About
We are a group of Needham High School alumni and young adults that care deeply about the future of Needham. We share a passion for planning and infrastructure and we hope to aid our hometown to become a safer, more sustainable, vibrant, and connected place. We strongly believe in the Envision Needham Center project and believe that in addition to increasing safety, it can strengthen the community, offer a more vibrant landscape, and improve traffic to businesses.
We have learned from professionals about the future of safe street designs and we are eager to relay what we learned to our hometown. Roads are the backbones of modern society and safer streets connect residents together and offer opportunities for a healthier future.
Although we may not have years of experience as engineers or planners, we would like what’s best for our town and want Needham to have safer streets and a stronger, happier community. As advocates, our qualification is simple: we care, we’re informed, and we’re committed to make Needham safer, more sustainable, more accessible, and more welcoming for everyone.
Bios:
Aidan
I have lived all my 22 years in Needham, and I attended Mitchell, High Rock, Pollard, and Needham High. I am now about to graduate from Northeastern University with a degree in Civil Engineering, concentrating in Transportation. I have loved growing up in Needham, and I want to see it be as amazing as possible.
I became involved in safe and sustainable transportation because, as an engineer, I see the ineffectiveness of our current transportation system, even in Needham. During my time at Northeastern, I have taken many classes on transportation and studied abroad in Ireland and The Netherlands. I have also worked in the industry and met professionals, officials, and advocates. From all these experiences, I began to see the ways that Needham could improve and wanted to start making a difference in my community.
This group came together as a response to the Envision Needham Center project, as voices supporting street safety and sustainability. I became part of the group because, from my background, I see where our town falls short, but I also see the vast potential we have in Needham. I wanted to bring my expertise to this group and make a difference in Needham.
Nick
I was born and raised in Needham Heights, and like Aidan, attended Mitchell, High Rock, Pollard, and Needham High School. I graduated from Colby College in May 2025 with a Bachelor’s Degree in French & Global Studies. I moved to Cambridge in October 2025 for greater access to work opportunities, but frequently take the train back to see my family. I became passionate about the built environment and public policy during my study abroad in Paris in 2023, after which I returned to Massachusetts with a new sense of purpose for my career. Needham will always be my home, which is why I became involved in Safe Streets Needham.
Corbin
I have been an active user of Needham’s streets since I started to walk to Broadmeadow in 1st Grade. I have always been a proponent of safe and accessible transportation options, especially for children, teenagers, and young adults. One of my core beliefs is that our streets should be designed for everyone, not just those who can drive. As an Eagle Scout I constructed new bike facilities at the High School to aid students’ commutes to school. I have since graduated from NHS and am currently studying Civil Engineering at Northeastern University.Nadia
I moved from the big city to Needham in 2014 and I attended school at High Rock, Pollard, and Needham High. I am studying architecture at Carnegie Mellon University now. While studying architecture, I have found that my interest lies more in designing urban and suburban systems. This had been tied to my backgrounds living in both city and suburban Needham, where I grew up with curiosity about the difference from pedestrian filled streets and the car centric environment in America. I love studying how places take shape, how people move though our environment, and I aspire to design healthier and more connected communities for our future generation.
One of my biggest hobbies is walking. I can spend hours wandering through the streets, observing people, appreciating architecture, and pondering the hidden systems of the urban fabric. So the initiative at Safe Streets Needham immediately clicked for me when I first heard about it.
What really excites me most about this project is that I get a chance to work on something tangible, especially in my hometown. I am able to see the slow process of how infrastructure projects take shape, how community shapes planning decisions, to see a real project come to life, and influence the future environment I get to live in.