Carolyn Misch, AICP is the director of the City of Northampton’s Office of Planning & Sustainability and has been serving in that role since 2022.

Carolyn has nearly 30 years of experience leading implementation of climate resilience, adaptation and sustainable growth principles and strategies for state, regional and local government agencies to assist in achieving equitable quality of life goals based on community values.

As part of her tenure with the City of Northampton, she provided critical support with her predecessor, Wayne Feiden, to bring the regional bike share program to the Pioneer Valley in 2018. At that time, Northampton volunteered to be the lead community on behalf of the initial five cities of Springfield, Holyoke, Amherst, South Hadley and with University of Massachusetts.

In 2024, Carolyn directed, on behalf of the now expanded ValleyBike share program, the relaunch of the program across 8 communities and UMass. In this relaunch, Northampton and the communities are playing a much more integrated roll to ensure success of this micromobility transportation system across the region.

In addition to leading the regional bike share program, Carolyn continues the work for the City of Northampton on implementing the City's “Sustainable Northampton” plan and has developed significant regulatory changes to implement the plan to create more walkable, accessible, and livable neighborhoods. Recent work includes developing regulatory changes to create form-based codes and other amendments to further enhance new infill projects that achieve the City’s goals for developing a range of housing options for all community residents.

Prior to Northampton, Carolyn worked in the City of Raleigh and Town of Cary North Carolina and with the Governor’s Office of Colorado to implement a statewide growth management policy and to plan with cities and towns across that state. Carolyn received a Master of Urban and Regional Planning from the University of Colorado, Denver.