Lourdes Germán

Lecturer in Urban Planning and Design

Lourdes German began her career specializing in public finance as an attorney advising state and local governments in their public finance transactions at the international law firm Palmer & Dodge (now Locke Lord, LLP). Following that work, Lourdes joined the public finance department at Fidelity Investments, where she served as a Vice President who launched and led the company’s municipal finance efforts in the Northeast and opened Fidelity’s New York office for public finance investment banking. Following Fidelity, Lourdes’ professional experiences include serving as General Counsel and Vice President of Municipal Investment research at Breckinridge Capital Advisors and serving as a Director of the Lincoln Institute of Land Policy. At Lincoln, Lourdes helped grow a global campaign on municipal fiscal health via activities that included serving as a speaker in the first bi-partisan congressional briefing focused on municipal finance and serving as an expert advisor to the United Nations in support of the launch of the UN Sustainable Development Goals. In her capacity supporting the UN, Lourdes served as one of the co-authors of the book, Finance for City Leaders, published by the United Nations Press in 2016.

In addition to her private sector roles, Lourdes has served as a professor and lecturer in various higher education institutions. She is currently developing the first public finance course for urban planners at the Harvard Graduate School of design and previously served on the faculty at the Boston College Carroll School of Management, Boston University, Northeastern University School of Law, and helped co-create the first certificate program in municipal finance at the University of Chicago Harris School for Policy.

Outside of her current role in higher education, Lourdes also serves as a senior advisor to the Kresge Foundation. Lourdes also directs The Public Finance Initiative, a fiscally sponsored project of Third Sector New England, which works with communities, foundations, and other stakeholders to develop research, education, and technical assistance programs that center the values of equity, sustainability, and inclusive growth in the domain of public finance. Lourdes is also serving in her 6th year as the appointed Chair by the Governor of Massachusetts of the Massachusetts State Finance and Governance Board, where she serves as the lead public finance expert to the Governor of the Commonwealth and contributes her time to several non-profit boards.