As an international planning consultant with Massa Associates Planning, Alison Kenning Massa provides professional guidance to governments, organizations, and communities facing various issues. Known for her inclusive approach that engages both elected officials and citizens, she offers valuable insights that her clients can apply to future initiatives. Leveraging her expertise in urban and environmental economic development planning, Ms. Massa has worked as the vice president of policy and administration for the Countrystyle Community Tourism Network and its partner company, Villages as Businesses, since 2009.
For her professional excellence, Ms. Massa has been recognized with a Merit Award from the American Institute of Planners and an Honor Award from the American Society of Landscape Architects. Ms. Massa has been involved in several notable projects. She directed a plan for 250 acres of land south of San Diego, zoned for one-acre lots. The area was full of mountains, rivers, lakes, precious wildlife, and farmland, yet Ms. Massa managed to create a compact new town on a portion of the land while permanently preserving the rest of the area. Another major project took place in Petaluma, California, which was being overdeveloped to the point at which all its services were breaking down. She worked with the city council and planning commission to reduce the development and construct a plan for developers to follow, restricting building permits and slowing construction and rebuilding. Ms. Massa’s work on these issues established new U.S. Supreme Court legal precedents.
Ms. Massa prepared for her career by pursuing a higher education in urban affairs. She began with a Bachelor of Arts in geography from Girton College, University of Cambridge, in 1961. In 1963, she completed a postgraduate social science and administration diploma at the London School of Economics and Political Science, after which she graduated from the University of Cambridge with a Master of Arts in geography in 1964. After immigrating to the United States, Ms. Massa continued her academic efforts at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee, where she received a Ford Foundation Fellowship and completed a Master of Science in urban affairs in 1967. Ms. Massa attributes her remarkable success to her exceptional bosses, who supported her throughout her career. She also credits her dedication and perseverance, which earned her a reputation as an outstanding innovator. She always felt compelled to give her best efforts and exceed expectations to prove herself as a woman in her industry.
Looking ahead, Ms. Massa hopes to continue excelling at Massa Associates Planning, the Countrystyle Community Tourism Network, and Villages as Businesses. As the first woman principal at her firm, Ms. Massa is well acquainted with women’s obstacles in the workplace. She prioritizes empowering the women she works with to realize their potential. In the future, she looks forward to taking on more local and possibly even international projects. She anticipates more international projects like the one she completed with the U.S. Agency for International Development in Lisbon, which involved planning the entire southern half of the Lisbon metropolitan area. As a prolific contributor to her field, Ms. Massa authored “Siting of Major Facilities: A Practical Approach” with McGraw-Hill. She is considering writing a book chronicling her most valuable and memorable projects, especially focusing on her work in Petaluma, Jamaica, and Morocco, where she participated in groundbreaking developments. In her free time, Ms. Massa enjoys reading, painting, gardening, cooking, and baking.