Mayor's Office

Photo credit: Kelli Wholey/Lumina Portraits

James W. Donchess

Mayor of Nashua, NH

In January 2016, Jim Donchess was sworn in as the 56^th Mayor of Nashua, with a vision of our home as a thriving, caring, and renewed community – a welcoming city where everyone belongs, a healthy city with opportunity for all. 

Now in his second term, Jim has been focusing on the economic growth of the community, on strategies to ensure that all of Nashua’s children reach their full potential, on a stronger municipal infrastructure, on steady progress toward a net zero Nashua, and on the cultivation of a 21^st century arts, cultural, and residential neighborhood in Nashua’s downtown.

Under his leadership, Jim and the city have been successful in adding over 500 new units of market-rate and affordable housing to Nashua’s downtown neighborhoods, in re-energizing Main Street life, in launching the Nashua Riverfront revitalization project, in founding the Arlington Street Community Center, in undertaking his  Paving Plan of Action under which more than 60 miles of the city’s streets have already been paved and repaired, and in opening full-day public kindergarten for all Nashua’s 5-year-olds.

Aside from his present mayoralty, Jim also served two terms as the 51^st Mayor of Nashua, when the city was recognized by Money Magazine as the Best Place to Live in America.

Jim graduated from Yale where he majored in Art History and played varsity football.  After college, he earned a law degree from NYU School of Law with top academic honors.  As a practicing attorney for many years in New Hampshire, Jim represented scores of plaintiffs in lawsuits involving claims of sexual harassment and employment discrimination based on gender, race, ethnic origin, age, and disability.

Jim and his wife Vicki have lived for many years in their home on Rockland Street.  The other members of their family – beloved daughter Caroline, son-in-law David, and two young grandsons live in Oakland, California.