Board Members

The BPDA Board is the official agency body with five members who come from Boston’s neighborhoods and care about the city’s future. They vote on all final determinations and agreements at the agency, including planning studies, rezoning initiatives, and project permitting. The BPDA Board will only act on final project approval following an extensive community vetting and stakeholder review process led by BPDA staff. Four of the five board members are appointed by the Mayor and confirmed by the City Council. One member is appointed by the Governor. Board members serve five year staggered terms.

The BPDA Board meets at regularly-scheduled public meetings, usually held every three weeks on Thursday afternoons. Members of the public are welcome and encouraged to attend these meetings in addition to submitting written comments to the Board in advance via the Executive Director/Secretary's Office.

Board meetings are held in the BPDA Board Room on the 9th floor of Boston City Hall (the Kane Simonian Room, Room 900). Members of the public can get information about the BPDA Board meeting schedule and agendas via the Board Meetings page and the calendar. In addition, notices of scheduled BPDA Board meetings are posted on bulletin boards located on the 1st and 9th floors of Boston City Hall.

For a list of past Board members please see the BRA History page.

Priscilla Rojas

Priscilla Rojas, Chair

2015-Present

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In addition to her role at the BPDA, Priscilla is the Head of Internal Audit & Compliance at Takeoff Technologies. She has 16+ years of international audit and consulting experience with numerous Fortune 500 companies, including Deloitte, Vertex Pharmaceuticals, State Street, and John Hancock. Her professional endeavors have helped her gain hands-on experience working in over a dozen countries, throughout Europe, Asia and Australia.

Priscilla holds a Bachelor of Science in Accounting from DePaul University and is a licensed Certified Internal Auditor (CIA®), Certified Fraud Examiner (CFE), Project Management Professional (PMP®) and Certified ISO 27001 Information Security Lead Auditor.

Priscilla commits her passion and leadership to organizations supporting people of color, women and the arts. She serves as board Treasurer and Audit Committee Chair for Futuro Media Group, an independent nonprofit organization committed to producing ethical journalism from a POC perspective.

Priscilla also served as a member of the Boston Cultural Council for six years and was recognized in the 2016 Boston’s Extraordinary Women Campaign, highlighting women that do extraordinary work within the Boston community.

Priscilla resides in Mattapan with her husband, Jabes Rojas.

Kate Bennett

Kate Bennett, Member

2023-Present

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Kate Bennett has worked in affordable housing development, policy and planning for more than 25 years, with a particular focus on public housing and neighborhood revitalization. She holds a Masters in City Planning from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.
 
Kate recently retired as Administrator and CEO of the Boston Housing Authority, where she worked for over 25 years. She oversaw public housing and voucher programs that provide affordable housing for over 25,000 households in and around the City of Boston. In her tenure at BHA, she was instrumental in implementing several strategic initiatives, including more than $2 billion in redevelopment initiatives and capital upgrades; the creation of an asset management division to ensure long-term preservation of deeply affordable units; development of the BHA’s green, healthy housing and sustainability programs; and expansion of resident empowerment and self-sufficiency initiatives.
 
Prior to coming to the Boston Housing Authority (BHA), Kate managed affordable housing programs for the City of Chelsea and the City of Newton. She lives with her family in Roslindale.
Dr. Theodore C. Landsmark

Dr. Theodore C. Landsmark, Member

2014-Present

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Dr. Ted Landsmark has been Director of the Kitty & Michael Dukakis Center for Urban and Regional Policy at Northeastern University since 2016. During his seventeen year tenure as President and CEO of the Boston Architectural College, Dr. Landsmark helped to grow the school from a center into an internationally recognized institution. In August 2014, Ted was named President Emeritus of the college. He brings with him to the board a wealth of expertise in architecture, urban design, civic leadership, and architectural and construction law.

A graduate of Yale with a Ph.D. from Boston University, Ted has established himself as an innovative leader with a passion for public service. He has traveled the world extensively to study cities – from London and Paris to Istanbul and Tokyo – and facilitated planning sessions in New York, Los Angeles, and Philadelphia.

Ted has served as a trustee or board member for several organizations, including the American Architectural Foundation, Historic New England and Historic Boston, and the Boston Museum of Fine Arts. He was also president of the National Architectural Accrediting Board.

Ted is a longtime resident of Jamaica Plain.

Raheem Shepard

Raheem Shepard, Member

2023-Present

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Raheem Shepard serves on the Boston Redevelopment Authority/Economic Development Industrial Corporation Board as a mayoral appointee. Shepard is the Regional Manager of the North Atlantic States Regional Council of Carpenters for the City of Boston. In this role, he oversees 5,000 members and supervises all personnel and activities throughout the locals within his region. As Council President he also chairs quarterly meetings to Delegates that represent the members with their needs.His appointment to the BPDA Board upholds Boston’s longstanding tradition of including union representation on the Board. As a member of the ZBA, Shepard reviews development proposals which require zoning relief, and works with his fellow ZBA members and Chief of Planning Arthur Jemison to help advance the Mayor’s goal of rebuilding trust with communities through planning-led development, while advancing equity, affordability, and resilience across all functions of the City’s development review process. Shepard lives in Hyde Park.