PITTSFIELD, Mass. — Two candidates for executive director of the Berkshire Regional Planning Commission will be interviewed Saturday morning beginning at 9:45.

 

The finalists are Laura Brennan, a senior planner at BRPC, and Jason Zogg, an administrator with a nonprofit community development organization in Virginia.

 

The interviews will be in hybrid format: in person in BRPC's second-floor conference room at 1 Fenn St., Suite 201, and over Zoom here.  

 

The agenda states the Executive Committee will discuss "next steps" in the hiring process. 

 

The Executive Committee was updated on the hiring process on Thursday by Buck Donovan, chair of the Executive Director Search Committee.

 

The committee was established in November to conduct the initial hiring process and make recommendations to the Executive Committee.

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Zogg is vice president of place and transportation for Tysons Community Alliance, a nonprofit that is committed to transforming Tysons, Va., into a more attractive urban center.

 

He previously was the director of planning, design, and construction at Georgetown Heritage in Virginia, where he directed the reimagining of Georgetown's C&O Canal National Historic Park.

 

In his cover letter, he said he brings a personal connection to the region as he worked at the BRPC as a traffic-counting intern in 2006. He grew up in Albany, N.Y., where he was able to enjoy the Berkshires.

 

He received his bachelor's degree and his master's degree in regional planning, with a focus on urban transportation, from the University of Albany. He also worked in planning, urban development, and transportation in Detroit and Cambridge. 

 

Zogg said his partner recently accepted a position near Albany and they want to be near their aging parents.

 

"The Executive Director role at BRPC represents a rare chance to lead a respected regional planning agency in a place I know and love, bringing both professional expertise and personal commitment to BRPC's work,"  he said in his cover letter.

 

Brennan is the assistant director and economic development program manager for the BRPC. She has been in the role since July 2023 but has been with BRPC since 2017, first serving as the senior planner of economic development.

 

She earned her bachelor's degree from Franklin & Marshall College in Pennsylvania and earned a graduate-level certificate in local government leadership and management from Suffolk University.

 

"I have successfully stewarded increasing responsibility within the regional planning agency for the last eight years," Brennan wrote in her cover letter, nothing that as assistant director, "I am uniquely suited to assuming these responsibilities in a seamless transition. ...

 

"I am inspired by the many, varied, and meaningful ways Berkshire Regional Planning Commission serves the Berkshires and am enthusiastic about leading the agency as it continues to grow and evolve."

 

She was formerly a marketing and operations director for Hancock Shaker Village and director of member and client services for the Berkshire Visitors Bureau and 1Berkshires.

 

BRPC is seeking to replace Thomas Matuszko, who is retiring after 30 years, the last eight has executive director.