About Us

Regina “Jean” Villa founded Regina Villa Associates (RVA) in 1978 to represent clients and ideas focusing on public policy in Massachusetts. Jean had previously served as Executive Director of the Massachusetts Nurses Association, an Adjunct Faculty member at Boston University and Boston College, and was a Congressional aide and radio host. She combined her interests in public health, policy and legislation to represent human service and human service advocacy groups. For 20 years, RVA managed successful campaigns for the AIDS Action Committee, legislation for people with disabilities (Turning 22), Nurse Practitioners prescription writing, and many more. Jean was also a communications consultant and campaign manager for several statewide political campaigns.

Beginning in the early 1990s, the firm expanded to include civic engagement and public policy consulting for major programs in the region. RVA developed and implemented strategic communications for the 10-year Boston Harbor Project and continued to manage community relations for the Walnut Hill Water Treatment Plant and MetroWest Water Supply Tunnel for another decade.

For 11 years, RVA worked with the Heinz Family Philanthropies on the annual conference on “Women’s Health and the Environment,” developing programs and managing all of the details of these national events. The firm helped to organize the Department of Public Health’s approach to Emergency Preparedness and has developed numerous events and strategies with DPH on many topics.

Beginning with work on the Green Line Expansion and South Coast Rail with MassDOT and the MBTA, RVA has worked with dozens of communities and constituencies on transportation, accessibility, communication and strategic planning. We continue to develop and support programs and projects with a wide variety of services across New England.

Making connections across communities is our goal – as it was in the beginning – and continues to motivate our work after 40 years.