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Senior Staff Biographies
Principal
Mr. Mahady is an economist and planner with over 30 years’ experience in community and regional planning nationwide. He is the author of more than 200 reports, journal articles, and presentations in the fields of economic development, transportation, land use and demographic forecasting, and social and economic impact assessment. His clients include state and federal agencies, regional and municipal governments, non-profit organizations, engineering firms, and development companies. Prior to founding FXM Associates in 1991, he was a Senior Vice President of Economics Research Associates, where he led that firm’s transportation planning and project development practice nationwide for 15 years. Mr. Mahady holds a BA degree from Harvard College and a Master of City Planning degree from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.
Dianne Tsitsos
Senior Consultant
Ms. Tsitsos brings over 30 years’ experience in economic development and transportation planning. Since joining FXM Associates in 2003, she has focused on social and economic impact analyses of transportation projects. For 22 years prior, Ms. Tsitsos was an officer with the U.S. Agency for International Development, where she was responsible for projects in economic development, urban development, and housing throughout the developing world and in the former Soviet Union. Before joining the Foreign Service, Ms. Tsitsos worked for the Federal Highway Administration; the Massachusetts Highway Department; the Northern Middlesex Area Commission in Lowell, MA; the Central Transportation Planning Staff in Boston, and Abt Associates in Cambridge, MA. She holds a B.A. degree from Syracuse University and an M.A. from Tufts University.
Jacquelyn Hallsmith
Senior Consultant
Ms. Hallsmith is an urban planner with 35 years of experience working with public officials, private companies, and not-for-profit organizations to improve community, transportation, and institutional facilities. For FXM Associates, she provides expertise in economic development and land use planning. Her prior consultant work includes City of New Bedford strategic projects, facilities development for the Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority and the National Center of African American Artists. She served as Director of Planning, Design and Development for the Boston Housing Authority and Assistant Secretary of the state Executive Office of Communities and Development. Ms. Hallsmith received a Bachelor of Arts. degree from the University of Massachusetts Amherst and a Master of City Planning degree, specializing in Environmental Design, from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.
Michael L. Lahr, Ph.D.
Senior Consultant
Michael Lahr is an economist and Associate Professor at Rutgers University. He has extensive experience in regional input-output modeling and is the author or co-author of over 80 publications, papers, reports and presentations. Dr. Lahr has developed models to estimate economic impacts of transportation, waterfront, tourism, and historic preservation investments across the U.S. His research spans a broad range of regional economic issues. Dr. Lahr has collaborated with FXM for the past seven years, examining the role in the regional economy of the Peace Bridge between Buffalo, N.Y. and Fort Erie, Ontario and estimating the economic impact of golf courses, among other projects. He is a Visiting Research Fellow at the University of Groningen, The Netherlands. He holds a B.A./M.A. and Ph.D. in Regional Science from the University of Pennsylvania.
Rochelle Bates Lee
Senior Consultant
Ms. Lee is an urban planner with specialized expertise in residential development financing and management. She has worked with non-profit and community-based sponsors to develop more than $20 million of affordable housing in Rhode Island and Massachusetts. For several years, Ms. Lee managed the Local Initiatives Support Corporation (LISC) program to improve capacity of community development corporations engaged in revitalizing urban neighborhoods. She was Asset Management Specialist for the National Equity Fund's $100 million investment portfolio throughout New England, managing related equity investments in residential property. Ms. Lee is Vice Chair of the Rhode Island Urban Enterprise Equity Fund and serves on the board of the Mt. Hope Land Trust in Providence. She holds a B.A. degree from Wellesley College and a Master of City Planning degree from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.
