Donald Zizzi

Don Zizzi has been an adjunct professor of urban and regional economics in Boston University’s Metropolitan College Department of Applied Social Sciences since 2007 and received MET’s 2011 Roger Deveau Part-Time Faculty Award for Excellence in Teaching.  Don is currently a visiting professor of economic development at Harvard’s Graduate School of Design, a Senior Fellow in UMass Lowell’s Center for Industrial Competitiveness, and a visiting professor in UML’s Department of Regional Economic and Social Development.  When not teaching or doing academic research, he is a planning consultant assisting both private and public sector clients in the areas of economic and business development.

Don was a Senior Research Associate at Northeastern University’s Center for Urban and Regional Policy where he directed the center’s Economic Development Partnership, a program designed to better enable communities around the country to compete for critically needed private sector job generating investment.

Prior to joining academia, Don had extensive planning and management experience in both the public and private sectors. During his more than twenty years in public service, he served as the Executive Director of Nashua Regional Planning Commission and chief planner in Schenectady County, NY, before that. In the private sector, Don managed remote facility development and operations for Adaptec, a Silicon Valley based technology firm; and he headed the company’s strategic planning initiative to support future business opportunities and to plot the course for the company’s global expansion.

Don was one of the founding members of the Nashua, NH Center for Economic Development, serving eight years on its executive committee and helping to establish its innovative business incubator. He also served on the board of directors of the Gateway Industrial Development Corporation and is currently a member of both the New Hampshire Economic Development Advisory Council and the Nashua Business and Industrial Development Authority.