Good Morning North Central to feature Lieutenant Governor Kim Driscoll

The next edition of the North Central Massachusetts Chamber of Commerce’s popular Good Morning North Central breakfast series is scheduled for Friday, January 12, 2024, from 6:45 a.m. to 8:30 a.m. at Great Wolf Lodge located at 150 Great Wolf Drive, Fitchburg, Mass. The event is sponsored by Resource Management, Inc. 

The Good Morning North Central series is a high-profile, fast-paced and educational breakfast program geared towards executives, senior managers, professionals and business owners. Each of the programs has a business-oriented focus and features popular speakers to present on topics of interest to local businesses.

The featured speaker for the month of January is Lieutenant Governor Kim Driscoll for the Commonwealth of Massachusetts. Marc Dohan, executive director of NewVue Communities, is also scheduled to present on the Fitchburg Arts Community development project. 

Kim Driscoll is the 73^rd Lieutenant Governor of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts. She was sworn in on January 5, 2023, joining Governor Maura Healey in an historic series of firsts, including the first all-women executive team to lead Massachusetts.

Driscoll was elected the City of Salem’s first woman mayor in 2006, taking office at a time when the community was struggling with record deficits, poor financial management, and a declining bond rating. As mayor, she turned deficits into record surpluses and saved taxpayers’ money by strengthening city services, revitalizing Salem’s downtown, leading a vast improvement in Salem’s K-12 schools, reforming city pensions and health insurance programs to protect employee benefits, bidding public contracts, and bringing transparency to City Hall.

Working collaboratively with state officials and local partners, Driscoll secured sizable public and private investments, including a new MBTA train station, a state courts complex, senior center, ferry and waterfront port at Salem Wharf, and positioned Salem as the primary marshaling port for the forthcoming Commonwealth Wind project that will serve residents across Massachusetts and New England, establishing the City as a national leader in the offshore wind sector.

From passing one of the first fully-inclusive LGBTQ non-discrimination ordinances in Massachusetts, to securing major investments in veterans’ benefits, standing up for immigrants’ rights, and enacting one of the first age-friendly action plans certified in the Commonwealth, under Driscoll’s leadership, Salem has been – first and foremost – an inclusive community that welcomes everyone.

Prior to serving as mayor, Driscoll spent time as the City of Beverly’s Community Development Director after college, served as the City of Chelsea’s Chief Legal Counsel and Deputy City Manager, and also served on the Salem City Council.

Exemplified by her extensive and successful career in local government, Lieutenant Governor Driscoll is focused on working with Governor Healey to create a forward-looking Commonwealth and communities that work for, empower, and include all who call Massachusetts home, as well as those who aspire to do so.

Marc Dohan is the executive director of NewVue Communities, a position he has held since 2002. He has led the transformation of the former Twin Cities Community Development Corporation into a regional organization that serves all of North Central Massachusetts with programs in real estate development, housing and financial services, small business assistance and community organizing.  Before joining NewVue Communities, Marc worked as a lawyer focusing on municipal finance.  He has a degree in both law and in urban planning.  

NewVue has a track record of completing the adaptive reuse of buildings in Fitchburg and Leominster, and is in the process of historically transforming older school buildings into affordable apartments. NewVue converted the former Carter School in Leominster into 39 apartments, and is in the midst of an adaptive reuse project that will create the Fitchburg Arts Community out of the former BF Brown School, Fitchburg City Stables and Fitchburg High School Annex. Next up, NewVue is planning to convert two schools in Athol into intergenerational apartments. NewVue expects that all of these buildings will be registered on the National Register of Historic Places.

The cost is just $30 for Chamber members/$45 non-members, and includes a breakfast buffet. Pre-registration is required. For more information or to register, please contact Kat Deal at 978.353.7600 ext. 235, or visit www.northcentralmass.com.