October 23, 2014
Drinan ’78 takes on new role at American Planning Association
James M. Drinan, J.D. ’78 has been named the new executive director of the American Planning Association after more than 25 years serving as a health-care association leader.
Prior to the planning association, Drinan was executive director of the American Association of Endodontists and its foundation for 12 years. He also served as the associate executive director of the American Association of Orthodontists and director of health care and government relations for the American Association of Oral and Maxillofacial Surgeons.
The planning association advocates for good planning on the federal and state government level as well as builds coalitions with other interested groups.
For example, during his first week on the job, Drinan met with the acting U.S. surgeon general, Rear Admiral Boris D. Lushniak, to discuss how planning — particularly of residential areas — can impact overall health.
Communities can be designed to encourage people to walk a few blocks or a mile to public transit, or to ride a bike, or take other steps that would improve their health, he said.
“It’s very exciting to be able to advocate for positions on issues that are truly about making the communities in which we live better places,” Drinan said.
Areas of interest include recommendations on renewable and sustainable resources and mass transit — “the kinds of things that give you a greater future, that you and your children can live in a place that has green spaces and clean water and clean air,” he said.
Drinan leads the 100 staff members of the association, which is headquartered in Chicago and also has an office in Washington, D.C.
Planners on the association’s staff conduct scholarly research and implement programs at the state and local level, often funded by outside groups. These efforts can help other planners working in smaller communities decide where to build infrastructure such as roads and schools, he said.
Return to public policy roots
For Drinan, the position is much more public policy-oriented than his previous posts in health-care associations.
It brings him back to his days as a political science major at Providence College and as a young graduate, when he was active in politics and volunteering for election campaigns. Drinan and several of his best friends were the officers of the College Democrats of Rhode Island, he said.
“I wanted to be able to return to some of my roots, if you will, as part of this position,” Drinan said.
He has also remained active in PC alumni activities.
After graduating from PC, Drinan attended DePaul University College of Law in Chicago. Although he knew almost no one in the city when he moved there, he found a home within the thriving Chicago chapter of the National Alumni Association.
“It was led by folks who had graduated 10 or 20 years ahead of me and were well-established. That really provided a lot of assistance to me,” he said. Through them, he was able to start networking and “get a decent meal once in a while,” he joked.
“It reinforced something you maybe don’t fully realize when you’re a student at PC — the true community,” he said. “Rarely, if ever, do I see the kind of consistent community and good feeling and support that PC as alumni individually and collectively provided. It meant a lot to me then.”
Drinan began his career as an attorney for the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services in Chicago. He moved away from the city for seven years, and when he returned, the Chicago chapter was not as vibrant as it once was. Drinan made some calls to find out what had changed, and a year later found himself at an organizing meeting to reestablish the chapter.
“A number of us put in the hard work and became the board of that chapter,” Drinan said, with help from staff at the College.
He spent several years as president of the Chicago chapter, so “a growing number of students from Chicago going to PC would have the same kind of networking experience that I had,” Drinan said. He also served on the alumni association’s Board of Governors (now Council) for one year.
Now, he’s helping to coordinate regional development efforts as part of the Chicago Annual Fund Leadership Committee, a group of 500 alumni and more than 200 parents.
“The PC community has been there for me in a lot of ways since I was a teenager, and it’s fulfilling to see teenagers and their families have the same experience 40 years later,” Drinan said. “Like planners, we’re sustaining a healthy community.”
