Adele Fleet Bacow, President

As President of Community Partners Consultants, Inc., Adele Fleet Bacow offers extensive expertise in community economic development, program and strategic planning, community cultural development, design, and the arts. Over the past twenty-five years, she has brought the public and private sectors together in unlikely collaborations to revitalize communities. Many of these lessons are presented in her book, Designing the City: A Guide for Advocates and Public Officials. She received a Federal Design Achievement Award from the Presidential Design Awards Program for their work.

Relevant Experience

Adele Fleet Bacow founded Community Partners Consultants, Inc. in 1996 to work with cities and towns, public agencies, foundations, and community-based organizations around the country. Much of her work incorporates urban planning, cultural development, creation of public/private partnerships, and practical strategies for implementation of recommendations provided by Community Partners Consultants.
Prior to this time, Ms. Bacow was Senior Vice President of Policy and Management Associates where she worked with community-based organizations and other non-profit organizations on projects related to economic development, business analysis, and community cultural development. Typical clients were inner-city community development corporations seeking to create new businesses and employment opportunities for their low-income residents.

Previously she served as Director of Design and Development for the Massachusetts Council on the Arts and Humanities, establishing a new statewide program to improve the quality of design and planning in the state. She created and managed programs in bridge design, highway landscape design, and innovative state design policies for public finance and development agencies. In addition, she created and directed the Rural Design Assistance Program, Governor's Design Awards Program, and Cultural Facilities Technical Assistance Program.

Ms. Bacow also has significant experience in public development, having served as Deputy Director of the Massachusetts Government Land Bank, an independent state authority created to redevelop blighted or surplus public land. Her responsibilities included project management for reuse of the former 4700 acre Westover Air Force Base in Chicopee and the 88 acre Chelsea Naval Hospital, technical assistance to communities, and oversight of the agency's operating budget.

Education

Ms. Bacow holds a Bachelor of Arts Degree in Urban Design from Wellesley College where she graduated as a Wellesley Scholar, and she earned a Masters Degree in City Planning from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Ms. Bacow has written extensively and lectured widely at major universities, conferences, and workshops around the country.