Sam Carter

Background

About Sam Carter

I work as an assistant planner at the Central Massachusetts Regional Planning Commission. My work is centered around municipal master plans, and environmental and food systems planning. I received my MS in Sustainability Sciences at UMass Amherst with a specialization in Urban Sustainability. The primary focuses of my studies were the policies, tools, and strategies at our disposal to make our regions and municipalities more sustainable, equitable, and inclusive. My courses, including public management and planning history & theory, helped to contextualize and frame this interest in a way that applies to the current paradigm. In my undergraduate environmental science program, I completed an independent study on nanoparticles and their potential to remove chemicals from wastewater. This work made me curious about how this technology could be utilized in practice. The remainder of my undergraduate courses were then oriented toward site assessment and remediation, and this helped me land an internship with MassDEP. It was here where I found my calling for improving governance in the commonwealth, as I gained greater awareness of some of the barriers preventing us from effectively providing public services.