John W. Frece is Associate Director of the National Center for Smart Growth Research and Education and an adjunct professor at the University of Maryland. He has been a spokesman, policy adviser and writer on Smart Growth issues for the past 10 years.

Before moving to the University in June 2003, he served for seven years on the staff of former Maryland Governor Parris N. Glendening, working primarily on Maryland’s Smart Growth initiative. Prior to that, Mr. Frece was a reporter for United Press International and the Baltimore Sun, covering the Governor, General Assembly and politics in Maryland for 17 years and in Virginia for two years.

He is co-author of My Unexpected Journey: The Autobiography of Governor Harry Roe Hughes (2006), co-editor of Incentives, Regulations and Plans: The Role of States and Nation-states in Smart Growth Planning (2007), and author of Sprawl & Politics: The Inside Story of Smart Growth in Maryland (forthcoming, April 2008).