Lacey Cotter joined RPA in 2022 as the Manager of Events and Strategic Engagement. Lacey creates and manages all of RPA’s events from board meetings and expert panels to infrastructure tours and the annual RPA Assembly. She works closely with the research and advocacy teams to help promote and fund RPA’s work in the region.

Lacey comes to RPA from Summit Marches On, a voter engagement organization located in a battleground Congressional district. There, she led events, organizing, promotions, and publicity. In 2017, Lacey Cotter made national headlines by nearly usurping the longtime incumbent when she ran for statewide office on a platform of funding New Jersey Transit, addressing gun violence, and funding women’s health.

She is currently a member of the State Executive Committee for Brady and a board member of the New Jersey Humanities Council. Formerly, she served as a member of the Executive Committee of the New Jersey Visual Arts Center, the Mayor’s Partnership for the Arts, and a Soviet Specialist for the Zimmerli Museum of the Arts at Rutgers.

She graduated with honors from New York University with a degree in Political Science. Lacey is the mom of four vivacious young men and two wily dogs as well as a dedicated practitioner of Yoga.