Cape Cod Commission staffing update

Please join us in welcoming the newest members of our staff:  

Abigail Bliss joined the Commission as a Community Development Planner. Her previous experience includes advancing small business recovery efforts for the City of Cambridge’s Community Development Department, working on flood recovery and downtown revitalization programs for the New York State Office of Planning, Development, and Community Infrastructure, and covering coastal communities as a local reporter in both Massachusetts and Alaska. In her role as Community Development Planner, Abigail will support a range of community and economic development projects, with the economic resilience and recovery planning process foremost among them. Abigail holds a Master in City Planning degree from MIT with focuses in community and economic development. 

Chelsea Bruck is a Community Development Planner with over seven years of professional experience in strategic planning, research, project management, and communications for a wide range of organizations. Most recently, Chelsea worked in project management for a real estate development consultancy that supports capital projects for clients in the public and non-profit sectors. Chelsea has also spent the past few years working as an independent contractor on projects relating to community development and creative placemaking, including work for the National Parks Service, the City of Boston, the Barr Foundation, Northeastern University Law School’s Innovation Lab, ArtPlace America, and others. She earned her B.A. from Northwestern University in Communication Studies with a specialization in Art Theory and Practice and her Master’s in City Planning from MIT, with a focus on housing, community, and economic development and a certificate in urban design. 

Community Design Planner Elisabeth (Liz) Kellam was hired by the Commission this summer. A recent Master’s graduate of the Urban and Environmental Policy and Planning Program at Tufts University, she most recently worked at the Norman B. Leventhal Map Center, where she helped to create Atlascope, a web application that uses historical maps of the Boston metro region to track the changing urban fabric over time. Liz also worked from the City of Somerville, where she helped plan and publish the city’s workforce development strategic plan. As the Community Design Planner, Liz provides community design, graphic design, and visualization support to community outreach initiatives, planning and community development assistance to towns, and other technical assistance through the preparation of reports, studies, illustrations and plans for diverse projects throughout the region. 

The Commission welcomed Jeffrey Ribiero back to the staff as a Regulatory Planner. Previously, Jeffrey served as Town Planner for the towns of Provincetown and Truro, where he provided technical assistance to the towns' regulatory boards while leading comprehensive planning efforts and community development initiatives. As Regulatory Planner, he manages large projects across Cape Cod as they are reviewed as Developments of Regional Impact, and works on a range of housing issues facing the region. Jeffrey holds a Master of Urban Planning degree from New York University’s Robert F. Wagner School of Public Service and a Bachelor of the Arts degree from NYU’s College of Arts and Sciences in Urban Design and Architecture Studies