Annual Community Breakfast at UMass Boston Honors Dudley Square Neighborhood Planner Joyce Stanley

(Boston, MA) Each year the Robert H. Quinn award is given to an individual who has displayed exemplary community leadership. At the sixteenth annual breakfast honoring the winner, to be held on Wednesday, March 20, UMass Boston will recognize Joyce Stanley for her work in city planning and community development for Roxbury and the City of Boston. Community leaders, elected officials, local businesspeople, and members of the UMass Boston faculty and staff will gather to honor her at UMass Boston's University Club, 10th Floor, Healey Library from 8:30 to 10:00 a.m.

Stanley has been involved in city planning and community development since 1970. Most recently, she has worked with residents, building owners, and public agencies to help revitalize Dudley Square in Roxbury. A long-time resident, Stanley serves as the executive director of the Dudley Square Main Streets and the Dudley Square Merchants Association. Her vision is to renew economic development and foster an arts and cultural district in the area.

Stanley spearheaded an initiative with the Boston Redevelopment Authority and Department of Neighborhood Development to prepare local developers to renovate large anchor parcels, to market the commercial district to new tenants, and begin a storefront improvement program. Through her leadership, she leveraged $10.5 million in grants to help businesses develop three multi-story properties, Palladio Hall, Fairfield Place, and Palmer Building.

She has assisted local developers in planning projects, attracting tenants, and receiving zoning and worked with public agencies on infrastructure improvements, including new streets, brick sidewalks, upgraded electrical and gas lines. She has also established the Dudley Pride Program, a coalition of community members, examining and address issues of crime and homelessness in the district.

Through her leadership, more than 50 new businesses have located to the Dudley Square Commercial District with an eighty percent retention rate. Eleven storefronts are now completed in the area with nine more in the planning stages. Stanley is currently working with more than 38 artists in the Dudley area to develop and arts and cultural area. She hopes to bring more galleries to the area, a black box theatre, living exhibits, art stores, and an ethnic food garden.

Prior to her service to Dudley Square, Stanley served as president of JTS Consulting from 1990 to 1995 and has worked for the City of Boston in capacities such as a senior development specialist, commercial district manager, and assessor from 1980 to 1990. She received her B.A. from Howard University and has been activist in the Boston area for three decades. She has served on the Trustees of Charitable Donations to the City of Boston, Boston Enhanced Enterprise Community Board, Coalition of 100 Black Women, Action for Boston Community Development (ABCD) Board, and Roxbury APAC Board, to name a few. Stanley has also worked in partnership with UMass Boston's Minority Business Assistance Center in assisting small businesses with technical assistance, plan development, and marketing.

The Quinn Award was established in honor of Robert H. Quinn, whose record includes years as speaker of the Massachusetts House of Representatives, Massachusetts attorney general, and chair of the UMass Board of Trustees.

The University of Massachusetts Boston provides excellence in teaching, scholarship, research, and public service. Through its five colleges--the College of Arts and Sciences, the College of Management, the College of Nursing and Health Sciences, the College of Public and Community Service, and the Graduate College of Education--UMass Boston offers undergraduate and graduate study in more than 150 fields and several graduate certificates. Part of the five-campus University of Massachusetts system, UMass Boston is located three miles from downtown Boston on a peninsula in Boston Harbor, near the John F. Kennedy Library and Museum and the Massachusetts State Archives and Museum. To learn more about UMass Boston, visit www.umb.edu.

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