Biographies
“Chapter 40B: Re-emerging in a Recovering Market”
UMASS Lowell Inn & Conference Center
September 20, 2013
Conference Sponsors:
Citizens’ Housing and Planning Association (CHAPA), Massachusetts Housing Partnership (MHP),
Massachusetts Department of Housing and Community Development (DHCD), MassHousing
Keith Bergman has more than three decades of municipal management experience in Massachusetts. He has served as Littleton's Town Administrator since 2007, was Provincetown's Town Manager for the 17years prior, and served also as chief appointed administrator of Scituate, North Andover, and Nantucket. Mr.Bergman currently serves on the executive committee of the Metropolitan Area Planning Council (MAPC), and chairs the MAGIC (Minuteman Advisory Group on Interlocal Coordination) subregion of MAPC. Mr.Bergman holds a MastersDegree in city and regional planning from Harvard's Kennedy School of Government (1981), and a Bachelors of Arts degree from Vanderbilt University (1979). His awards include a 1995Public Safety Program Excellence award from the International City/County Management Association (ICMA), innovation awards from the Massachusetts Municipal Association (MMA) in 1993 and 2003, and leadership awards in 2005 from the Citizen's Housing and Planning Association (CHAPA) and in 2007 from the Housing Assistance Corporation of Cape Cod (HAC).
Elsa Campbell has worked in the affordable housing field for local and state government for more than 25years. Prior to working at the Department of Housing and Community Development (DHCD), she managed the HOME Program for the City of Cambridge and was the Community Development Director for the Town of Winthrop. At DHCD, she manages the statewide inventory of affordable homeownership LIP and HOP units, including the monitoring of resales, refinances and foreclosures. She also works with municipalities to obtain approval under LIP’s Local Action Program for existing locally restricted ownership units. She has a degree in community planning from UMASS/Boston.
Aaron Gornsteinwas appointed by Governor Patrick to serve as the Undersecretary for Housing and Community Development in December 2011, and started his new position on January 31, 2012. Mr. Gornstein oversees the Department of Housing and Community Development, which administers nearly $1 billion in state and federal funds for a variety of programs for affordable housing production, community development, municipal assistance, local and regional planning, energy conservation, rental assistance, public housing, and others. He also serves as the chief housing policy advisor to the Secretary of Housing and Economic Development and to the Governor, and serves as Chairman of the Community Economic Development Assistance Corporation, which provides technical and financial assistance to non-profit developers of affordable housing.
Prior to his recent appointment, Mr.Gornstein served as the Executive Director of CHAPA from 1990 to January 2012. CHAPA is a private, non-profit research and advocacy organization working on affordable housing and community development issues in Massachusetts. During his tenure, CHAPA spearheaded the passage of major state and federal legislation and program reforms, conducted important research studies, sponsored hundreds of training's for practitioners, organized new coalitions that connect affordable housing to other policy areas, and launched programs to increase home-ownership and rental opportunities for low and moderate income residents.
Prior to becoming Executive Director of CHAPA, Mr.Gornstein was a neighborhood planner for the City of Cambridge, Massachusetts and the Director of Housing for the TriCity Community Action Program, a community agency in Malden, Massachusetts. He received his undergraduate degree from the University of Wisconsin--Madison and his graduate degree from Tufts University’s Department of Urban and Environmental Policy.
He has received nearly 20 local and national awards and fellowships for his work in advancing affordable housing and community development initiatives and has served on numerous local and national advisory boards and commissions.
Margaux LeClair is a Counsel and Fair Housing Specialist for DHCD. She provides legal counsel to DHCD staff and guidance to recipients of DHCD assistance relative to compliance with applicable fair housing laws, regulations, and policies. She also performs fair housing policy analysis and conducts fair housing trainings. Additionally, Ms. LeClair works on other matters pertaining to affordable housing and Chapter 40B.
Maureen O’Hagan has been with MCO Housing Services for over 10 years specializing in the distribution of affordable housing units. As Director of Lottery Programs, she works with builders and municipalities in the marketing, managing and execution of affordable housing lotteries for homeownership and rental new construction projects, manages the annual recertification on rental units and consults with various towns on affordable housing. She also handles the resales of existing affordable units for local communities and DHCD. Ms.O’Hagan has a Masters Degree in Education from Boston College.
Lisa Singleton is entering her 10th year in the field of public housing, the last six of which have been at the Chelmsford Housing Authority (CHA), primarily in the realm of affordable homeownership. Learning at the hand of CHA Executive Director David Hedison, she acts as monitoring agent for the existing affordable inventory in Chelmsford and is the point of contact for resales, refinancings and foreclosures in that town as well as other area communities. She also handles lotteries for new construction projects, responsible for marketing the homes and determining eligibility of program applicants. She holds a degree in journalism from Northeastern University, having worked as an editor at The Telegraph in Nashua, N.H. and The Sun newspaper in Lowell, Massachusetts.
Ed Marchant has facilitated negotiations on numerous proposed 40B developments and is currently providing Chapter 40B-related technical assistance to municipalities, zoning boards of appeal, and developers. He has been active in the affordable housing industry for over 30 years and has been an independent real estate advisor since 1990. A graduate of Cornell University and Harvard Business School, since 1980, Mr. Marchant has been an adjunct lecturer at Harvard’s Kennedy School of Government, where he teaches courses on real estate development and finance and on the development, financing, and management of affordable housing.
Joseph Peznola isViceChairman of the Hudson Board of Appeals and has served on the Board since 1994. He is a Registered Professional Civil Engineer in Massachusetts and New Hampshire with over20 years’ experience in the land development field.Mr.Peznola isa Principal and the Office Manager forthe Marlborough office of Hancock Associates, a full service civil engineering, land surveying, environmental and landscape architecture firm. He has special expertise in the areas of land use analysis and conceptual design, as well as dealing with the complex permitting and design issues of Chapter 40B projects. Mr.Peznola is currently involved in over30 40B projects in various stages of design, permitting and construction for private and public sector clientd. Mr. Peznola is also a member of CHAPA, serving on both the Training and 40B Task Force subcommittees.
Greg Watsonjoined MassHousing in June 2008 as part of a new department that is responsible for coordinating all comprehensive permit issues for the Agency. He has over 14 years of municipal planning, community development and housing experience, most recently having served as the Director of Community Development & Planning in Watertown, Massachusetts. Mr.Watson graduated from Clemson University with a Bachelor of Science degree in History & Political Science and obtained a MPA degree from Clemson University and the University of South Carolina jointly.
Mr. Watson is certified by the American Institute of Certified Planners (AICP) and a member of the American Planning Association (APA) and the Massachusetts chapter of the APA.
Jennifer Goldson is a certified community planner focused on facilitating proactive publicdecision-making at the municipal level.Her background combines historic preservation, affordable housing, comprehensive planning, land acquisition, community participation, and implementation of the Massachusetts Community Preservation Act. Ms.Goldson’s specialties include assisting communities with implementation of the Community Preservation Act, establishing Municipal Affordable Housing Trusts, and creating Housing Production Plans.Ms.Goldson’s recent professional accomplishments include the Massachusetts Housing Partnership’s award winningMunicipal Affordable Housing Trust Guidebook, and Housing Production Plans for the towns of Bridgewater and Norwood. Ms.Goldson maintains a community planning blog at
Paul Haverty is an associate at the law firm of Regnante Sterio & Osborne LLP in Wakefield, Massachusetts. Mr. Haverty concentrates his practice in real estate development and land use, including zoning, wetlands and environmental issues. A substantial portion of Mr.Haverty’s practice is representing developers in all stages of development of comprehensive permit projects pursuant to G. L. c. 40B, §§ 20-23, including local permitting, Housing Appeals Committee practice, trial court litigation and appellate litigation. Mr. Haverty and his firm represented the developer in the landmark case Zoning Board of Appeals of Amesbury v. Housing Appeals Committee, 457 Mass. 748(2010). Prior to joining Regnante Sterio & Osborne, Mr. Haverty clerked in the Land Court for Chief Justice Karyn F. Scheier. Mr. Haverty is a magna cum laude graduate of Suffolk University Law School. Mr. Haverty has been a member of the Chelmsford Zoning Board of Appeals since 2008, and is the Chair of the Zoning Bylaw Review Committee in Chelmsford, Massachusetts. Mr. Haverty has also served as a member of the Chelmsford Affordable Housing Plan Committee.
Geoff Engler has been in real estate consulting for over 14 years at Stockard, Engler and Brigham (SEB). Prior to joining SEB in 2005, he worked as a Senior Manager at Deloitte Consulting for eight years in its real estate consulting and business strategy practice. As such, he worked on large scale mixed-use real estate projects and transactions including the new Yankees’ and Mets’ Stadiums. Mr.Engler spent the majority of his time with Deloitte consulting on behalf of local and state government and real estate developers.
Since joining SEB, Mr.Engler has represented developers on a number of Massachusettsmulti-family residentialprojects, including Acorn Park in Belmont, Shovel Shop Square in Easton, Charles River Landing in Needham and a number of other comprehensive permit applications. Mr.Engler also served as the developer and project manager for Parkview Homes, a 100% deed restricted homeownership development in Newton. Parkview Homes received a LEED Gold certification – the first mixed-income multi-family development in Newton to receive such a distinction.
Mr.Engler has also been involved with one of the biggest mixed use projects in the Commonwealth, representing LNR Properties on the $1billion+ Southfield Naval Station redevelopment. In addition, he has also been involved in a consultative capacity with Normandy Real Estate regarding the redevelopment of the Riverside Station property in Newton.
Mr.Engler is currently the project manager on both “The Village on Main” in Hingham and “Greendale Village” in Needham. Both are 20-unit homeownership developments on which SEB is the developer.
Mr.Engler received his Bachelor’s Degree in Public Policy from Hamilton College in Clinton, New York.
Jody Kablack has been the Director of Planning and Community Development/Town Planner in Sudbury, Massachusetts for the last 22 years. Her role in Sudbury has evolved from mostly plan review and application administration to overseeing all aspects of land use and development in the Town, including facilitating the Town’s efforts in open space planning and land acquisition, affordable housing and historic preservation. She also manages many of the Town’s Community Preservation Act projects.
Prior to working in Sudbury, Ms.Kablack worked for the City of Newton in the Community Development Department, the Town of East Hampton, New York as an environmental planner, and as a cartographer for the National Atmospheric and Aeronautical Administration (NOAA) in Washington, DC. Ms. Kablack received a Bachelor of Science Degree from Cornell University in 1983, and was admitted into the American Institute of Certified Planners in 1999.