Community Advisory Council

The Community Advisory Council is a permanent advisory body representing community and stakeholder interests with a voting seat on the MPO board and committees. The MPO is committed to supporting a robust Advisory Council with broad representation from the region that includes a variety of perspectives and fosters equitable and meaningful engagement in the transportation planning process. Members of the public and representatives of advocacy, interest, professional, and community-based organizations, as well as municipalities and agencies, are encouraged to participate.

The Community Advisory Council’s mission is to create space for knowledge-building and productive discussions about regional transportation issues, advise the MPO board and staff, and ensure that planning and policy decisions are responsive to public priorities and consistent with the MPO’s long-range vision and goals. The structure, mission, and goals of the Advisory Council are codified in the MPO’s Memorandum of Understanding (PDF), and the Advisory Council Charter (PDF).

Community Advisory Council Members

Chair: TransitMatters 
Primary designee: Caitlin Allen-Connelly; alternate designee: Will Palmer 

Vice Chair: Mystic River Watershed Association 
Primary designee: Karl Alexander; alternate designee: Nasser Brahim

The membership of the Community Advisory Council represents a range of perspectives across several categories, including topics and interests, demographics, lived experiences, interests, constituencies, change models, size and scale, and geography. Many of these perspectives and communities have historically been underrepresented in the MPO’s planning and decision-making. A list of member representatives' primary and alternate designees can be found here.