Tracy Corley

Tracy Corley, Director of Programs, Arlington Campus, College of Social Sciences and Humanities, is frequently sought as an expert, public speaker, and guest lecturer in community-engaged research and planning, public policy, law, sustainability, environmental justice, and equitable development. Her work explores transformative policies and science that advance justice and equity through community engagement. She also actively leads collaborations that promote anti-racist and anti-oppressive research, planning, and policies. In 2021, she was appointed to the Social and Community Science subcommittee of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s Board of Scientific Counselors.

Tracy Corley was Director of Research and Partnerships at Conservation Law Foundation, where she oversaw the Healthy Neighborhoods Study, North America’s largest and longest-running Participatory Action Research into the effects of neighborhood change and development on public health. As MassINC’s Transit-Oriented Development Fellow, she conducted mixed methods research, convened residents and stakeholders in Massachusetts’ urban regions, led the authorship of From Transactional to Transformative: The Case for Equity in Gateway City Transit-Oriented Development, and, with GBH, co-produced a companion webinar series on equitable development. During her mid-career graduate studies, she investigated the economic development potential of New England cities at the Dukakis Center for Urban and Regional Policy and examined informal work in Germany’s skilled trades and crafts sector as a guest researcher at the Berlin Social Science Center; the Institute for Labor, Skills, and Qualifications at the University of Duisburg-Essen; and the Max Planck Institute for the Study of Societies. In Seattle, Washington, she conducted strategic planning and coordinated a participatory program for formerly incarcerated job seekers at Seattle Jobs Initiative; founded two consulting firms that helped advance clean technologies, sustainable development, and energy efficiency; served as Vice-Chair of Small Business for the Seattle Chamber of Commerce Board of Trustees; and advised the Washington State governor and Congressional delegation on policy and legislation to advance inclusive economic development. She has also worked as an architect and designer in Washington State and South Carolina.