Next City announced today that Tom Dallessio, a nationally recognized urban planner, nonprofit leader and educator with more than three decades of experience in city and regional planning, public policy, and nonprofit management, has been named its new President, CEO and Publisher. He will join Next City’s staff in Philadelphia on May 1, 2015.

Tom Dallessio (Photo by Paul Gargagliano)

Tom brings to Next City a rich perspective on the challenges and opportunities facing cities around the globe as they move into an era of unprecedented growth. He will strengthen the organization’s commitment to informing, connecting and nurturing the next generation of urban leaders.

“I am very excited to lead Next City in its next phase of growth,” says Dallessio. “For the first time in a half-century, all forces are moving in the direction of cities, and I look forward to working with the board and staff to ride this incredible wave.”

Tom comes to Next City from the Center for Resilient Design at New Jersey Institute of Technology, where he was the Center’s founder and director; he’ll continue to be an adjunct professor at NJIT, teaching land use and infrastructure planning. Established in the wake of Hurricane Sandy, the Center has engaged thousands of people affected by the storm, providing residents, business owners, design professionals and government officials with technical and design assistance as they recovered from the storm and rebuilt for a more resilient future.

Prior to establishing the Center for Resilient Design, Tom served as the executive director of Leadership New Jersey, a statewide program strengthening civic leadership through experiential learning. The experience is one that will help Next City further develop its successful Vanguard program.

Tom got his start in nonprofit management at Regional Plan Association, where he directed RPA’s New Jersey office and managed six New Jersey Mayors’ Institutes on Community Design, and promoted affordable housing, transportation finance and property tax reforms.

Tom also brings to Next City key experiences in local, state and regional government. He served as a senior policy adviser to New Jersey governors Christine Todd Whitman and Donald T. DiFrancesco, drafting environmental preservation law and serving as the governor’s representative to the state’s planning commission. For more than a decade, Tom held a number of positions at the N.J. Office of State Planning, working to develop and implement New Jersey’s first statewide plan. These experiences will help guide Tom as he continues the work of building Next City into the most trusted resource for urban advocates, planners and city-dwellers.

“We are thrilled to welcome Tom to Next City,” says Jess Zimbabwe, Next City board president. “His experience in urban planning, government, academia and the nonprofit sector will be a boon for the organization as it continues into a groundbreaking second decade.”

Learn more about Tom and read his letter to Next City members and readers here.