public health, housing, economic development, and collective procurement.

Prior to joining MAPC, Mr. Draisen served as President and CEO of the Massachusetts Association of Community Development Corporations (MACDC), where he was responsible for supervising a staff of nine people and a $1.2 million annual budget. Some of his major successes at MACDC included the passage of a first-in-the-nation Insurance Industry Community Reinvestment Act, the development of an Affordable Housing Trust Fund, establishment of a program to fund and train community organizers at CDCs throughout Massachusetts, and tripling state operating support program for CDCs.

Mr. Draisen also served two terms as state representative from Boston and Brookline (11th Suffolk District), from 1991 to 1995. During this time, he served on the Joint Committee on Housing and Urban Development; the Joint Committee on Federal Financial Assistance; and as co-chair of the Progressive Legislators Group. Some of his major accomplishments included passage of the Condominium Reform Act (1992), the Housing Bond Bill (1993), and the Pharmacy Freedom of Choice Act (1994). He was also chief sponsor of major economic development legislation, and actively involved in such topics as health care reform, regional development, housing, drug abuse, domestic violence, and environmental protection. In 1994, Mr. Draisen was the Democratic candidate for Lieutenant Governor of Massachusetts.

Mr. Draisen graduated from Brandeis University with a Bachelor’s Degree in 1978, and from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology with a Master’s Degree in City Planning in 1981.

Mr. Draisen represents MAPC on several boards, including the Board of Directors of the Massachusetts Smart Growth Alliance; Transportation for Massachusetts (T4MA); and the Boston Region Metropolitan Planning Organization (MPO), which programs federal transportation project and planning funds.