Research Affiliates

Phineas Baxandall previously was Assistant Director of the Rappaport Institute for Greater Boston. Prior to his work at the institute, he was a lecturer at Harvard's Social Studies program and edited the magazine Regional Review at the Federal Reserve of Boston. Mr. Baxandall, who received his Ph.D. in political science from M.I.T. and his B.A. from Wesleyan University, taught economics as a visiting instructor at the Budapest University of Economics. He is co-author of the Rappaport Institute report, "The Casino Gamble in Massachusetts," as well as the working paper, "Can CitiStat Work in Greater Boston?" Baxandall has consulted with numerous municipalities about performance management and served as a technical advisor to the Metropolitan Mayors' Coalition's Municipal Finance Task Force. In addition to numerous journalistic pieces, he has written scholarly articles on comparative unemployment policy, national differences in working time, and the social implications of digital technology. His book, Constructing Unemployment: The Political Economy of Joblessness in East and West was published in fall 2004.

Anthony Flint covers regional planning and development issues for The Boston Globe. He was a Loeb Fellow at the Graduate School of Design at Harvard University in 2000–2001. Flint began work at the Globe in 1989, and since then has also covered issues including e-business; city, state, and national politics, including the 1992 and 1996 presidential campaigns; the tobacco industry; ideas and trends in academia; legal affairs; and higher education. He holds degrees from Middlebury College and Columbia University’s Graduate School of Journalism. Before arriving at the Globe, he was a reporter and columnist for the Torrington, Connecticut, Register-Citizen, a reporter for The Berkshire Eagle in Pittsfield, Massachusetts, and a deputy regional press secretary for the 1988 Dukakis for President campaign.

Ashley Lanfer is the Campaign Manager of the Boston Parks 2004 campaign. This campaign is the springboard into a new century of renewed commitment to urban parks and open spaces. The campaign’s lasting effects include a coordinated parks constituency of 25,000 greenspace advocates, annual citywide park events, stronger park and open space groups, and increased funds for park planning, maintenance and capital projects resulting in improved quality of life for every citizen of Boston. Ms. Lanfer previously was a research associate at the Rappaport Institute for Greater Boston and researched the Heart of the City Project. She received a Master's degree in environmental science from the Yale School of Forestry and Environmental Studies. Ms. Lanfer's previous work has centered on the relationship between people and protected areas in the U.S. and in Africa. She managed a grass-roots environmental organization in northern Kenya and has researched and written three land use handbooks for communities in southern and eastern Africa. She graduated from Dartmouth College in 1997 with a B.A. in Environmental Studies and English.

John E. McDonough has been the Executive Director of Health Care for All, Massachusetts' leading consumer health advocacy organization, since May 2003. From 1998 through 2003, he was an Associate Professor at the Heller School of Brandeis University and a Senior Associate at its Schneider Institute for Health Policy. From 1985 to 1997, he served as a member of the Massachusetts House of Representatives where he co-chaired the Joint Committee on Health Care. In 1996, he led the successful campaign for passage of health access legislation to cover uninsured children, funded by new tobacco taxes, legislation which served as a model for the federal Children’s Health Insurance Program. He currently teaches at the Harvard School of Public Health and the Boston University School of Public Health. His articles have appeared in The New England Journal of Medicine, Health Affairs and other journals. He has written two books, Experiencing Politics: A Legislator’s Stories of Government and Health Care by the University of California Press and the Milbank Fund in 2000, and Interests, Ideas, and Deregulation: The Fate of Hospital Rate Setting by the University of Michigan Press in 1997. He received a doctorate in public health from the School of Public Health at the University of Michigan in 1996 and a master’s in public administration from the John F. Kennedy School of Government at Harvard in 1990.

Phil Primack is a longtime journalist who has written about public policy issues for the Boston Herald, The Boston Globe, Boston magazine, as well as research institutes at Harvard University, the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Brandeis University, and the University of Massachusetts at Boston. He lives in Medford, Massachusetts.

Terrance J. Regan is a senior transportation planner for the Planners Collaborative in Boston. Previously he served as senior researcher at the Central Transportation Planning Staff and the Executive Office of Transportation and Construction. His publications include 2000–2025 Transportation Plan (Boston Metropolitan Planning Organization, 2000) and Massachusetts Transportation Factbook(Executive Office of Transportation and Construction, 1996, 1998, and 2001) and Inventory of Intermodal Freight Facilities in Massachusetts (MassHighway, 1999). Regan’s current work includes the preparation of a case study for Federal Highway Administration on how the various components of the transportation system in the New York City region responded to the September 11, 2001 terrorist attack. He holds a B.A. from Rhodes College and a Master of Public Administration degree from the John F. Kennedy School of Government at Harvard University.

Lewis H. "Harry" Spence has had a distinguished career in state and local public service in Massachusetts and beyond. Recently appointed as commissioner of the Department of Social Services by Governor Jane Swift, he served as Deputy Chancellor for Operations for the New York City Public Schools, the nation's largest school system with a $10 billion budget and more than 1.1 million students, from 1995 to 2000. In that position, Spence oversaw the school system's budget and finances, information systems, collective bargaining, school facilities, and student safety. Spence spent four years working for the City of Chelsea, where he restored financial stability to the city as receiver, deputy receiver, and chief operating officer. From 1980 to 1984, Spence served as the receiver of the Boston Housing Authority. From 1975 to 1978, he was executive director of the Cambridge Housing Authority. He has also acted as director of the Somerville Housing Authority, project director for Hyatt Hotels, and vice president for hotel development for the Beacon Companies.
Spence is a graduate of Harvard College and Harvard Law School.

Alexander von Hoffman is a historian and specialist in housing and urban affairs. A senior research fellow at the Joint Center for Housing Studies. He currently directs a project supported by and in collaboration with the United States Geological Survey entitled "Patterns and Process of Sprawl" that explores metropolitan development from 1970 to the present. In the area of community development, Dr. von Hoffman has written many works including House by House, Block by Block: The Rebirth of America's Urban Neighborhoods. Prior to coming to the Joint Center, Dr. von Hoffman was an associate professor of urban planning and design at Harvard's Graduate School of Design and a Fellow at the Taubman Center for State and Local Government of the John F. Kennedy School of Government, Harvard University. He received a Ph. D. from the Department of History at Harvard in 1986.

Gretchen Weismann is a doctoral student in urban policy and planning at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Previously she has worked at the Center for Urban and Regional Policy at Northeastern University, where she was project manager for a major housing study commissioned by the Catholic Archdiocese of Boston. She works as a consultant to public housing authorities on the development of portfolio asset management strategies. Her previous work focused on expanding affordable housing opportunities as a case manager for the homeless at the Pine Street Inn and Long Island Shelter, as a housing advocate for low-income populations at Jamaica Plain Legal Services and Habitat for Humanity, and policy analyst on low-income housing tax credits and people with disabilities at the Citizens Housing and Planning Association. A lifelong resident of the Jamaica Plain neighborhood of Boston, she holds degrees from Macalester College and Northeastern University.