Cape Cod Commission welcomes new staff

The Cape Cod Commission is pleased to welcome two new staff members and an AmeriCorps service member to our team. 

Ellen Carlson joins the Commission after many years in a variety of roles with the National Park Service. She holds a B.A. from Smith College and a Master’s in Regional Planning from Cornell University. At the Commission, Ellen will primarily work with the regulatory program. 
 
In a fitting twist of fate, Ellen wrote her master’s thesis on the promise of the Cape Cod Commission. She is excited to be part of the team and to have the opportunity to work with communities across the region to help carry forward that promise.  

During her tenure with the National Park Service, Ellen served as a community planner, directing the development of complex management plans, studies, and environmental compliance documents. Her work emphasized partnerships, heritage tourism, historic preservation, land protection, and regional planning. More recently, she also acted as a liaison between the Northeast Region and the NPS Office of Legislative and Congressional Affairs in Washington, D.C., supporting a range of legislative functions.  

Jasmine Olins recently joined the Commission as a Planner II, where she will support a range of planning projects related to housing, zoning, economic development, and coastal resilience.  
 
Before joining the Commission, Jasmine worked as an Environmental and Urban Planner with Fort Point Associates, a Tetra Tech Company, contributing to projects involving coastal resiliency, public infrastructure, clean energy deployment, and institutional master planning. She is already familiar with the Commission’s work as she completed an internship here in 2022, focusing on natural resources, coastal resilience, and wetlands regulations.  

Jasmine earned her Bachelor of Arts in Environmental Studies and Economics from Brandeis University in 2019, followed by a Master of Arts in Urban and Environmental Policy and Planning from Tufts University in 2023. Her master’s thesis offered recommendations for coastal resiliency addressing sea level rise, erosion, coastal storms, and flooding on Cape Cod.  

AmeriCorps Cape Cod service member Ciara Chagnon began her service with the Cape Cod Commission in October 2025. Originally from Windsor, Connecticut, Ciara is a recent graduate of Ursinus College in southeastern Pennsylvania, where she studied anthropology and sociology.  
 
Through AmeriCorps, she contributes to land management, disaster preparedness, and environmental education and serves on the events planning committee.  At the Commission, Ciara works with the Natural Resources department, supporting the Cape Cod Outdoors project, helping to build a comprehensive database of recreation sites across the region.