The board of directors of the Fitchburg Redevelopment Authority has hired Meagen Donoghue as its new executive director.

Donoghue’s appointment came after the death of the authority’s former Executive Director Dan Curley.

Donoghue brings with her a breadth of experience including economic development, grant writing, planning and historic preservation.

She most recently served as the director of Planning and Community Development for Sudbury and has worked in other communities in various economic development and planning capacities including for Webster, Worcester and Chicopee.

Donoghue also teaches part time in the Urban Studies and History Departments at Worcester State University.

She has a master’s degree in regional planning from the University of Massachusetts, a master’s degree in higher education from Syracuse University and a bachelor’s degree in history from Elmira College.

As the former director of Planning and Community Development in Sudbury, Donoghue was instrumental in the implementation of a redevelopment project that saw the demolition of a former Raytheon Complex and replaced with an overlay district that included retail, a memory care facility, market-rate condominiums and a Chapter 40B housing complex.

She also has been involved with the development of town-wide master plans and has won several grants in the various communities she has previously been employed with.

In her role with the authority, Donoghue will oversee the development of an updated urban renewal plan, the marketing of authority properties, and continuing the agency’s business advocacy and collaboration efforts between various stakeholders within the Fitchburg community.

The authority is a quasi-public agency created in January 1964. The authority continues to be charged with assisting Fitchburg with efforts of supporting and attracting companies to the city.